Letter to the Editor

In the past eight months, we have all seen a lot of craziness in the world, in our nation, and even in our community.  Most, if not all, of the craziness has been driven by fear.  Fear that we won't be treated fairly, fear that we will lose friends and loved ones, fear that we will lose our lives.  What has this fear given us? 

 

Think back to last Christmas before most of the craziness began.  What was our outlook on 2020?  What did we hope to accomplish? Why are we continuing to give in to the fear that is spreading faster than the Australian Wildfires?

 

The covid "crisis" has become an overwhelming crux of this fear.  According to the CDC, the symptoms of covid are comparable to the flu.  What has changed from last year's flu season to this year's flu season?  The answer is fear.

 

Why are we all of a sudden fearful of the flu?  What makes America great is our resilience and our courage.  We took courage after September 11, 2001.  We came together as a nation and shouted that we would not live in fear.  We would not be terrorized.  Why has this changed?  Why are we living in fear?  Our children look to us for answers and guidance about how to respond to what is going on in this world. Living in fear hurts our kids

 

We need to remember life is precious, and we need to cherish each day with our kids, not increase their stress and fear about getting sick.  Our quality of life has diminished over the past eight months.

 

We need to look at what we are going to do with the next eight months.  Are we going to worry about getting sick, or are we going to make rational, common sense decisions specifically for our community?  

 

Our community decisions need to stop being about what other areas are doing.  We have people in community leadership to represent us as Willow Springs. What good does it do to just model after what other towns are doing or what health agencies recommend?  They are not here.  They are not invested in our kids and our community.   They are not Willow Springs. 

 

Remember this is our community, our schools, our kids.  Living with hope heals our kids.  

 

Rachel Minton, Willow Springs