McHenry Times

Illinois state Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-Geneva) isn’t surprised to see things come to this.

“I would say most of the people I’ve talked to about Gov. (J.B.) Pritzker’s stay-at-home order would like to see an easing of all the restrictions,” Ugaste told the Kane County Reporter of the rules the governor recently extended as a way of slowing the spread of COVID-19. “They look at the smaller instances of outbreaks in certain parts of the state and feel like we should be able to restart our economy in those areas.”

With that goal in mind, protesters recently took the street in Springfield and downtown Chicago to raise their voices. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in front of state government buildings at both sites where they called on the governor to put an end to the policy that has forced countless small businesses to bolt their doors over the last several weeks by order of the government. 

“Besides feeling cooped up and cramped, people are concerned about if they’ll have a job to go back to if this goes on for much longer and small business owners are worried about if they’ll still have a business,” Ugaste said. “More and more, you hear people talking about the violation of their civil liberties.”

Ugaste said it’s no telling how much longer at least some people will be willing to comply with the governor’s order.

“Every one’s going to make that decision for themselves based on how bad they’re being hurt by this,” he said. “And I guess it depends on how governor reacts to what the people are saying and what the latest data suggests we should be doing. There’s no doubt people are ready for things to get back to being as normal as they can be.”