Who is in charge in Allegheny County? Who would be in charge in Butler County?

Since we find ourselves needing to make decisions almost daily that we have never debated before, it becomes important to know our duties, our limitations and our places.

It is a different form of government than ours and since no one is screaming “Hey, he can’t do that,” the county executive in Allegheny County in our southern neighboring county apparently has the authority to close the bars at his command.

That prompted us to do a little research and ask the question does anyone have the authority to do that in Butler County?

We aren’t even debating whether it should happen or not; we are just trying to decide if we are under the threat of only the governor’s office or would this fall to the county commissioners, township supervisors or even the mayor of Butler, if anyone finds him?

The replies have been that most likely only the governor — through the declaration of an emergency — would be able to do that in Butler County.

That shouldn’t be necessary as, if we have any sensible responsibility, we will follow what happens in other locations including Allegheny County and react as quickly and boldly as we need before the governor steps in and forces anything more on us.

This weekend and the coming two weeks will tell us a tale of what is to come. Will herd immunity take over? Man, we hope so. Will we have to go back to where we were three weeks ago and see businesses fail that had just started to climb back to life?

Many more people are taking the approach that the worst is over, although the medical professionals say it isn’t so. Is it really worth the risk to dare COVID-19 to try and shut us down?

Are masks really that unbearable? We hope everyone will try a little harder to follow the advice of the medical people — not the governor or his staff — the medical professionals. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and hope it was too much. Wouldn’t that be better than another round of closures and shelter-at-home?

The internet warriors have already declared victory and started celebrating the end of the 2020 pandemic.

Don’t become part of history that could read “they just wouldn’t listen.”