Kentucky now has the highest unemployment rate of any U.S. state at 32 percent. Nearly 700,000 have lost their jobs, most due to business shutdowns ordered by Gov. Andy Beshear.

The state is very slow at processing unemployment claims, with reports of people waiting multiple weeks for benefits. Local food pantries are routinely running out of food now. Clearly hunger is becoming a real problem for many Kentuckians.

When the governor bothers to address this, it’s often with a half-hearted apology about people having to use their savings. Marie Antoinette couldn’t have said it better.

Here and across much of the U.S. we see lengthy, open-ended prohibitions of the free exercise of religion, assembly, petition, travel and commerce. Some governors have canceled or postponed elections at the last minute. Our legislatures never voted for these restrictions.

Traditional national media and social media now routinely and openly censor dissenting opinions and calls for protests. Local newspapers are struggling more than ever due to the collapse of advertising dollars from local businesses, many of which will never reopen. Expect to see many papers fail as well.

Supposedly this is all to save lives. But states with more draconian restrictions are not achieving lower per capita COVID-19 death rates than more open states – it is very nearly the opposite. Lengthy lockdowns will also lead to a rise in substance abuse, domestic violence and suicide. These kill just as surely as the virus. What may have started with good intentions is leading to disastrous results.

This authoritarianism will permanently destroy our prosperity, our liberty and government of the people if we don’t resist it. Please speak up like your family’s future depends on it. Because it does.

Tim Crabtree

Bowling Green