The Mask Mandates must end. It is time for Lincoln to end executive directives. Based upon the established metrics and parameters of previous mandates, Lincoln’s DHM and subsequent mask mandate should have expired Tuesday, October 26th. This type of policy making and continual moving of benchmarks is isolating us from the rest of Nebraska. We need to rejoin the Nebraska community at-large in our daily lives. Our peers in Omaha, Grand Island, Kearney, North Platte, Scottsbluff, Valentine, Norfolk and more have all set the example for their communities. These cities have adopted policies grounded in individual freedoms. These cities have achieved a productive balance for the medical, business, school, and public service communities. It is time Lincoln does the same. Lincoln is just as capable in finding a balance where all institutions of society have an equal stake in the process of recovery. The devastation to our business community (especially the local hospitality and retail industries), the harm to our kids in their learning environments, and the erosion of faith in actual viable laws versus continued disobedience of mandates has to end.

Lincoln and Lancaster County businesses need to have the opportunity to be prosperous. Attracting employees has never been more important or more difficult. Our workplaces need to be open and inviting to all. We need to value our cultural gathering places, our places of worship, our restaurants, our mom & pop's, and our school's to preserve what makes our town enjoyable. Promoting a sense of community in breaking bread with our neighbors is an activity that binds us together. We were not meant to distance ourselves from the one thing that defines us...our humanity. We need to remove prohibitions on our children’s educational systems so they can keep up with other Nebraska kids in their education efforts. Our Lancaster rural communities respectfully partner with parents in the health and safety of their children and they are winning! It is time to end divisive policies that ask neighbors to spy on neighbors or police each other. We can come together for "Friday Night Lights" and on Saturdays chant "Go Big Red", but come Monday morning, our children (our future) return to the hypocrisy. This is destroying the community spirit we value in Lincoln. The friendly daily wave to say "Hello" is being replaced with questioning eyes of fear and wondering if their neighbor will report them.

It is time to move forward; end the policies of isolationism from our Nebraska neighbors. Most importantly stop the continued mandates grounded in tyranny. We need to embrace policies that have worked for the rest of Nebraska so our city can recover. It is time to be the Capital City for our state that fellow Nebraskans can relate to, desire to visit, do business in and feel welcomed. This is our city as Lincoln residents, but this is Nebraska’s capital city for culture, education, and government. It is time we have a vision like the rest of Nebraska for what's next. Let Lincoln heal.