Indoor Dining Can Return at Downtown Disney

Because of America's memorial day iresponsibility and premature reopening my second grader is stuck "learning from home" through zoom INDEFINITELY. Because of America's spring irresponsibility they just cancelled HALLOWEEN in Los Angeles, no trick or treating. NO TRICK OR TREATING THIS YEAR!!

But yes, for goddakes let's ensure people can sit inside and eat a crap $20 cheeseburger in Downtown Disney. And come October the restaurant owner will be crying about having to close his restaurant, AGAIN, because the rate is through the roof. Do Americans EVER learn?!?

@thecolonel - So if you believe that socialization is the root cause of the spread of the virus, then why are you blaming "premature reopening" and "irresponsibility" for having students "learning from home" and the cancellation of Halloween? The virus has shown that it will spread viciously in virtually any large group environment regardless of precautions, which would include classrooms and neighborhood trick or treating.

Sure, American have been extremely ignorant, foolish, and rudderless when it comes to handling this situation, but better performance during the spring and summer would not have eradicated the virus to allow for social interactions without a vaccine. Even if case loads were extremely low, if schools were open and Halloween was on, we would be talking about the increase of cases resulting from those activities after the fact, just like every other step we've taken over the past 4 months to try to strike a balance between normalcy and the virus.

BTW, California had some of the most strict policies in an attempt to manage the spread, yet is seeing some of the highest rates in the country. I don't think anyone has the right answer right now, but the evidence seems pretty clear that the painful extremes California went through were not worth it, and that human nature needs to be taken into account when attempting to lock down people across large swaths of the country.

" American have been extremely ignorant, foolish, and rudderless when it comes to handling this situation, but better performance during the spring and summer would not have eradicated the virus to allow for social interactions without a vaccine."

I don't know if you've been keeping up on current events, but the VAST MAJORITY of developed nations have, in fact, stamped the virus down to a level where they can go to school, and generally live their lives with basic precautions. Not only do Americans not learn from their mistakes, but they can't even recognize the reality that exists in every other country where the population respected science and did it right. We are, without a doubt, the most foolish nation on earth, and soon your grandma, or my grandma, or me or you, will be dead as the result.

"California had some of the most strict policies in an attempt to manage the spread, yet is seeing some of the highest rates in the country."

You might also appreciate that California is in the CONTINGUOUS lower 48, which means we are connected to the other states, we are not walled off, so no matter what we do, we are at the mercy of the NATIONAL virus climate, which is off the chart with infections because a huge percentage of Americans refuse to mask up.

Only in America do we do far less than we should, then throw up our hands and say "oh well, nothing could be done!" The proof of our disgusting, murderous error is seen everywhere else in the world where they are not dying at our pathetic rate. But sure, enjoy that $14 shake indoors in downtown disney, we can reminisce about in a month when all the restaurants are shut down again.

I think you two are closer than you think you are, as far as spreading of the virus and its consequences goes.

Russell, you point out that "The virus has shown that it will spread viciously in virtually any large group environment regardless of precautions."

And Colonel, you say that "Because of America's memorial day irresponsibility and premature reopening," the virus is spreading.

You two are basically saying the same thing: that large gatherings contribute immensely to the spread. You are on the same page of different editions of the same book, where the print is different so while you are reading the same story, you're not QUITE together as far as page number goes.

The Colonel is saying that if we had avoided these large gatherings as other nations did, we could be in better shape (and I agree).

Russell is saying that attending school UNDER THE CURRENT CIRCUMSTANCES would contribute to the spread (and I agree).

I'm just saying that current circumstances could have been very different if people actually took this seriously, so neither of you are wrong; you're just attacking the issue from different angles.

Sincerely, a guy who gets cursed out almost every night at work managing a casino for telling people to put their masks back on (which means I absolutely agree that a significant portion of Americans are being completely irresponsible and contributing to the fact that things haven't gotten any better). California may have had some of the strictest rules in the nation -- that doesn't mean the general public was actually FOLLOWING those rules.

Just to ground this in some stats, California now ranks 19th in the country for Covid case rate per capita and and 25th for death rate.

Yes, Florida is worse on both counts.

Thank you for the links, Robert. In my state, we're 9th in case rate per capita and 21st for death rate per capita (also worse than California, but people here act like the virus is a hoax). Certainly the NUMBER of cases and deaths is higher in CA, but that's taking into account that they are the most populous state in the union.

Good post, Kenny. On this:

"Sincerely, a guy who gets cursed out almost every night at work managing a casino for telling people to put their masks back on (which means I absolutely agree that a significant portion of Americans are being completely irresponsible and contributing to the fact that things haven't gotten any better)."

You most assuredly have my sympathies, and you are a far better man than me, there is no way I could keep my cool in that absurd situation.

Thank you, Colonel. There are nights where I do NOT keep my cool (and I'm a former cast member who was TRAINED to keep my cool, but this is a different situation than anything I've dealt with before). But sometimes...it's just too much.

So I'm no better than anyone else. Sometimes my frustrations get the best of me and I sometimes respond in kind to those who act like jerks. I would have NEVER gotten away with this as a Disney cast member (which I used to be, and it feels odd that I can get away with this now, even in the casino business where 86-ing people is part of the gig, which is also new to me). I mean, I've had people curse me out, and I've returned the favor (I'm not proud of that, but in my business it is not a reason for immediate termination, and that's still weird to me that I can actually do that on rare occasions and still have a job).

But I know that if I was still at Disneyland, I would have to go through several levels of authority to serve a trespass notice (and I wouldn't be the one to deliver the notice). But at my current job, I'm the guy in charge, so I do what I gotta do. I'm Disney's equivalent of "Theme Park One" on the radio, except my operation is MUCH smaller. But if I'm on shift, I'm the guy who makes the decisions. Sometimes I HATE that.

I feel weird being the "person in authority" who makes these calls. It doesn't feel right, even if I know I'm doing the right thing. I'm not a great leader. I'm a great second or third in command,just passing along what needs to be done, but not the one making the final call. So it makes me uncomfortable when I HAVE to be the one to make the call.

I will absolutely do it, if needed. And as I work graveyard, none of my bosses are there, so it's on me.I become the person in charge, and I knew this was what I signed up for.

I just didn't know that I'd have to do it during a pandemic. I didn't sign up to be a public health protector. I would have gone into the medical field if I thought I was qualified to protect the public health.

But again, I gotta do what I gotta do.

This is why I get both The Colonels and Russell's arguments. I see that the rules haven't worked, but I also see that the reason is because people don't follow them.

Great post, dude, thank you.

@Kenny Vee: I get it, we all feel the tension nowadays. Not helped by some places worse than others. At my UPS, most guys wear masks but others don't and bosses can't do more than "suggest" because the union thinks forcing masks against wishes violates worker rights. So some tension there.

I think way too many folks underestimated the number of people who refused to take this seriously and then feel masks rob them of all rights to fight back and that just made an already ugly situation worse.