Old North News

The nation is anxious to get back to work, to school or to our annual summer vacations. The list goes on. The ordinary things we took for granted seem like a faraway dream.  

Income is lost overnight as hourly worker jobless claims across the country spike and an uncertain future has the stock market and oil prices yoyoing.

Add to this the sheltering in place for weeks on end without any end in sight and the likelihood of a long period of economic turmoil until the nation collectively recovers.

Ashley Smith | Submitted

Opposition groups are starting to spring up across the country with a simple argument: We want to go back to work; we want to try to get back to some semblance of pre-COVID-19.

One such group is ReopenNC.

Ashley Smith thinks North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has overstepped his authority by ordering a statewide lockdown. The executive order was issued March 27 and is effective until April 29. In the last week, Smith said she has learned that thousands of people agree with her. She is a cofounder of Reopen NC, a private Facebook group that surged to more than 25,000 members.

“We are residents of North Carolina that stand for the Constitution and demand our officials Reopen NC no later than April 29, 2020,” the group states on its Facebook page. “We are losing our small businesses, which are the backbone of our economy. The shutdown is not warranted, nor sustainable for our area. The vulnerable can be isolated or protected in other ways, without sacrificing our entire state economy. It's important to note several other states have not enacted stay at home orders.”

Smith told Old North News that Cooper should not have ordered the shutdown.

“I think the governor should have offered people to voluntarily isolate if they think they need to,” she said.

People have told her they understand the health risks and also know to wash their hands, avoid crowds and isolate themselves if they show symptoms. Forcing the entire state — 10.4 million people — to lock themselves down was not needed.

She said there’s a big difference.

“Tyranny is when you lock down healthy people,” Smith said. “And that’s what we have today.”

She said the available numbers — although Smith said Cooper has refused to release much of the data — don’t offer reasons for a statewide shutdown.

They show 4,816 confirmed cases as of April 13, with 331 people hospitalized and 86 deaths linked to COVID-19. That doesn’t equal ordering more than 10 people to stay at home while their businesses suffer and the forfeit their constitutional rights, in her view.

“If that’s not a gross overreach of power, I don’t know what is,” Smith said.

Cooper, speaking at a April 13 news conference, said the lockdown must remain in place for the rest of the month. Restrictions will slowly be lifted to boost the economy without risking people’s health or overwhelming the medical system.

“What we are doing is working,” he said. “We are saving lives. Our biggest enemy is complacency.”

Smith said she strongly disagrees. 

“I’m not saying this virus is not something to be reckoned with,” she said Tuesday.

“Residents are smart enough, and more important, have the right to decide their own comfort level with any and all pathogens and viruses, just like we have done for every other illness that has come through our state and nation,” ReopenNC says in a news release.

“Cooper is not a king and we are not his subjects. He is an elected official granted his power only by the vote of the people. We the people will be heard, Reopen NC!”

Smith hopes the North Carolina Assembly, which is scheduled to convene April 28, will provide more information and push for the state to return to normal life. 

“Our resounding message to Gov. Cooper and our elected officials is clear: end the shutdown. We demand our rights be restored in full,” the group states in a news release. “All across our great state, from small towns to big cities, you don't have to look far to see closed businesses and frustrated, concerned citizens ... The scientific data being released does not support a continued shutdown of our state.”

Smith said she believes voters will remember Cooper’s overreach at the polls Nov. 3 as he seeks a second term. Cooper, a Democrat, will face Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest in the election.

"No doubt about it,” she said. “The silent majority probably is going to be at the polls. Why are we treating people like cattle? It must end.”

Smith told Old North News that many businesses are suffering, including medical facilities that are being forced to furlough staff. People are denied access to care, including planned surgeries.

She said the people who have contacted her since ReopenNC was created have told her heart-wrenching stories. One woman was taken to a hospital in dire health, but not because of COVID-19. Her husband dropped her off and then parked their car. He was denied admission because of COVID-19 concerns and was not with his wife when she died a few hours later.

Smith said stories like that enrage her, and that people need to stand up for their rights.

Smith, 33, a Morganton resident, is a stay-at-home mother with four children whom she home-schools. Her husband owns a small business.

She is a registered independent with libertarian views — “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” she says — who encourages Republicans, Democrats and independents to join the cause. She said she is somewhat politically active, supporting home schooling and medical freedom, including opposing mandatory vaccinations.

“We welcome anyone who comes in who has a similar goal to open the economy,” Smith said. “Because this is killing our economy. It’s killing small businesses, it’s hurting people’s lives. We are actually intelligent, sovereign beings.”