Gov. Little should rally his friends across Idaho to support coronavirus stay-home order

Ammon Bundy, of Emmett, who led a 41-day armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon in 2014, now promises to descend upon “the Boise metro area” with a gathering of 500-1,000 people for Easter weekend.

This would be in direct defiance of Gov. Brad Little’s statewide order for everyone to stay at home in the face of the coronavirus global pandemic.

With a gathering storm of opposition to the stay-home order, Little needs to summon the political will, and the political allies, to send a clear message to everyone in the state that we all need to do our part to slow the spread of the virus — just as he had the will to issue the order in the first place.

The Boise Police Department is aware of Bundy’s post and is following up, according to police spokeswoman Haley Williams in an email.

“Boise Police have been focused on gaining voluntary compliance to the (governor’s) stay-home order,” she wrote to the Statesman. “As a last resort, if we are unable to do that, then we would refer the report to the prosecutor’s office for possible misdemeanor charges authorized by the governor’s order.”

Kootenai County Sheriff’s deputies this week cited a group of people who were attending a party in violation of the order, according to TV station KREM.

At a telephone town hall meeting put on by AARP Idaho on Tuesday, one caller told Little that she was most concerned with those — such as Bundy, state Rep. Heather Scott and Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler — who have been openly questioning the stay-home order and putting everyone at risk. She asked Little directly what he can do to put an end to it.

Little responded by thanking those who are heeding the order. He reiterated that he did not make the decision lightly, and that the order was made considering the legality and the constitutionality of it.

“A pandemic running amok without any control is a disaster for the loss of a lot of liberties, which are much more significant than some of the issues,” Little said. “It breaks my heart that people are not going to be able to go to services on Easter. I never ever thought in my whole life that I would be attending communion via Zoom on Easter Sunday. But it’s the right thing to do for the safety of particularly the older population and the health-compromised, but it’s also the right thing to do for the prosperity of Idaho going forward.”

The problem is that perfectly solid logic doesn’t seem to be working with some folks.

Bundy held a meeting last month in Emmett in opposition to the stay-home order. He threatened to lead a march on the homes of Little, also of Emmett, and the director of the state’s Department of Health and Welfare, according to Boise State Public Radio’s Heath Druzin. Bundy also said he’d like to form a human cordon around businesses staying open in defiance of the order.

This kind of response demonstrates exactly why we need an order. If people like this aren’t going to follow the guidelines, listen to medical experts and science, and instead simply go about their business, an order is absolutely necessary.

It’s time for Little to use his bully pulpit and surround himself with thousands of his supporters around the state to make clear that the stay-home order is just that: an order. It’s not a suggestion. It’s not a hope or a preference or a request. It’s an order.

Now more than ever, Little needs the support of his lieutenant governor, the speaker of the House, the Senate president pro tem, and legislators from both parties, from north and south, east and west, to stand up in their communities and send the message loud and clear: We stand with the governor’s order to stay home and not put people at risk.