Madelyn Hoffman, Green Party of NJ candidate for U.S. Senate, states that it’s too soon to reopen New Jersey — and cites the series of false choices with which residents are presented.

IT’S TOO SOON!

After 2 months of “sheltering-in-place,” curfews and the shutdown of most New Jersey businesses, of course we all desperately want to hear a “yes” — yes, you can go back to work; yes, you can go to the beach — yes, you can gather in large groups — yes, you can go back to the gym — yes, you can go back to in-person teaching and send your kids back to school. It’s a natural impulse, a word people want to hear in many of life’s most important moments. But I believe it’s too soon.

As of May 20th, there were 149,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in New Jersey, resulting in 10,586 deaths. There were 1386 new cases yesterday alone.

I understand completely why people want New Jersey to reopen. I understand completely why people want the entire country to reopen. We’ve been cooped up in our homes and living rooms for many weeks now, and it’s getting old. Spring is the time we’d be eager to get out, anyway, to enjoy the weather, with or without a pandemic.

But sometimes our natural impulses need to be tempered with an abundance of caution. Yes, we have all been exercising a great deal of caution in the face of a virus that has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide and is so easily contagious that close personal contact with someone with the virus can easily result in more illness and more death.

Unfortunately, the society we live in is presenting us with a lot of false and difficult choices. We have seen just how many people are one or two lost paychecks away from financial disaster. It is sobering.

COMMUNITY AND WORKERS’ NEEDS — FALSE CHOICE IS NO CHOICE

Greens in New Jersey who have organized Mutual Aid efforts, before the worst of the pandemic,  predicted that there would be a great need for the community to help one another. These groups are now serving upwards of 200 meals daily in Morris County, Paterson and elsewhere. If they had more volunteers and resources, they would be able to serve many more families. These are young families, families with children, families without, immigrant families, undocumented families, senior citizens who live alone or with another, but who just can’t take the risk of going outside.

Many of the families are in great need of each and every paycheck. If asked to return to work, many will return, despite the danger to their health and the health of their families. Why must this be the case? Why can’t we, as a society, present better choices? Why aren’t there measures in place to protect workers and their families?

Why aren’t we entitled to a Universal Basic Income , as people in other countries are, and as a very few of our politicians have suggested? $2000 a month is still not necessarily enough, but it could be, if rents and mortgages were canceled for the duration of the “sheltering-in-place” orders . Rents and mortgages must be canceled, not suspended, so that when the restrictions are finally lifted, all that is owed is a family’s current rent or mortgage, not an accumulation of monthly payments.

And what of tuition-free college and an end to student debt? How does it serve the community to have people educated, but paying back loans until they are well into their fifties and beyond?

Instead of sending workers back to work in unsafe conditions, one company is already eliminating a meager hazard pay.  Why don’t employers ensure that employees feel safe and secure at their workplaces? Employers should provide personal protective equipment and unlimited sick pay. If as a nation, we had single payer health insurance, no one would be facing the prospect of losing access to their health insurance if they lost their jobs. Remarkably, the U.S. is the only developed, industrialized country in the world to not afford its residents that option.

If the system presents us with nothing but bad options, we must work to change the system, instead of forcing workers and residents to choose between bad and worse. How do you ask anyone to make a choice between making money and staying safe.

A REAL GREEN NEW DEAL

I believe in an eco-socialist Green New Deal, one that includes a workers’ bill of rights. This way, workers and their families would be protected, both at the workplace and at home.  They would feel confident that they would get the health care and education their family needs to survive. At the same time, the reduction in cars on the road for these past two months has given the earth a chance to breathe and to heal, reducing air and water pollution and the release of fossil fuels into the atmosphere. We should take this into account when reopening the economy and not rush headlong into the same patterns as before. This real Green New Deal would also cut the military budget by at least half and use those funds,  instead, to provide some of these assurances discussed above. This would also go a long way toward addressing the important issue of climate change.

All the talk about getting used to a new normal must be backed up by actions to ensure that we are, in fact, not going backwards to where we were, but instead moving forward to a much more sustainable, safe and peaceful world, transforming our country and our world into what truly will be a new normal.

So yes, it’s too soon to reopen the beaches. Yes, the Jersey shore is part of our identity as a state, but it’s simply too soon.

ADDRESSING SMALL BUSINESSES AND THOSE WHO ARE OFTEN IGNORED

As a matter of fact, it’s too soon for many places to reopen. It seems that this push to reopen is more about the failing economy than it is about public health. If we take a long, hard look, we see that there are still outbreaks of COVID-19 that are not under control. Much of this follows the lines of economic and political injustices that existed pre-COVID, deepened and sharpened by the pandemic. Low income neighborhoods, people of color, native American/indigenous communities, patients in nursing homes, migrant workers, immigrant communities, ICE detainees and prisoners, the homeless…  Until these issues are addressed, until everyone’s humanity and interconnectedness is affirmed, no state should reopen. Until our state and federal governments assure us that should we get sick, we can get tested and those around us can be sure they are virus-free, the economy should not reopen.

THE CRUELTY OF CAPITALISM

This pandemic has shown us just how cruel capitalism is and just how quickly the system founded on the principle of making money and competing to make that money can turn on the very people it depends upon to run. Think of all the politicians and others thrust into the public spotlight who have said things like, “I’m a grandparent. I think all grandparents should be willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their children” or  “We will lose more people as we reopen, but their sacrifice is needed for the sake of the economy.” Or the recent order by Donald Trump for meat-packing plants in the Midwest to remain open, despite calls from workers to shut them down, because of the large numbers infected with COVID-19. Some governors made the situation worse by saying that if workers choose not to return to work out of safety concerns, their state would see that as a voluntary quit, and those workers would not be eligible for unemployment benefits.

Battles over the reopening of gyms, like the one in BellMawr, New Jersey, that come down to people asserting their “right” to reopen despite public health concerns and then are allowed to remain open in defiance of state orders even for a day or two, may occur in more middle-class communities, but probably wouldn’t be allowed to stand in urban areas. Money made available under the CARES Act, earmarked for small businesses, was depleted quickly and much of the money was (at least originally) siphoned off to go to big chain stores, not local businesses. A far greater effort needs to be made to protect and support local businesses. That would ease some of the pressure to reopen more quickly and will thus save lives.

A MORAL IMPERATIVE

In short, as we look at the climbing number of COVID-19 cases in New Jersey and nationally, and as the number of deaths from COVID-19 continues to climb, perhaps the best way to honor those who have died is to take real and concrete steps to transform our social, economic and political systems into ones that place the health of the people and the planet first. It’s a moral imperative!

Madelyn Hoffman

HoffmanforSenate.com

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