“COVID-19 has done more to damage bars in America and around the world than any other event in modern history.”
Advocacy
Humans aren’t meant to isolate, which is why bars are so essential to our cities in the first place. The sequestration and subsequent shutdowns revealed what happens to our communities when the bars that help support them aren’t available as places for people to gather and find comfort with their neighbors.
The shutdowns also revealed that most people don’t think in those terms, and most politicians are so afraid to say the word ‘bar’ that they were willing to let tens of thousands of independent bars fend for themselves rather than have the courage to help them survive as businesses so they could, in turn, help our cities bounce back from so many months of isolation.
We were left to fend for ourselves and to survive however we could figure out. Many of us didn’t, and so many venerable bars shut down as a result. Each one of those bars was the seat of a community; when the bar dies, much of that community does as well.
Like so many other people around the country and the world, this led us to speak up—as loudly as possible and to as many people as would listen. The result was mixed, at best, but there are now thousands of people doing an enormous amount of work to organize, influence policy, educate the public, and anything else they could think of to insure that we, as an industry, are not in a position of helplessness again.
No one is going to save us but us. We all have to sing the same song. Click below to learn how you can use your own voice.
How It Started
Most of our activism can be traced back to one video—a message to the Governor of Texas expressing our anger, fear and frustration. Half a million views will introduce you to a lot of people, and the attention this video garnered put us in touch with so many others doing important work to save America’s bars.
Irony Is Alive & Well At Fox News
The chyron below says it all. We were able to directly follow a live address by then-VP Pence telling the country how great everything was going. It wasn’t, which we were able to say on national television.
This, like so many national conversations, ended with reporters saying, “I hadn’t thought of bars like that,” which ultimately fueled our own efforts to get people to think more about bars as a part of their community, not just their economy.
“Virtual Bar” As Advocacy Channel
Our nightly “virtual bar” on Instagram @thecottonmouthclub became the de facto channel for many people around the country to express their frustration, find comfort in fellow travelers, and an place for people to share ideas and help one another’s efforts.
Many of these conversations became podcasts, including the clip below.
Warning! Grown-up language present. Wear your headphones if you’re at work.