Opinion & Editorial

Letter to the Editor – Wedding photos caused distancing concerns

MIKE NORDTVEDT/FILE PHOTO

I realize that The Chronicle printed the article “Wanna get hitched? Truck yeah!” (May 7, 2020) as a feel-good story, something positive in the middle of gloomy COVID-19 news.

However, if the photo is at all accurate, it seems to me you should have also pointed out that having a drive-in wedding with people out of their cars was going against the governor’s regulations.

Before we entered Phase 1 of reopening, social gatherings (parties, celebrations) with people from outside of your household were not permitted. A wedding might be considered a church service but people out of their cars turned it into a social gathering.

Churches holding drive-in services had to stick to the following rules: 1. Physical distancing must be kept. If people have their car windows open, there should be one open space between each parked car to make sure the distance is kept.

2. People need to stay in their cars. If they exit their cars to sit in lawn chairs, for example, this would become a social gathering. The executive order does not permit social gatherings.

(From Public Health Division’s Acute and Communicable Disease Prevention Kate Brown, Governor)

We have all had to give up events we would have liked to participate in and people we would love to visit. Our family had to hold a wedding online and postpone a memorial service. Thankfully, the restrictions now permit social gatherings of 25 with proper distancing.

I have a friend who lost both parents to the virus. Please follow the rules, use common sense and do your part to help slow its spread.

(Lest I sound like a complete grouch, my congratulations to the bride and groom.)

Laura Peet,

Creswell 

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