Opinion: Murphy Says it Could be June Before We Return to Normalcy

It's hard to know if the Governor is just "acting out an abundance of caution" or he enjoys ruling over his subjects like a dictator.

We know he loathes people who don't think like him and dismisses their points of view as wrong or meaningless or both. But as money and patience start to run out, he will have an angry and stressed-out public on his hands that he will have to deal with one way or another.

He told an interviewer on MSNBC Tuesday evening that we might not start to get back on normal footing until perhaps June or July.

Can you even imagine the economic and social havoc this would wreak on our state if this is true? Business failures, marriages destroyed, graduations canceled, alcohol and substance abuse along with suicides on the rise, economic disruption and destruction not seen since the Great Depression.

Protestors in a variety of states are already starting to push back and there will be more to come, but probably not here in Neutered Jersey. Sad but true.

We're dealing with something new and deadly in COVID-19, but this is like amputating your arm for a deep cut on your hand. People die in greater numbers every year from so many different causes, medical and otherwise. The unrelenting media focus and press conferences with daily death counts do more to panic and sadden an already anxious public.

It's time to drill down on the problem in a more practical way. Quarantine the elderly and "at risk", ramp up production of PPE, accelerate testing in all sectors of the population, all of us sharing and giving what we can to those in need, and let the rest of us go back to living life. This is not life. This is a walking, mask wearing, slow death of the American spirit and real life. The measures we are taking are for the "greater good" but could be causing greater harm.