U.S. went from lock down to rise up overnight

Millions of Americans who were ordered by their government to bunker down at home for months, or risk literally killing their co-workers, neighbors, and their own grandmother by holding a church service, are witnessing tens of thousands march shoulder to shoulder in the streets.

Almost overnight, after the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd, stay-at-home orders and lockdown restrictions went up in flames as quickly as a shopping center in Minneapolis, and the sudden shift in priorities did not go unnoticed.

Reacting to the sudden shift, talk show host Jeff Crank tells OneNewsNow he watched the June 4 memorial service for Floyd in which hundreds gathered side by side. Over the last 10 weeks, meanwhile, he says, approximately a half-million Americans have passed away and most were buried without grieving family members gathering to say goodbye.

The obvious question, Crank says, is why.

“Why can there be a memorial service for George Floyd but there can't be open services in other places in America?” he asks. “It's a complete and utter violation of the First Amendment.”

USA Today reported that many wore face coverings at the June 4 memorial service but few were able to maintain social distance, a reference to the building at North Central University that seats 1,000 people. 

Fox News reported that "thousands of mourners" attended a weekend memorial service for Floyd in North Carolina, and CNN reported that nearly 10,000 people were expected to attend a funeral visitation on Monday in Houston, Texas.

The hypocrisy led to an online commentary at The Federalist, where correspondent David Marcus said the protests are going on right now at the same time that funeral services remain banned for mourning families.

“To deny Americans their right to perform the acts of mourning that are their namesake while social distancing is mocked in protest is nothing short of cruel,” Marcus writes in the June 7 article.

Elsewhere in the article, he asks if there is a “trend” in which liberal politicians have banned gatherings such as weddings, church services, and funerals that are “associated with family and faith.”

Bethany Mandel, a conservative writer for Ricochet, is using social media to point out how fellow Americans reacted when she publicly condemned the government-mandated lockdowns and forced business closings, and urged others to consider the economic impact of millions unemployed and thousands of businesses shuttered.

One left-wing activist called Mandel a “stain on humanity” in an online post dated May 11, and wished she and other “right wing nuts” get the virus and spread it to their family and friends. In more recent post, the activist wrote she was surprised “at how many people showed up” for a protest march in her city, Allendale, New Jersey.

Mandel has posted numerous similar examples online, such as someone who called her “Grandma Killer” and a “selfish, evil person." 

Mandel comments that the public “went from lockdown to thronging crowds in a matter of weeks.”

Some locked-down Americans may remember the "Grim Reaper" man in Florida, who stalked the beaches in early May with a black robe and a scythe to protest the newly opened beaches. The man, Daniel Uhlfelder, who advised beachgoers to buy body bags, dropped the robe for a "Black Lives Matter" t-shirt at a June 7 rally. 

If there is not a “gigantic spike” in virus cases after these gatherings, Crank says, “then we can finally get rid of this crazy fallacy that somehow we have to have all this social distancing and the economy needs to be shut down.”