Editor,

As we are starting our three month in this coronavirus shutdown, there are some things I wonder about. We have had problems with viruses in the past. Swine flu, Ebola and the regular flu. None of them resulted in the disregard of the United States Constitution as this has.

We have, in a short period of time, brought our economy to a virtual stand down. We were experiencing growth not seen for decades.

We now have millions on unemployment, with our state running short of funds to meet those filing.

We have a governor who has ignored Washington state law as well as the U.S. Constitution. Washington state law gives the governor 30 days for emergency powers. After that, he has to get approval from the legislature, if in session, or from its four leaders of it if it is not in session.

That being said, there is nowhere he has the power to ignore the Bill of Rights, which were enacted before the states ratified the constitution. These give U.S. citizens rights that no governor-dictator can take away. That is, unless the population turns in to a bunch of sheep waiting to be led to slaughter.

Our dictator of a governor violated this by restricting our assembly and exercising of our religious freedom. There is nowhere any governor has the right to tell us we must follow his guidelines. It is up to us as intelligent citizens to make those decisions.

We need to open up this state immediately and worry about those few who are susceptible to this virus and get on with our freedoms that have been abridged.

Joseph Moreland

Oak Harbor

n Editor’s note: Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks recently explained in a Sound Off published in the Whidbey News-Times that the 30-day limit affects only a narrow set of actions and not the “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order.