JB Pritzker has a new talking point this week, that (as of Monday) people should stop complaining about his reopening plan because “we’re only 11 days away” from moving to the next phase.

He used this again yesterday, at 10 days, and I’m sure he’ll use it again today, at 9 days. What he doesn’t seem to understand is that we small business owners who are desperately trying to stay afloat, doing everything we can (including foregoing our own pay) to continue to pay our employees, are dying on the vine. “Just 11 days” to my business is approximately $30,107.51 in costs. So where is that money supposed to come from with limited (at best) revenue opportunities since the economy is shut down? You’ve not heard me complain about this before, because when the choice is between keeping people alive and keep my business’ doors open, I’m willing to make that sacrifice (as many are). But that’s not the choice now, every single region has met the governor’s benchmarks and all the coronavirus-related numbers in Illinois are declining, especially hospitalizations which are at the lowest point since the pandemic started. There is no reason to wait until an arbitrary date (especially since that date was set at the end of a phase that is twice as long as federal guidelines)…move to Phase 3 today.