Protesters tell Wolf to reopen economy
Waving flags and hoisting signs, protesters gathered Monday at Diamond Park in Butler — across from the county courthouse — to voice their objections to being idled from work under Gov. Tom Wolf's five-week shutdown order.
Amid the honking horns of support from motorists traveling up and down Main Street, the 100 or so protestors — some small business owners, some self-proclaimed “average Americans” — called on Wolf to reopen the state's economy ravaged by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We, the people, are the government,” Will Halle of Butler, one of the organizers of the rally, told the crowd during brief remarks. “We are exercising our First Amendment rights. Butler County should not be closed. Pennsylvania should not be closed. America should not be closed.”
Away from the crowd, he mingled one-on-one with like-minded critics of the governor's decision that deemed some businesses non-essential, and therefore shut down.
“A lot of us are sick and tired of Wolf's unconstitutional orders that he doesn't have the authority to make,” Halle said. “So we're standing up to make our voices known — reopen Pennsylvania and reopen America.
Another organizer, Jason Spink of Butler, described the rally as “mirroring” others that were held Monday in Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.
“We're both small business owners,” he said of himself and Halle. “We're both hit hard by this. We want the chance to open back up and do the business that we do, and do it safe and do it according to the guidelines the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) set out.”
Halle and Spink — and numerous other protesters — were clad in blue “ReOpen Pennsylvania” shirts. The group was one of three that organized Monday afternoon's protest in Harrisburg.
Halle runs a fitness studio for personal training and nutrition. Spink operates a firm that provides information technology and marketing for other small- to medium-size businesses.
“I've been completely shut down,” Spink said. “I have no opportunity to feed my family. Being a small businessman, as small as a I am, there's no federal support or any federal help for me.”
Halle said that he, too, is in the same predicament as Spink. He, too, claimed that he has obtained no benefit from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
As for state unemployment, both men shared similar experiences.
“The website's been down,” Halle said. “I can't sign up for it. It's poorly run. Poor organized.”
Erin Sellinger of Butler, a Realtor, has been out of work since March 18 when Wolf's order closed non-essential businesses due to COVID-19, including hers.
“It's capricious,” she said of the governor's order. “It's saying who's allowed to work and who isn't. Most of the other states have declared Realtors essential.”
”I'm essential,” fellow Realtor Brandy Kight, of Butler, echoed Sellinger's sentiments. “I think housing is essential. We all need housing.”
Holding a sign reading, “Rise Up, Wise Up, Eyes. We Don't Consent,” Stephanie Cramer, of Butler, was another face and another voice in the crowd.“I've had zero income,” she said of the governor's order putting her cosmetology business temporarily out of service. “I want to work. I need to work.”Bill Halle, Will's father, was at the rally to voice his own displeasure with Wolf. Unlike many of the others there, he is still working. He operates the Grace Youth and Family Foundation, a faith-based, nonprofit organization that serves at-risk youth and families.“We're open during this time and we're still continuing to provide services,” he said, “but we're greatly hampered because our program revenue comes from programs that have had to be cancelled.”He called the state's quarantine and business closure orders “overreaching,” as well as overly broad and harmful to the state's economy and individuals' personal financial and mental well being.“My concern for the people I serve,” he said, “is food insecurity, housing insecurity, job insecurity, mental health crises that we continue to get called about and other health crises that aren't being taken care of because they're being considered non-essential.”To a man and woman attending the protest, everyone called for a safe and responsible opening of the state's economy.“We greatly support anybody who wants to stay isolated and quarantined to protect themselves in whatever manner they feel is best for them and the family,” said Halle, who also is a Butler School board member. “But we're greatly concerned for all the other harm that it's causing.”While the protest in Butler attracted dozens, the one in Harrisburg attracted hundreds.Like those in Butler, the protesters at the capitol called for the end of the shutdown that has thrown at least 1.4 million Pennsylvanians out of work.Slippery Rock Mayor Jondavid Longo was one of those in attendance in Harrisburg.“I went on behalf of small business owners,” he said, “to ask the governor and the administration for a safe pathway to reopen Pennsylvania's economy.”Longo drove to the protest with Bob McCafferty, owner of North Country Brewing and North Country Canning in Slippery Rock.Because his businesses have been limited to curbside offerings under Wolf's response to COVID-19, financial times are tough. He recently had to make significant layoffs.McCafferty said he wanted to go to the rally to voice his support for two Senate bills aimed at reopening the economy.One bill would establish a pandemic recovery task force that would review the state's response to COVID-19. It would also allow county officials latitude to reopen local businesses that can adhere to social distancing guidelines implemented by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.The other bill would require that the governor come up with a mitigation plan to allow businesses to reopen if they can satisfy federal safety guidelines.
