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PSA: Blood in the Water

PSA: Blood in the Water
This is what needs to happen now…

Independent bars and independent restaurants touch almost every aspect of the American economy, and bars are a very big part of that. And bars now in Texas—closed, again. In Florida—closed, again. And now California, closed or closing. So late, and so many people exposed are sick and now, again, left with no idea, no structure, and no plan for how they are going to survive.

We laid out in very stark terms what the risks are, but now it’s not any more about what might happen. It’s happening. It’s not about if. It’s not even about when. It’s now.

We’ve been ordered to shut down to protect the lives of people in our towns, our city, our states and our country.

And now, for the second time, we’ve been ordered to shut down to protect the lives of people in our towns, our city, our states and our country. We’ve been ordered to shut down to help suppress the curve and the spread of COVID-19. 

We did this, we shut down again, for you. And now we need you to help us. We need a way to survive, because if we don’t survive, the economic impact on all of us, including you, will be dire. 

And I’ll answer the trolls right now. “Are you suggesting we use taxpayer dollar to subsidize private individuals and private businesses?”

Yeah.

“But that would be a bailout!”

Yeah, that would be a bailout, and it might have gotten to that point. Just like we bailed out the automotive industry, and the banks, and the mortgage industry. And the airlines. And other major industries that we were told were vital to the US economy, which is why they were propped up with billions and billions of dollars.

There are two differences:

One, the economic impact of bars in the United States is just as big, but it is most felt in small communities where all of you live.

We were ordered to do this, and we did it to save the lives of the people in our communities.

And the other difference is that no one forced those other industries to make the mistakes they made to get themselves in trouble. We were ordered to do this, and we did it to save the lives of the people in our communities.

So Texas, Florida, now California. All forced to re-close, and if you’re in a state that is about to reopen or in the middle of reopening, then it will probably happen for you too. 

We tried it your way. Texas was the canary in the coal mine, and people just wanted to look at us and say, “Hey, look at the pretty little bird!” We tried it your way, we tried to slowly reopen and find some way we could earn our way out of this mess.

But it didn’t work in large part because of a whole host of idiots who didn’t want to do the smallest thing to ensure the success of the experiment, and didn’t want to do the smallest thing to protect the lives of the people serving them. Because they didn’t want to wear a mask. 

And there were plenty of unscrupulous establishments that allowed them to gather in a way that guaranteed that everyone could get sick. And that is what happened.

So for all of those places that broke the rules for their own enrichment—gloves are off. I hope you are called out by every single agency that exists, and if I can make the phone call myself, I will.

For all the people who still continue to not wear their mask because they don’t believe, you’re either stubborn or you’re stupid.

And for all the people who still continue to not wear their mask because they don’t believe, you’re either stubborn, or you’re stupid. If you’re stubborn, please stop, and at least follow the recommendations of the CDC.

But if you’re stupid, please bury your head back in the hole where you can pretend that all of this is going to go away by itself, because at least that way you won’t breathe on anyone.

I learned at a very young age the privileges and responsibilities of being in a community of people, and all the years been in this business have only reinforced that. So don’t call yourself a Houstonians unless you’re willing to protect the community of Houston. Don’t call yourself an Angeleno unless you’re willing to protect the citizens in your community in Los Angeles. Don’t call yourself a New Yorker, or a Floridian, or a Seattlite, unless you are willing to accept the responsibilities of being in a community while you’re taking its benefit.

But that’s not most of you. Most people care about the vibrancy of their communities, about the vitality of their cities, about the viability of their economies. And for all of you who care about things, I beg you please, add your voices to ours. Spread this message to every elected official you can think of. Send it every celebrity you can find. Send it to every single person of influence, or who it might influence.

Because all of us need to sing the same song.

We need to staunch the bleeding.

And that song right now is, “We need to staunch the bleeding.” We need to stop. No business should end right now because of this. No landlord should have to default on their mortgage or not be able to pay their taxes because of this. No worker should be kicked out of her apartment or not be able to buy food for her family because she was forced out of work to protect the health of the people in her community.

That is where we are, and these are all the circumstances that now just need to stop until we can gather together and say, “This is how we’re going to fix it.”

We have to protect ourselves, we have to protect our livelihoods, we have to protect our lifestyle, and we have to protect our communities.

We have to stop and we have to figure out a real answer, and for that we need leadership. We cannot get leadership unless everyone talks. So now it is time. Now it is time. It’s not just us anymore, it’s all of us.

If you take an enormous part of the American economy that touches every single part of the American economy and let it wither and die, blood in the water is not strong enough. There will be no water. We’ll all just be swimming in blood.

So please, help us. Make noise with us. This is an opportunity where we can all make systemic change, all of which needs to happen, but we cannot change anything if it doesn’t exist.

So we have to stop the bleeding right now.

PSA: A Message From the Future

PSA: A Message from the Future
For every city that is thinking of reopening…

We had a very simple message to share, and that message has been heard over 150,000 times. We wanted to tell the Governor of the State of Texas that we were dying and, I don’t know if he heard it, but a lot of other people did. And, in all of that, the message that I received from all of those people, 99% of them, was “Please keep sharing,” because the message we have is all of their message.

When 130-plus thousand people say that we should be saying something, then we’re going to say it. So we have more messages for you, and we’re going to come every day and do the exact same thing until there is some result.

The first message is for the public. All of you out there in all of your cities, in all of your neighborhoods, in all of your communities.

Bars are not boxes that manufacture drunk people. We are the epicenters of communities. We are the definitions of cities.

Without Warren’s Inn, without Grand Prize and Two Headed Dog, Houston is dimmer.

Without The Richardson or Leyenda, Brooklyn is dimmer.

Without The Holiday and La Palapa, the East Village is dimmer.

Without Inkwell, Omaha is dimmer

Without The Three Clubs, without Residuals, without Harvard & Stone, LA is dimmer.

I could do this all day.

You can participate in these communities and not understand what it is that they are because it’s not your job. It’s our job. But now you need to understand what is at risk. The first thing that’s at risk is human lives. And many of those lives are people that are forced to go back to work in those places when you “reopen your economy.”

So think about that before you go and try to argue about a mask with someone who literally had to go back to a job they didn’t want to go to because it wasn’t yet safe.

“If 10 people on a staff get sick and they work sick, how many people did they interact with in a night, and where else did those people go?”

This is a message from the future. We’re in Houston, Texas. We’re three weeks down the line, farther than any major city in the United States, and I’m here to tell you, if you screw it up as badly as we screwed it, you’re going to see the same spike in cases.

COVID-19 is raging through the bar community right now. It’s raging through it, and I guarantee you, it’s a very simple math equation: 

“If 10 people on a staff get sick and they work sick, how many people did they interact with in a night, and where else did those people go?”

The spike in these cases is directly related to reopening “our economy,” but it’s not our economy, it’s places of convenience. You don’t need to go and you should stay home.

To all the people who are thinking of reopening those economies, I was wrong. I was wrong. 

When we tried to reopen (The Cottonmouth Club), in as safe and responsible way as possible, it turns out there was no safe and responsible way. Because the only people, pretty much, who wanted to go out were the people who were comfortable to do so, and a lot of those people were the ones who said:

“I don’t want to follow your guidelines. I don’t want to do your stuff. I don’t want to wear your mask.”

There are 700,000 bartenders in the this country. And they are all suffering. This is an existential crisis.

Our first crisis is that we, as humans, are exposed and we’re dying. And if we get exposed and you all come out, you’ll get exposed to. That’s how it works. But if you want to have a world that your recognize and the end of this mess, then you have to understand that we need to remain.

Because if we go away, all of this falls apart.

I’m in Downtown Houston right now, and they spent millions of dollars trying build a derelict downtown up over the course of years. These months could destroy that entire effort and they’ll have to start all over again.

And that is one city, and one community, and one neighborhood. You can say that about every single city in the United States.

You will have to do it again, and it will cost way more in the future than figuring out something now. So as people, as citizens, as guests in our bar, the very least you can do for us is share.

And it’s not just bartenders. It’s restaurants—everyone who is in service. Tattoo artists, people who do your hair, people who do your nails. People who ring us your purchases at the mall. 

We had to go back for your convenience, and your convenience is making everything worse. It’s not reopening an economy—it is short-term thinking with long-term consequences.

Governor Abbot decided to experiment on the humans in the State of Texas which contains four of the seven biggest cities in the United States, and said “Let’s see what happens.” And now we know.

And for every city who is thinking about crawling into reopening. I’m looking at you Los Angeles, New York, Seattle. All of you places that are thinking of trying to find a way to let people back into your spaces, I’m going to give you a message from the future, because we were the experiment. Texas was the experiment.

Governor Abbot decided to experiment on the humans in the State of Texas which contains four of the seven biggest cities in the United States, and said “Let’s see what happens.” And now we know. Now we know, because now we have to close back down, because the people who were responsible stayed home. But most of the people who didn’t were all of the knuckle-draggers who decided that everything was just over.

That’s not a Texas thing. That’s an asshole thing, and you all have assholes too. It’s going to happen to you unless you do it right. And at this point, I don’t know if there is a right.

But you have to insist. If someone is going into your place without a mask, they shouldn’t have anywhere that they can go anywhere near you that would let them come in. You have to coordinate. You have to insist that people do things right.

We could have done that, and if we did it, maybe we wouldn’t be in this position. But if I turn someone away because they didn’t want to do what was right, there were plenty places that were unscrupulous and allowed them to come in. And there were enough of them and enough people to allow this virus to infect my community in droves.

Bartenders are my people. You guys are my people, so if you’re going to participate, go to every single business on your street and make sure that anyone who is not inclined to take the basic precautions to take care of your workers doesn’t get to go and infect anybody else.

We are the ones who have to enforce these rules, and it’s not just here in Houston. Again, from the future, I’m telling you that this is where you’re at. This is what we’ve come to because no one has a rational plan. No one knows, and no one is willing to admit it.

All we can do right now is make noise, and I’m begging you, please, share this with everyone you think it touches. Every single person. Send it to your governor, send it to your mayor, send it to your city councils, because every at least needs to say that we are going to beat this drum until you are so tired of hearing it that you’re going to address it just to make it stop. Because I guarantee you, everyone who is talking to all of the people who are in charge don’t have our interests in mind.

We cannot allow them to erase us, because it will destroy your communities, it will destroy the identity of your cities, and if you think I’m being too dramatic about it…

Give me a month. And see what happens.

The blood in the water is already too much. If there is any more blood in this water, we will not be able to live in it. 

Human lives are the most important, and I have said from Day One that if I have to sacrifice myself as a business for human lives, one human life, I will not make that choice. But as an industry, as communities, and as a country, we can find a way to make it through. I know we can, but we cannot do it unless all of us sing the same song.

And we have to go to all of the people who make all of these decisions and say, “You must help all of these people.”

We need to sing the same song. If we don’t, the economic and cultural impact will be beyond measure. Do not allow them to pretend that if they close their eyes and plug their ears, that it will somehow magically get better. It won’t.

We can see what happens a week from now, a month from now, and math shows us how things are going, because they’re just going up. And unless we stop right now and try to preserve what we have, we will not have something to come back to. 

This is a message from the future to all the people that are saying “Reopening Right Now,” because your will get here. So I hope you learn our lessons.

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