The mayor of a small town in Oregon has had enough. Stan Pulliam, the Republican mayor of Sandy, Oregon, has heard from business owners. He’s heard from citizens. He’s even heard from the governor. He has asked the question, over and over, where’s the evidence that lockdowns and the related economic devastation has worked to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic?
Pulliam has yet to get any answers. And he’s demanding action.
Oregon Business Owners: State Officials Know Lockdowns Do Not Slow the Spread of Coronavirus, But They’re Doing Them Anyway
In an exclusive interview with PJ Media, Pulliam said he’s heard from countless business owners who tell him they can’t last another couple of weeks under Governor Kate Brown’s lockdown orders before closing for good. “The message I got from them,” Pulliam said, “was that they’re between a rock and a hard place.”
He got a text from a business owner asking for a meeting a couple of weekends ago. “She said can you meet me at my restaurant to at three o’clock? I showed up,” he said, “and it was just about every member of our Main Street in Sandy. From restaurants and bars to baristas to fitness centers. They communicated they’re ready to open. I don’t tell people this too often, but they were ready to open that Sunday. They were ready to go.”
You can hear the entire interview at the Behind the Curtain podcast at this link.
Oregon has implemented some of America’s most stringent lockdown orders for the CCP Wuhan coronavirus, despite having among the lowest rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths.
Pulliam said he had to be blunt with the business owners in his city. “I feel a pretty big sense of responsibility,” he said. “when you become the mayor of your hometown like I did. I spelled it out for them, what we control here in Sandy, our police department or local business licenses, but more importantly, what we don’t control, that the governor has power over which is the OLCC, the lottery commission, OSHA.”
“They told me they feel like they have a gun to their head,” Pulliam said. “They’re down to days to be able to open or we’re going to lose them forever—or they take this very courageous stance and reopen.”
These business owners know the pressure they would face from the State of Oregon should they defy the lockdown orders. Pulliam relates it to the founding of the Union in colonial times. “You know, we spend so much time talking about what the politicians are going to do,” he said, “and what the judges are going to do, but we never spend much time talking about what we the people are going to do. When we think back to the start of this great country, it was people coming together and meeting in local restaurants and bars and in churches and talking about their individual rights and liberties under tyrannical control.”
“I am beginning to believe,” Pulliam continued, “that we very much sit at one of these moments in our history—definitely in the history in this state where these local Mom and Pop Main Street small business owners, they’ve just had enough. When you put people in a position where they really have nothing to lose, it really does become a moment of We the People.”
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Pulliam has gained quite a bit of notice across Oregon. He’s held rallies in towns across the state, and says that despite not publicizing them ahead of time, attendance by citizens and business owners has shot through the roof. His message is simple: businesses should stand together, in a show of solidarity, and open for business starting January 1.
“It’s been unbelievable,” he said, “to get these messages where people asked me if I’d be willing to come visit their community, that they have a gathering of business owners. I drive over, I show up, and I have a hard time finding a spot to park! These jam-packed rooms of people. It’s truly been humbling, but it’s not about me and it’s not about Governor Brown. What it’s about for these people in these small communities is they’re at the end of their rope. They’re ready to take their state back, and open their doors, and take their livelihoods back—what they’ve worked for their entire lives. That’s been just the best part, is watching people organized in their local communities, having really serious conversations.”
The reaction has been overwhelming for Pulliam. “I’ve never seen this in the state before,” he said, “where people have just had enough. They’re ready to return to the Oregon that we all know and love, that we’re starting to lose and have taken away from us more and more every day.”
The reaction has been so overwhelming, it’s even caught the attention of Governor Kate Brown. In fact, it led to a phone call between Pulliam and Brown. “What I told the governor,” Pulliam said, “is it’s pretty unbelievable to be able to walk around packed in the malls, packed in the Walmarts, and support Corporate America, but we can’t sit down and support a locally owned small business. I asked her, I’m just not seeing the evidence. I’m not seeing the evidence that that justifies such an action. I got to tell you, she acted excited. She said, I absolutely have the evidence.”
“It made me nervous,” Pulliam said with a laugh. “I thought oh, holy smokes, here it comes after months of waiting for it. She said, you know, I’ll have our health officials send you the evidence immediately after this.”
That evidence never materialized. “Here we sit days after she said that she would provide the evidence,” he said, “and still there’s no evidence. And when you think how she has closed down the small business owners throughout the state of Oregon without providing the evidence. They demand to know, they certainly have a right to know, why have they been shut down and why they don’t have the ability to open up and try to put food food on the plate for their families. It’s unbelievable.”
Pulliam has issued a call to action. When you go to his website, he has an invitation for all business owners in Oregon:
My Friends – please join me in showing solidarity against these arbitrary rules that are bankrupting our small businesses and employees. Please click the image above and download the pdf file to print and display in your window to let your customers know that you will be participating in our peaceful protest, opening #NewYearsDay.
As these draconian lockdowns continue, expect more and more ordinary citizens, small business owners, and local officials to push back even harder.
Jeff Reynolds is the author of the book, “Behind the Curtain: Inside the Network of Progressive Billionaires and Their Campaign to Undermine Democracy,” available at www.WhoOwnsTheDems.com. Jeff hosts a podcast at anchor.fm/BehindTheCurtain. You can follow him on Twitter @ChargerJeff, and on Parler at @RealJeffReynolds.
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