After Gov Admits Not Considering Bill of Rights, New Jersey Tulip Farmers Ordered To Cease Drive-Thru Tours
The coronavirus pandemic has ushered in a time of fear and uncertainty, yet nature continues to show the promise and hope of better days to come in the blossoming of springtime flowers.
But for the people of New Jersey, even driving through a local tulip farm to take in the splendors of the season is apparently not allowed.
Up until Sunday, Dalton Farms in Swedesboro was selling tickets for drive-thru tours of their 252,000 tulips in full bloom, according to NJ.com. Although patrons would stay in their cars, thus making the spread of COVID-19 highly unlikely, the 99-acre farm was ordered by authorities to shut down the tours.
“As of 7 pm we were ordered to cease all operations by an Assistant Prosecutor from the State of New Jersey,” Dalton Farms posted to Facebook on Sunday.
“For those who had purchased tickets for Monday-Wednesday we will be working to refund all tickets for those dates. We’re heartbroken to get this news in the middle of the day and would like to thank all those who came out over the last few weeks,” they added.
“We hope to see everyone in Sept for Sunflowers.”
Authorities did not deny that they had shut down the tours.
“We have been clear — in order to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus, events of any size cannot take place,” the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said in a statement to The Philadelphia Inquirer on Monday. “Some businesses can continue to accept online and pickup-only orders in accordance with the provisions set forth in the executive order that allows nurseries, garden centers, and farms that sell directly to customers to continue to operate.”
NJ.com also reported that Holland Ridge Farms in Cream Ridge, New Jersey, was barred from hosting a similar drive-thru event as well after the owner said he spent $1 million planting flowers for Monmouth County’s tulip festival.
Late last month, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy issued an executive “stay-at-home” order that closed all “nonessential” retail businesses in an effort to stop the spread of coronavirus.
A spokesman for the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office told the Cherry Hill Courier-Post that Dalton Farms’ drive-thru tours violated Murphy’s order.
While farms are still permitted to sell flowers directly to customers, events and social gatherings are banned.
Murphy, for his part, has admitted that he “wasn’t thinking of the Bill of Rights” when drafting an executive order that impeded the freedoms of residents.
“So I wasn’t thinking of the Bill of Rights when we did this. We went to all, first of all, we looked at the data and the science and it says people have to stay away from each other,” he told Fox News host Tucker Carlson last week.
Preventing paying customers from driving through a farm in their own vehicles, presumably accompanied by people they already live with, defies logic if the rules are simply meant to keep residents healthy.
Twitter user Kathy Balin, who identifies herself as an attorney, made an interesting point about the state’s uneven application of the rules, and speculated on a possible motive:
Farm says state shut down drive-thru tulip festival due to coronavirus gathering rules: Yet people can physically go in a store and buy liquor…Arbitrary and capricious gov action (Could it be tax revenue?????) https://t.co/rg2v022wgQ
— Kathy Balin (@BalinKathy) April 20, 2020
Conservative radio show host Todd Starnes also weighed in on the state shutting down tulip farms, asking a poignant question: “Is this the kind of America you want?”
New Jersey’s governor shuts down a drive-thru tulip farm and threatens to have the owner arrested. Is this the kind of America you want? https://t.co/NwCTwldKId via @toddstarnes
— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) April 21, 2020
COVID-19 is absolutely a serious threat, and measures must certainly be taken to stop the spread of the often deadly virus.
However, for people who have been sheltered in their homes, an opportunity to get some sunshine and appreciate nature from the safe confines of their vehicles would no doubt lift their spirits, with very little health risks involved.
The purpose of the executive order was ostensibly to stop people from spreading coronavirus when congregating in large groups, yet it seems officials are eager to enforce rules that hinder basic constitutional rights with no regard for the actual risk of illness involved.
One begins to question whether enforcement of the executive order is as much about concern for citizens’ health as it is about a power-hungry government eager to take away rights when it has the chance.
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