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| Lamont announcing fines for failing to wear masks |
For the past few years I have taken breakfast on Mondays at one of three diners in East Harford, West Hartford and Vernon, all of which are in compliance with plenary Governor Ned Lamont's possibly unconstitutional directives.
This morning, I found the waitress glowing as usual.
Waitress: (As if
greeting a cousin she hasn’t seen in months) How are you?
This was said in such an upbeat tone and with such a broad
smile and show of pearly teeth, that I understood her to be genuinely glad to
see me and turned the question back on her.
Me: I’m good (A
forgivable white lie; it is difficult to sustain a conversation for more than five
seconds with a morning grouch) But not as good as you.
Waitress: (Doubt shading
her smile) Well, we are all worried.
She pointed to a newspaper I had begun to mark up with notes.
Ominous headline: “Thousands
more deaths predicted; Gov. Lamont: Still no plans to impose more restrictions,”
featuring a picture of Coronavirus masked Governor Ned Lamont who, according to
the story, was dubious about inflicting more crippling regulations on our battered
state, restaurants in particular. Was Lamont prepared to follow in the
footsteps of New York Governor Andrew
Cuomo, who has indicated he would shut down indoor dining if testing
rates did not improve? Not yet, Lamont somewhat reassuringly said.
Me: Yes, I know. When New York sneezes, Connecticut catches
a cold. Lamont regularly has followed in the footsteps of his fishing buddy Cuomo.
Waitress: That’s the worry around here. It’s on, it’s off,
it’s up, it’s down. We can’t plan our schedules. We can’t plan our lives, and
we don’t want this place to close.
Me: I wonder how many separate decisions you and others
associated with the diner make each day.
Waitress: (hesitating
to venture an answer) I would guess -- hundreds.
Me: What do you say, are those decisions better made by you
and others who work here, or by this guy?
I pointed to the picture of Lamont, now being pressed by
local “scientists,” experts in academia, newspaper commentators, and other
pestiferous busybodies, to shut down restaurants once again before the arrival
of what I sardonically call “the Trump vaccine.”
Waitress: Well, would you rather I take your order and serve
you directly, or would you rather be served remotely by him?
Me: You, definitely!
The waitress doubted that remote, virtual empathy could be
more powerful than direct empathy. The diner’s staff, she pointed out, was
perhaps more concerned with the heath and safety of its clients than the
governor, because all who worked at the diner depended upon repeat business
and, if you kill a patron, he or she would not return.
Lamont is so flighty, I told her, that it would take days
before the food was put before me. And
my order was certain to be reviewed countless times before it was fulfilled by Lamont’s
usual political troupe, such as his communications director who, I pointed out
to the waitress, had been tested positive for Coronavirus.
This produced a glowing smile.
But that is the problem, isn’t it? When we make a decision
concerning who decides an issue, we have decided that someone else shall direct
what should be done.
Competence here is decisive. Decisions are only as good as
the data upon which they are based, and decisions made remotely by those incompetent
to make them always point the way to disaster. The number of Coronavirus related
deaths in nursing homes in Connecticut and New York – more than sixty percent in
both states – is a measure of the deadly incompetence of both governors, though
one would never guess as much, given the praise showered upon Lamont and Cuomo
by their state’s media.
On November 20, an international
academy announced, “Governor Andrew M. Cuomo of New York will receive
this year’s International Emmy® Founders Award, in recognition of his
leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic and his masterful use of television to
inform and calm people around the world.”
Better a good breakfast than a misappropriated Emmy. The breakfast was done to perfection, the service cheerful and satisfying, and the diner is still open for business – for now. But my waitress fears it may not be long before Lamont catches his second wind and is nominated for an Emmy award as well.
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