The great American adventure is on hold... for now

I have been to Gatlinburg and the Smokies. Glorious

Beautiful country. I try and ride the area on motorcycles for a week or 2 every year.

This is my home. I finally made it back there last week from where I currently reside in Middle TN.. the first time I'd seen my father (who lives alone) since February. I've NEVER driven through Pigeon Forge, at ANY time of day during the Spring... and encountered practically ZERO other cars on the road. Usually, it can take an hour just to drive the fifteen miles or so through town. Most people don't realize that the vast majority of the local population works in tourism... and that many of the laborers in that industry are immigrants. From locals who own/run art galleries or work maintenance and ticket counters, to Russians who serve up drinks at the whisky distilleries... and Hondurans who clean the hotel rooms; many of these people venture and pay a great deal for the opportunity to work the "Season" in the Smokies, and the opportunity to make more money in a few months than they could ever make in a year elsewhere.

That's why despite the risks... whatever they are; we have to be sensible, and cautiously continue re-opening these areas. It's not about the upper middle class people on vacations, the students celebrating graduations, or the corporate owners making the majority of the obscene profits... it's about the working class families who are paying around $900/month in rent for squalid apartments tucked away in "Little Mexico", or struggling to pay the excessive rent from shop fronts downtown. If the "shutdown" kills off the summer, their last chance will be the fall... precisely when all the "experts" predict we're in for round two. If they're forced to leave... where do they go, and what jobs will be waiting for them?