"I just don't understand what's going on," says Mr. Morris, who created the modern sports tavern in America when he opened Legends in 1979 and littered its roof with a gaggle of large satellite dishes that brought his customers live sporting events from around the country, who opened a dining establishment called Mums on Pine Avenue in 1988 amid widespread skepticism and wound up turning that then bleak thoroughfare into a thriving downtown hot spot overflowing with restaurants and nightclubs, who in 2011 started an annual pre-Independence Day fireworks show behind his Boathouse at the Alamitos Bay Landing that has become known as the "Big Bang on the Bay" and has morphed into becoming an iconic annual ritual of the Long Beach cultural scene.

"For almost two weeks, I've been watching on TV thousands of people around our state meet in large gatherings, no coronavirus social distancing whatsoever. Yet, the authorities in this state that has been locked down for almost three months never interceded. Now I understand it's legal to protest in America---and I certainly agree with what the legitimate protesters were protesting about.

"But what I find so frustrating is that right now I have no idea if whatsoever if we're going to be allowed to have our July 3rd fireworks show. It's not that we're going to have thousands upon thousands of people present. I know (Long Beach) Mayor Garcia wants us to have it, and I know it's out of his control. He has to follow the guidelines of Governor Newsom and his health advisors.

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"It's just so disheartening not to know what Newsom is going to do. Firework events celebrating Independence Day are such a hallowed part of America---and from what I've heard they'll be going on in other places around the country. And ours is particularly special for raising nearly one million dollars over the years for such charities as Children Today, ASK Foundation, Autism Partnership Foundation, Nowel Family Foundation, Captain Rosa Memorial Scholarship and Miller Children's Hospital Long Beach Auxiliary.

"I just think if we follow the proper coronavirus restrictions, which we certainly would do, I think we can pull it off quite successfully. This event means so much to so many people. A lot of businesses in the area who have been shut down certainly would benefit from it. I'm just very wary and keeping my fingers crossed."

Mr. Morris' Boathouse hasn't been opened since March 16, and, of course, being able to stage his fireworks show would be a boon to his place, as well as to countless other ones in the area.

It's long been the feeling here that Gavin Newsom never should have shut down California in such a stifling, overwhelming manner in the first place, which has caused so much unemployment, so much financial misery, so much familial disruption, so much distress, so much permanently shuttered businesses.

So, it won't surprise me a bit if Mr. Newsom, in his infinite authoritative wisdom, will not allow John Morris' show to go on, even though it would be such an uplifting, entertaining, feel-good evening for a community still reeling from the shocking looting that polluted it recently.

"All I can do is plan and hope that the governor gives us the OK," says Mr. Morris. "I've had my share of harrowing ordeals in my life. I guess this is just another one."

Indeed, it's a harrowing ordeal for all of us these days in California with Generalissimo Newsom dictating policy.