Dear Fat Moose Bar and Grill of Woodland, Washington:
Even though I dislike cancel culture, I am no longer your customer because I find your "Welcome to King Inslee's Beer Garden" sign offensive.
Your sign demonstrates that you neither care about my business nor the business of fellow Woodland residents who feel as I do that Governor Jay Inslee is simply doing what experts in science and public health advise is best for the safety of the residents of the state of Washington during the worst pandemic of our lifetimes.
Fat Moose is a business and should strive to make all customers feel welcome, and I am afraid to tell you that your sign does not make me or anyone who shares my beliefs feel welcome.
I know times have been hard for small businesses like yours since the start of this pandemic with a shutdown on bars and restaurants among other businesses because they are dangerous breeding grounds for the spread of the highly contagious virus, the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 that results from it. I can imagine that the control of how your business operates has surely fostered intense resentment and bitterness toward Governor Inslee, and yet alienating many paying customers in the worst public health crisis of our lifetimes is not a way to recover from the loss of income during the state lockdown.
As for casting Governor Inselee pejoratively as “King,” this jibe echoes the letter by James Tejcka of Woodland to the Reflector on July 8. Kings are not elected. Inselee is not a tyrant. He is simply following the very same public health recommendations as many other prudent governors across the country.
Inslee is doing the best he can with the resources he has despite not only a lack of leadership from the White House but outright antagonism and insults.
The mask mandate and the re-opening policies are working. After a spike of daily cases at over 1,000 on July 15 in Washington state, the numbers have been going down statewide and our Cowlitz County is third from the bottom in lowest numbers of cases (519) and deaths (six) as of the writing of this letter.
It’s not tyranny; it’s public health policy, it’s intelligence and it’s working.
In closing, I will not comment on why the word “beer” is crossed out in your sign as I don’t understand your joke within a joke.
Not only don’t you have my health and welfare at heart, you do not seem to care much for yours or your business’, either.
