Defining true risk

This past Memorial Day, congressional candidate Jeanne Ives posted a tweet on her personal account asking anyone if they knew of any stores that were open in other states so she could take her daughter shopping. Her daughter had just gotten a new job and needed some new clothes, and as Ives put it, "Buying jeans online can be a gamble."

Buying jeans online with the possibility that you might need to be return them if they don't fit is not a gamble. It is a possible inconvenience.

Risking the possibility of picking up a very contagious, sometimes fatal disease and unknowingly passing it along to other people just so you can buy a pair of jeans in a store, THAT is a gamble. Going to work every day in a hospital (or grocery store, or meatpacking plant, or warehouse) during a pandemic, THAT is a gamble. With stores beginning to open up here in Illinois, hopefully this issue will be moot. If everyone does their part and is considerate of other people by social distancing and wearing masks, we should be able to function without a major resurgence.

However, Ives' logic and priorities remain a concern. Any person who confuses a minor inconvenience for herself with a possible life or death gamble for someone else does not have the decent judgment we need and expect from a congressional representative.

Rachel Tuerck