Franklin County activist Karen Tucker wonders how Gov. J.B. Pritzker can justify asking people to do what she sees as the impossible.
“People are not going to stop being human because the governor thinks they should,” Tucker told the North Egypt News. “That’s exactly what he’s asking them to do with all these restrictions. He’s demanding that people just put life on hold and it’s only causing more pain.”
Tucker argues the state’s small business owners are among those suffering the most, pointing to a new survey by small business referral network Alignable that details how the last month saw 56% of all the state’s bar and restaurant owners unable to pay their full rent as the sting of the governor’s ongoing ban on indoor dining took greater effect.
Nationally, that figure stands at 61%, up 19% from just a month earlier with the harshest part of the winter season still yet to come. In Illinois, the number of restaurants now unable to make full rent payments has already more than doubled since September.
“Restaurants are closing everywhere and if you ask me the only ones that are able to make any rent payments are those that have gone against the governor’s orders from the beginning and remained open,” Tucker added. “I’m surprised the numbers aren’t higher. At the end of the day, I think you have to be willing to stand up for yourself against the governor to have any chance at surviving.”
Tucker said she worries thinks may get worse before they get better given the governor’s immovable position.
“I really think he’s clueless to what regular people have to deal with,” she said. “He doesn’t understand that trying to shut the whole state down means something entirely different for most people than it does a billionaire like him.”
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