I empathize with the millions of people in this country who are facing financial difficulties, bankruptcy, and ruin because of the pandemic. I’m going to be sixty-five this year and because of my recent illness, I have a compromised immune system. People like me need to stay home. The vast majority of younger, healthier Americans should be allowed to return to work.

There are growing lines at food banks, but in a recent interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked “People are taking to the streets, pushing back against some of the more stringent restrictions in some states. Can you understand why they're doing that?”

“No, not, not really,” Pelosi admitted. She called the protesters a “distraction,” and what they were doing as “unfortunate.”

As I write this, congress is only in symbolic session, with most members sheltering at home. Speaker Pelosi is in California. Recently, from her home in San Francisco, she did another interview, this one with comedian James Corden. During the interview, she showed off her collection of ice cream and chocolate. (Click on the video.)

Steve Guest from the Trump campaign noted that she is “eating $13 dollar a pint ice cream out of her $24,000 fridge.” She did this while food banks are recording record requests for help. Perhaps the Speaker was attempting to be funny; Corden is a comedian after all. However, to me, it came across as a very Marie Antoinette, “Let them eat cake,” moment.

While I’m not endorsing revolution or the guillotine, I think Pelosi’s chocolate display shows just how out of touch she is with the workers of this country. Perhaps because I’ve been poor, I understand and support Americans as they protest this extended lockdown. I understand the worry of so many as they slip closer to and fall into, the financial abyss.

I implore Nancy Pelosi to put the ice cream down, return to Washington D.C., and call congress back into a full session. Our representatives should remain there, working, until they have reopened the economy and returned healthy Americans to work.

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