Some suburban residents question Pritzker’s COVID-19 actions

By Jack McCarthy Chronicle Media

Chris Lauzen, the Kane County Board chairman, hosted an April 28 COVID-19 listening session that allowed citizens to offer views on the effects of Illinois’ stay-at-home orders and other issues. (Screenshot of Zoom teleconference)

Some worried about the loss of free speech and liberties, others said closures and stay-at-home orders were an overreach while worries were voiced about personal job losses and how to protect vulnerable seniors and disabled.

Those views were expressed at an April 28 online Kane County pandemic listening session held just hours after Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced 2,200 new COVID-19 cases and a total state death toll that had now topped 2,000.

Many comments also focused on Pritzker, who drew ire for a March 21 executive order — since extended through May — that shut down businesses, schools and called for residents to stay at home.

“My primary concern in this is the tremendous overreach of our governor,” said a man identified as Josh Ellis of Naperville. “He already had a judge say that these were unconstitutional mandates and his answer was basically ‘well, I’ll just write another one.’ When the governor is saying we’re going to take care of you, for you, what he’s really saying is that you’re too stupid to do it yourself.”

Another man said that when COVID-19 was causing an unknown number of deaths an early aggressive response was correct.

“(But) we’ve (now) got enough knowledge that tells us it’s not as dire as initially thought,” he said. “Even with this information, some of our governors continue to use their emergency powers to restrict constitutional rights.”

Listening session participants, invited to call in or join via a Zoom conference application, were mostly older and white, ranging from middle-aged men and women to senior citizens.

Missing were Latino and African-American voices, groups that collectively make up as much as 38 percent of Kane County, according to U.S. Census estimates. Younger people were also largely absent, although a 16-year-old high school student from St. Charles did participate.

“This is an additional effort on our collective behalf to reach out to this people who feel they are not being heard as far as the impact that the stay-at-home order is having on their families’ lives,” said host Chris Lauzen, the Kane County board chairman. “I believe there is an important segment of our constituents who feel they are not being heard during this emergency.”

Others in the session also expressed their dissatisfaction and even helplessness in the face of the virus and efforts to confront it.

“I do consider the virus virulent,” said a woman identified as Virginia Flood. “However, I don’t recognize my country anymore. I feel like I’m a prisoner in my own home, I feel like my representatives are not representing me. When I call them they won’t help me.”

Further, there hasn’t been enough attention to people forced out of jobs.

“Gov. Pritzker … basically put this state into lockdown,” said a said a woman identified as Melanie Kowalski. “We really need to get our people back to work. There’s a certain element of risk in everything. We have to get the big boy pants on and have the grownups in the room make a decision as to what kind of risk are we willing to accept before our economy just completely implodes.”

There was little mention of the federal leadership’s response to the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.

The first of three scheduled sessions attracted around 60 participants at the outset and dropped slightly as it went on.

Lauzen patiently solicited views as he worked through a list of participants. He occasionally acted as timekeeper when comments exceeded two minutes, thanked each for participating and kept personal views to himself.