How many guests are invited to your Thanksgiving table? And how many people will end up being left out? Per Governor Andrew Cuomo, for those living in NY State, ten is the allowable limit of family and friends who may gather in private homes to celebrate Thanksgiving 2020. Cuomo’s prohibition, designed to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, brings about a debate. Do politicians have the authority to enforce the number of people who may come into your private home for the holidays? Is it fair or has Cuomo overstepped his bounds?
As the holiday season draws near, and with cases of COVID-19 increasing in many places, fears over large gatherings are mounting. However, shouldn’t it be up to individual households, rather than the government, to decide what’s best? Governor Cuomo is facing tough criticism for not only encouraging people to stay at home rather than visit with family, but for placing tight restrictions on the number of guests at private home holiday tables. People are wondering if this is even enforceable. Will they use law enforcement to go after people who are passing the gravy around if the gathering is above the limit?
Last November, as families and friends prepared to gather around their holiday tables, the focus in many homes was the creation of a grand, sharable feast to include a turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and more. This year, because of the ongoing pandemic, the state governments are setting rules that apply to your dinner table, to discourage Americans from holding traditional family gatherings that might spread the virus. In other words, the states and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) want us to alter our behavior on November 26.
Many states have established new virus guidelines to curtail the spread of COVID-19. The CDC explains that small household gatherings are an important contributor to the rise of coronavirus cases. Furthermore, they want you to know that their suggestions are meant to supplement, not replace, any state, local, territorial or tribe regulations, with which people must comply. Interestingly, the states and CDC do not interfere with or place tight restrictions on mass gathering protests that are known to spread COVID-19.
In America, the Thanksgiving Holiday is typically the busiest travel time of the year. People are excited to spend quality time with family and friends. However, this year, travel is discouraged from state-to-state as being in airports, train or bus stations, or automobile rest stops can expose people to the virus via air droplets or contaminated surfaces. Additionally, sitting in close quarters to a person infected with the virus can greatly spread COVID-19. Thus, for safety, states have implemented their own travel guidelines.
In New York, for example, a COVID-19 travel advisory has been issued. For any traveler coming to NY from a noncontiguous state, must “test out” of the mandatory 14-day quarantine. For travelers who have been out of the state for more than 24-hours, they must obtain a test within three days of departure prior to arrival in NY. Upon arrival, they must quarantine for three days, and on day four of the quarantine obtain another COVID test. When both tests are negative, the traveler may exit quarantine. State protocols are evolving due to the impact of COVID-19.
In addition to travel quarantines, states are establishing rules for Thanksgiving. For example, Californians are being ordered to hold Thanksgiving dinner outside, for no longer than two hours, people must remain six feet apart, and the host must collect the names of the attendees. Furthermore, no more than three households can attend. A main issue with family gatherings is that individuals may have failed to follow exposure reduction practices prior to getting together. For example, if they didn’t socially distance or wear masks around others, they could unknowingly be infected and spread the virus. Another point to consider, people tend to let their guards down during home gatherings. They may not wear masks or stay six feet apart (two arms lengths) or they may touch surfaces without adequately cleansing their hands. These negative practices can be exacerbated with alcohol or drug use, whereby people may be less careful.
Despite those reasons, many people object to the nanny sate mentality, whereby the government interferes unduly with personal choice. Placing tighter restrictions on you and your families during COVID-19 can lead to increased isolation, loneliness, depression, suicide and more. Government dominance of personal affairs is widely viewed as an infringement of our individual rights and liberties. Enforcement of mandates, whether on the federal or state level, requires cooperation, time, money, and energy. With escalating crime in cities across America, one must ask, should resources be used to go after people who are privately getting together to eat turkey?
Let’s say you live in a state with tight restrictions. What happens if your nosey neighbor calls the police on you to report seeing more than 10 people going into your home? Will law enforcement stop at your house if they spot a larger than normal number of cars parked on or near your driveway? Will local authorities ring your doorbell because they hear music playing and suspect a gathering? Or, if you have 11 in attendance at your Thanksgiving dinner, can you be fined or worse yet, jailed?
A lot of folks, such as Erie County Sheriff Tim Howard, believe that it is up to individuals to know the risks associated with family gatherings and COVID-19 and make their own decisions. The sheriff shares, “I have no plans to utilize my office’s resources or Deputies to break up the greater tradition of Thanksgiving dinner. The national holiday has created longstanding family traditions that are at the heart of America, and these traditions should not be stopped or interrupted by Governor Cuomo’s mandates. My office will respect the sanctity of your home and traditions, and I encourage you to follow your heart and act responsibly, as well as do what’s best for your family.”
What do you think???
I didn’t realize that some conservatives were so sensitive. These so-called restrictions are unenforceable. Stop boo-hoo-hooing and invite who you want.
Now I’m average at math. But i counted more then fingers & toes i have. So the people doing the riots were less then 10 ??? Or just all family members. Still more then my fingers & toes i have
Hahahaha—Don’t worry, eat turkey! You can bet many of “the anointed ones” will do as they please!
Let’s see…some states want hosts to record their guests’ names, but they can’t keep track of the names of dead voters?! Name your turkey, and I’ll guarantee you it will vote democrat in the next election!
In a society where good people accept personal responsibility, we can decide for ourselves how we will celebrate the holidays. I don’t need some government pencil-pusher telling me to fingerprint my guests or to keep track of the herbs used in the gravy. Is that next? And I’ll use as much butter on my mashed potatoes as I want to use!
You can’t get more authoritarian than this. Okay, some of us will make one concession: we’ll put a bottle of hand sanitizer by the front door. Now leave me alone.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Well, if my local LEOs show up, I’ll be sure to invite them in, thank them for their service to my community and fix them a plate as well as a doggie bag and thermos of hot coffee and offer a prayer for them before I send them on their way.
Governor Killmo has definitely overstepped his bounds. He is an arrogant, self-absorbed, egotist, who thinks he’s God’s gift to humanity, or at the least, to New York. His mandates are communist/Nazi, in nature. The gov will continue to “Kill Mo” jobs, businesses, elderly people, and destroy families with his mandates. We will lose an entire generation of doctors, scientists, teachers, tradesmen, etc, because of Cuomo. As with the upcoming turkey, Gov Killmo can take his mandates and Stuff them.
Worst fear? Socialism
The government overreached way too much! People I talk to are fed up with it all! We are seriously done with lockdowns and we need to be left alone! My question is how about all the homeless people on the streets and the drug addicts and prostitution going on???? Had king Cuomo touched on any of that scenario? No he and other king governors attack the everyday regular person just trying to get by!!!! Meanwhile the never address this! There will be an uprising against all these rules because we are sick of the suppression that’s going on in this country on many levels!!! I mean it’s to the point where you cannot believe in a presidential candidate without getting freaking beat up???? Why are our leaders letting the mob and the thugs rule us! This is unconstitutional!!!! We must fight to the death because I don’t want my family reliving history thst has happened all over the world when a too powerful government starts to make demands! People have already caved like sheep to wearing masks! RIDICULOUS!!!! Make America Great Again will never stop!! We will fight!
I agree too many restrictions and Big Brother is not following the ones they mandate. The government and mainstream media should just be honest with the American people and tell us that all this is leading up to the New World Order! Look on the UN website and read about Agenda 2030 and how their goal is for all of us to be HAPPY, share what we have and have no worries because the government will “take” care of us. And boy will they. Come on, man!!!
my biggest fear? the loss of President Trump, and the election of a inept, demented sick man. this will become an election where in harris will b in line for the presidency. loss of jobs, rise of communism, complete demise of law & order and the end of American life, as we knew it.
I’m beginning to feel that politicians are our enemies. This whole mess was deliberate and those nuts placing these restrictions are not following those restrictions themselves. Makes you wonder if the democrats didn’t get the Chinese vaccine before they unleashed this Chinese virus on others. How many democrat politicians are getting Covid? It will not stop until We The People stop it.
I think Sheriff Tim Howard is spot on. My loved ones and I are generally law-abiding, but may well indulge in some civil disobedience during the holidays this year. I have missed family gatherings occasionally in past years due to an illness, and people who are not feeling well, and/or are vulnerable should probably refrain from them. But for the rest of us? Puleeze…
I grew up in Erie County, New York; and I have family still residing there. It’s good to see that the sheriff there has some common sense, just like the sheriff where I now live, in Greene County, Virginia, who refuses to enforce unconstitutional mandates from our dictatorial Democrat Governor.
The wacko governor is clearly violating the first amendment right to assemble but then how could he be expected to know about the U.S. Constitution.
I hear that many of the leftist iron-fisted “governors” will be joining Heir Hypocrite Newsom at French Laundry on Thursday. Exclusive dining is in the same private “outdoor” room as last time. Phony apologies to follow from all.
Let the police come in to tell me I have too many family members in my own home. They can sit down and enjoy a meal with the rest of us or leave. They can’t tell me to break up the celebration. It is time (actually past time) to stand up to the idiots that control us! Let’s all get a backbone! Let “them” take us all to jail if necessary. We can’t lose our freedom in the name of “government protection”. Remember the “I’d rather be red than dead” moniker? If the socialists get anymore entrenched it’s the end of our democracy. The only thing that is more pathetic than the socialist bureaucrats is the people that vote for them. Wake up folks!
Governor Cuomo is a child driven by emotions of hate and contempt for Trump rather than doing what is in the best interest of his people. A real turkey! No offense Butterball
I have a very important question. Why or who shut down any information coming from OSHA? Every business has an OSHA manual and in that manual is a section on masks. I suggest everyone read it. I was an operating room nurse and wore a mask on my job for over 40 years. Those masks are used in sterile environments and will not protect you against the virus. This virus was made into a huge political strategy and should have been left up solely to the medical field and not be allowed into the political field. It goes on to describe the N95 and the worse mask ever; the fabric ones which has made businesses making these masks a bundle of money at our expense. Then there is all the inaccurate information on how many cases and or deaths. I am willing to bet that most of the deaths other than people in nursing homes all were wearing masks yet they don’t report that, do they!! People who are not in good health are certainly at risk but I doubt if that’s the majority. There are so many doctors out there that do NOT agree with the government and I wouldn’t trust Dr. Fauci on anything medical. I believe its not much different than a nasty flu. There are so many lies out there, people just panic instead of using common sense. This Governor Guomo is way out in left field and doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground. Thank God, and every one should, I no longer live in the state of NY. You couldn’t pay me enough to move back there. Never wear a mask outside either. BTW, those fabric masks can make one sick – maybe not from the virus but how but sick anyway. You breathe out carbon dioxide and any other stuff in your lungs (normal) and since none of these have actual filters, you breathe in whatever is out there. Now wearing a mask causes moisture from your breath to stay in the mask and now you are breathing in anything that is out there and carbon dioxide which is never a good thing. N95 masks are geared for contaminated environments and are used in hospitals when treating tuberguloses patients. You can breathe out but cannot breathe in the nasties. One needs to be fitted for an N95 mask. Now suppose a person is out say at Walmart and is Covid-19 positive but doesn’t know he/she is. He/she is protected from breathing in the virus but breathes out his own virus and the virus floating around the air says woohoo, a smorgusboard!! Another contention about masks. Everyone was told to wear one but NO ONE ever explained the types of masks or how to wear one. Do you think the virus is only concerned with entering one through the mouth and nose!? They must fit snuggly around your mouth and nose – no gaps! But then one can get it in the eyes! It’s all in God’s hands and He is in control. We may not understand why He hasn’t stepped in or why we have it at all but my faith is in Him. God bless everyone. Take care and pray faithfully.
The government has, in my opinion, prolonged this whole COVID thing. We’ve never done
this for any of the previous health threats such as SARS, H1N1, etc. They ran their course and yes some people died but we were still able to live as Americans!
He’s a joke!! He’s getting an international Emmy!! For what who knows?
first of all, supposedly in the past months since march, everyone w as to abide by the rules – i did, but surprise suprise many didn’t! and the same will happen now! people will sneak others into their house for dinner. these dumb govenors instead of mouthing off should just the hell up and practice what they preach, several have been found out with out masks at family gatherings – so do you really think people who have followed the rules and have been stuckin in “jail” are going to listen. and no I will be with just my daughter so that’s two people
I think it is most interesting that these governors tell the people what to do and where to go and how to celebrate, but rarely abide by their own regulations. While I believe that people should be careful and try not to spread the virus, I think the leaders act any way they want – go anywhere they chose and leave all of us little people to deal with their unenforceable and ridiculous decrees. They invite disrespect and derision upon themselves.
No, they should not! Who in their family would ever want to intentionally risk exposing any loved one to a cold , much less a virus that could potentially kill a beloved elder? It’s ludicrous that the government thinks we are so stupid that we can’t make adult decisions. I didn’t live to the age of 71 by being stupid.
Fear has replaced common sense.
Politics: The art of looking for toruble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, then applying the wrong remedies.
Wake-Up!! There are no Republican and DemocRat Parties! There is only the “Unity Party” “RINO’s & Socialists”!! They run a giant SCAM with the Media to keep us “sheep” entertained and in line!! The FreedomWorks.org group and the Trump Group thought they were changing the Republican Party!!! FORGET IT!!! Ryan, McConnell, Romney, etc. are the tip of the “fake loyal opposition iceberg” helping the DemocRats lead all Americans into a SOCIALIST HELL-HOLE!!!! Form a new Political Party – The Freedom Party!!! President Trump’s Movement and FreedomWorks.org have consolidated the base!!!! The American Revolution 2.0!!!!!
The only thing government should be doing is collect taxes, fight wars, & stay the hell out of our lives. As Tom Basile said on Newsmax, The COVID didn’t shut us down, it was the our country. We desperately need term limits for politicians in congress. They are not helping the American people. Self serving bureaucrats are not earning what we pay them. If they were working in private industry they would have been fired long ago.