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(Newsradio 1020 KDKA) - In a USA Today opinion piece, former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge says stay-at-home protesters are being “selfish” and “dishonor America’s veterans.”
Ridge, who was also the United States’ first Secretary of Homeland Security, says,
“In recent days, we have seen images of Americans carrying weapons as part of their protests to immediately reopen society. What are they planning to do, shoot the virus with their AR-15s?
These self-absorbed and selfish Americans complain they are irritated, anxious, bored, upset — unhappy that their lives have been affected by this temporary restraint on their freedoms. Some have even gotten into confrontations with nurses and other front-line health care workers who believe now is not the time to resume normality.”
Ridge, a Republican, goes on to say while it is the protester's right to hold demonstrations, he says their action are not “courageous or heroic.”
The former governor also talks about how the hardships Americans are currently facing pale in comparison to what U.S. soldiers went through in wars like Vietnam.
One example Ridge gives is of late U.S. Senator John McCain who spent 5 and a half years in a prison camp.
Ridge says that is 66 months of forced social distancing while America has “not yet reached eight weeks.”
Ridge, a veteran himself, served as an infantry staff sergeant in Vietnam. He earned the Bronze Star for Valor.
Ridge also acknowledges the financial hardship that millions of Americans are experiencing but says the public is “generally confined to their homes, with refrigerators, televisions, the internet and the ability to take a walk, go to the store or just talk to a neighbor. “
Ridge says it’s important to listen to the medical experts and to come together by staying apart to beat COVID-19.
Read Governor Ridge’s entire op-ed piece here.
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