The America Spirit has been hijacked!

American spirit hijacked? How is that possible? Who could do that? What does that even mean?

To answer that, one needs to ask yourself the following question: Where was American ingenuity and American entrepreneurship or for that matter the basic American will to fight, during this whole “shelter in place” COVID World we are all living thru? Answer: It wasn’t anywhere. It was hijacked!

As long as this Country has existed, one of the most important strengths that we Americans have exhibited, the one deeply American character attribute of the United States of America as a whole nation, is our ability as a one nation to overcome adversity. To deal with bad news or challenges. To accomplish the impossible. Whether it was the Revolutionary war, the two World Wars, 911, or you name it, Americans could always be trusted to do the impossible. To overcome the worst of the worst. The direst situations. To rise above. It’s because of the American spirit, American ingenuity, and the basic will to fight for what we believe in. Its in our DNA to fight for our rights, our country, our families, our lives. Americans can handle bad news. To utilize the power of perseverance over adversity. To be winners. We have always had the ability to “figure it out”, survive, and prosper.

But not now! Not in a COVID world. So why wasn’t that American spirit engaged to help fight and overcome the Corona pandemic? Where was “business” during all of this? For what’s been framed as a “War” with an invisible enemy, why weren’t everyday Americans part of the actual fight?  All across America we listened to the politicians and experts and simply surrendered to their directives. We laid down our arms without ever getting into the fight. Governments decided what to do and how to do it. The people in those governments having no real-world experience in running any business. And we went ahead and did exactly what they said. Shut down the entire economy, resultant unemployment of 30 million people, mass government financial intervention and bailing out, ruined people’s entire life’s work and savings, left people unable to feed their families and on and on the carnage continues.

Why weren’t Americans asked to join the fight as opposed to lay down and do nothing??? Why? Answer: Government doesn’t trust us. They think government is the most qualified to address COVID. And with that arrogance comes an even bigger government is even better equipped to handle COVID. So how did government address COVID-19? 1) Carpet bomb the entire economy into oblivion, then 2) create a massive financial government funded program to attempt to help the very economy they just destroyed, then at the end, 3) develop a government plan to re-start the very economy they destroyed. And the end result of this will be financial ruin for many coupled to a growing socialist state that has risen out of the ashes of COVID. This same group of politicians are directing a re-start without having any actual experience in the way business operates. For the final act here, we Americans are allowing politicians to tell us how best to go back to work. It went like this: destroy economy and thereby lives, bail out and continue bailing out while creating a welfare socialistic state, then botch up the recovery by having politicians develop and lead the effort to restart the economy.

What would fighting look like? Well its actually pretty simple. If the goal was to reduce the spread of COVID-19, then let’s get everyone off their sofas and into their businesses to actually fight!

Business should have been engaged at the very beginning. The question that should have been asked at the start of this was “HOW do we OPERATE OUR BUSINESS in a COVID world?” NOT, which business is essential and which is not? All business is essential. A diverse vibrant economy is essential to all. And certainly, every small business is essential to its owners for their very livelihood. Instead of dividing the country into essential and non-essential and then destroying all non-essential business, wouldn’t it have made more sense to say all are essential and develop operating parameters and regulations that give business owners a fighting chance to comply and thereby survive? I’m not saying that all business could have complied with strict COVID regulations, but at least the approach would be from a place of fighting for it. And we would have used the creative genius of all of America as opposed to bureaucrats and medical professionals determining survivors and losers. And in the end of the day as we re-enter return to work world, most of how we will operate will be just like that had we implemented at the beginning.

For sure a targeted approach to quarantine or shelter in place was needed, and will be needed, going forward as any component from the beginning of as part of a recovery plan. But only targeted at those most vulnerable which is pretty well studied group now. And for sure high density events would need serious modification from the "norm" to keep people at safe distances. But even that can be done if given a fighting chance to at least attempt to design the event to comply with social distancing.

In my 35-year business career, I learned that for the most part when looking for improvement, the person doing the job is the most qualified to talk about the job. And if properly motivated, that person can help to arrive at ways of doing the job even better. Someone watching from the sidelines doesn’t and frankly cannot always get it right. So why aren’t we talking to all businesses across the country and getting them to innovate solutions that best fit their business. So how would this happen? Well simple really. Businesses today operate under a variety of regulations. To survive and prosper, business must comply and adapt as new requirements emerge. For example, EPA requirements, OSHA requirements, banking, and tax code requirements cover four major regulatory standards that business must comply with to operate within the law. Why couldn’t we have added a new OSHA temporary standard for COVID that would require all businesses to conform or be shut down? Instead, we just shut them down. I am 100% confident that given a choice between shutting say your restaurant, hair salon, factory, retailer, or other small business, business owners would have rather had a fight in this battle and would have come up with reasonable compliant solutions.

Here’s what a partial set of business regulations specific to COVID-19 might have looked like. Please note that I am doing this sitting at a computer by myself so do not misconstrue this as complete and perfect. If brainstorming with a group of business leaders over a few hours, I am confident that the list would be better developed. This is really for illustration purposes only:

1.      Social distancing of 6’ at all times unless other germ containment is implemented.

2.      Masks at all times.

3.      Approved germ containment is a half face respirator to be worn at all times when social distancing of at least 6 feet is not possible.

4.      Hand sanitation to be undertaken every 30 minutes or sooner.

5.      For machine operators, wipe down and disinfect machine every 30 minutes.

6.      No sick workers under any circumstances on premises.

7.      Limit the number of people to one person per 150 sq. feet unless utilizing item 2 above.

8.      Hand cleaning and sanitation materials to be available for every 20 persons.

Examples:

Hair Salon: For the owner of a hair salon. If I was given a choice between shutdown my business and thereby destroy my life verses come up with measures designed by the actual business owner that comply with the COVID regulations, I can tell you that the owner would have innovated and came up with a viable solution. Oh, don’t get me wrong it might have been strange going into a hair salon where the stylist is wearing a half faced double respirator (not a simple string mask type) and the stations are all 6 feet apart, but it could have been done. The hair salon could have stayed open and survived. No federal money required.

Factory: Make sure workstations are 6 feet apart and all workers wear masks and practice social distancing and COVID hygiene norms. Where distance separation is not possible, perhaps change sequencing or shifts where things are done. Or the half face respirator solution. Perhaps you would need to reduce the workforce, but at least you wouldn’t be closing.

Laundry: This would be very easy to establish no touch interactions. Laundries should have never been forced to close.

Best Buy and other big boxes: Follow what is currently being done at Home Depot and Lowes or super markets. Limit guests in store, social distance, cleanliness, and masks. There is no reason Best Buy should not have been open all along.

Other examples: I could go on and on. Golf Courses, car washes, etc. I understand that “government” wanted to default to extra conservative for political fear that they might be blamed for death. Extra conservative meant choosing between essential and non-essential.

But over cautious and extra conservative is not how we won World War 2. We took risks. American was founded upon a great risk when we first settled here in the 1600’s. Risk is in our DNA.

It’s clear to me that we Americans were never given a chance to determine our own course of action. It’s a shame that so much damage will be the result of this whole pandemic and that so much could have been avoided if we would have just utilized what we had right here in our own backyard – The AMERICAN SPIRIT.