Editorial: Let's open restaurants, here's how we get it done

Hundreds of Illinois restaurant owners struggling to stay afloat around the state are willfully defying state laws and ordinances to stay in business amid pandemic mitigation guidance from Governor J.B. Pritzker. On November 4, the governor banned indoor dining and drinking, as well as put caps on the number of customers in stores and limits on gatherings to 10 or fewer people hoping to curb growing number of COVID-19 cases around the state. While customers are not allowed to enjoy a meal inside the establishment, the state did not prohibit carryout and delivery service.

For a number of businesses in the food service industry already in delicate financial straits, which could have been avoided with a coordinated nationwide mitigation plan similar to New Zealand and Australia, without indoor dining their livelihood and sweat equity may evaporate into thin air.

Some businesses, like the FoxFire Restaurant in Geneva, sought relief in the courts after they were forced to closed and its food handling licenses pulled by the local public health department. In a friendly circuit court, FoxFire was granted a temporary restraining order by Kane County Judge Kevin Busch on October 26 because, in his opinion, Governor Pritzker had violated state law exceeding his legal power to issue an emergency order for a period longer than 30 days.

Later, on November 5, the 2nd District Appellate Court overruled a Kane County judge’s decision. In the reversal, the appellate court noted "that nothing in (the Emergency Management Agency Act’s) language precludes the governor from issuing multiple disaster proclamations — each with its own 30-day grant of emergency powers — arising from one ongoing disaster." Fortunately, for restaurants the appellate court’s order was issued under Supreme Court Rule 23, which says reversal cannot be cited as precedent in other cases, except within a limited scope. The appellate court's decision only applies to this case.

It has been an either-or proposition by restaurateurs and by the state with neither side willing to go to the table and find middle ground. The state and expert epidemiologists say bars and food establishments is strong vector for the spread of the Coronavirus while business owners say their are being unfairly targeted. There is middle ground, and for small businesses to survive the pandemic both sides need to seek compromise.

The state is in a position to let bars and restaurants operate normally again. Well, almost.

We propose the General Assembly or the governor, by way of executive order, reward restaurants that follow the state's public health directives and remain closed to indoor seating with a sales tax exemption until the state or region returns to 100% occupancy. Customers will be billed a convenience fee, retained by the business, equal to what would have been the normal sales tax on the order. Any business that backslides and allows an occassional guest or party to eat in their establishment loses their exemption for 30 days.

Furthermore, restaurants want to open for indoor dining be open at 100% capacity can go right ahead. Yes, there's a pandemic going on, we know but hear this out. Here's how it would work:

The Illinois Department of Public would issue food establishments offering indoor dining would post a green dot to be posted on the door or a window near the front entrance for recoverees to easily identify. Restaurants would collect and remit an additional 5% in sales tax to supplement tax revenue from mitigation compliant owners. Customers who tested positive for Coronavirus and recovered or have received vaccine treatment would be allow to utilize dine-in services by displaying their CV19 card, which would certify they were infected, quarantined and recovered from the COVID-19 virus.

CV19 cards could be state IDs with a green or orange background issued by the Secretary of State with confirmation of infection from the hospital where they were tested and treated or a confirmation of vaccination. In Champaign County that would make just over 12 thousand people eligible to eat in participating bars and restaurants along with another 832 thousand residents from around the state. There are nearly one thousand new cases each week in Champaign County alone. Oh, no card? No indoor service.

Our plan is an obvious win-win-win-win.

Restaurants and bars that want to stay open can remain open with no restrictions other than the CV19 card, offer full service and keep employees working. As a quasi-consolation prize, individuals who were infected and since recovered can enjoy a sit-down meal at their favorite particpating restaurant or spend hours on the dance floor. The state benefits from the tax revenue during the mitigation period while businesses following public health mandates are rewarded keeping their communities just a bit safer.

Really? Was that so hard?

Six reasons to learn another language

By Clark Brooks

There are several reasons for learning a second, third or even fourth language. In Europe, with smaller nations and nearly unrestricted travel between them, it is not uncommon for residents to pick up another language or two and be able to communicate effectively. Nearly every country in Europe requires students as young as six to learn a foreign language, usually English, according to The Pew Research Center.

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Generally speaking, most high schools in the America offer foreign language classes, but only 15% of our country's elementary schools do the same. Except as a college requirement, there is not national US mandate like in Europe to acquire second language ability.

Sadly, less than one percent of American adults who studied a foreign language are remotely capable of carrying a conversation in that language. It isn't because Americans are dumber - although some might dispute that after the last two presidential election cycles - or less capable, but because the educational system's approach is fundamentally flawed, which is a topic for another time.

I gutted out three years of Spanish in high school and now some 40 years later, I am admittedly not in that one-percent club. I can order a beer in Español and ask where is the nearest bathroom, mostly in that order because that's just how life works. I have always held mad respect for anyone who can speak two or more languages fluently.

While caring for a relative who was suffering Alzheimer's and assessing my own risk in the next 20 or so years, I learned research has shown that people who are bi-or multilingual experience a delay in the onset of symptoms from dementia by 4-5 years when compared with monolingual patients. Why didn't they know that information back when I was struggling in Señor Kruzan's junior-year Spanish class?

Despite incredible resistance to the endeavor and the insistence everyone within our borders speak American, there are dozens of reasons to learn to speak one or more languages. Regardless of whether you want to slow the degeneration of your cognitive ability or want to increase your upward career mobility, here are six practical reasons to learn a new language that make absolute sense.

1. Learning another language stalls the onset of Alzheimer’s & dementia.
While there is no absolute guarantee, multiple studies suggest that degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia advance at a much slower pace than those how are multilingual. In one published study researchers found a small but significant protection for people who speak more than two languages. However, no significant benefit was seen in those who were bilingual.

2. Learning another language opens opportunities in high paying careers
If you can speak and read in one or more languages in addition to English, there are endless exciting opportunities in government service sector, law enforcement and the military. A woman I know has the perfect pandemic job. She charges $40 an hour tutoring high school and college students in Spanish.

3. Speaking a second or third language comes handy when you want to have a discreet conversation
You are having a great time at Barraca, a dance club in Valencia, Spain, when you meet the next Mr. or Mrs Right - or at least Right Now - and you need to fly solo. No better way to tell them to drop back or peel off than in another language. Oh, and there is no better way to share your displeasure on your boss' latest silly workplace edict with co-workers know or studying the same language.

4. Make new friends from around the world
Learning to communicate in other languages opens the door to meeting interesting people from other parts of the world and forging future personal and business relationships. Best of all when you visiting their city or country, you'll get the inside scoop on where to go and what to do off the well-worn tourist paths for a unique, memorable trip.

5. Improve your memory & cognitive performance
Studies have shown bilingual people have better working memories, superior speed when switching between different tasks and have an easier time learning new things. Like doing bicep curls to build strength, learning a new language strengthens brain functions.

6. Learning a new language is fun
Learning to speak another language is fun, just not so much in a high school and college setting. Unfortunately, both the methodology and process used by the educational system in the US is whacked. What's fun about speaking another language? It's anything from ordering food in that language to the look on the faces of native speakers when they realize you speak their language pretty well. It's moments watching movies and TV shows when you realize you don't need subtitles.