OUR VIEW: Spring Is Upon Us.
Activities and events are picking up - aiming toward a vision of the Fourth of July as a date of America’s new independence from the fear and sorrow of COVID-19. But as we start gathering again, let us be respectful of the fact that this illness has taken the lives of more than a Half Million of our countrymen and women.
We are all anxious to declare “the pandemic is over” but it is not.
Yes, cases are down. Vaccines are working. Treatment options are greater now than when this thing started in March a year ago. But flocking to the beaches of Florida and packing in just a few inches from each other is a sure-fire recipe for disaster - a 4th Surge of this insidious virus.
Truth is, we really don’t know how quickly the vaccine makes us “COVID-free” - we could become infected between doses. And while children have been mostly immune, some families have suffered through their children having a particularly nasty variant of Covid.
Spring Is Here - it sprung 18 days ago on March 20. The City of Laurens celebrated with a March 19 Finally Friday, themed to Saint Patrick’s Day. There were two ribbon-cuttings in Clinton April 1. The Laurens Spring Festival Egg Hunt was April 3. A Unity Walk was set for Clinton that same day. Golf tournaments were/will be April 1 for the Laurens County Development Corporation, April 17 for The Open Door ministry, April 26 for the Laurens County Cancer Association, June 10 for the Deputy Roger Rice Ride-along Fund, and Sept. 10 for the Laurens County Chamber of Commerce. The Laurens County Library's book sale is now, April 5-10. Presbyterian College Football is back home April 10. There will be a bike night April 15 at Destination Powersports (for the late Red Eubanks). The Clinton Food Lion will open April 21. The Laurens Sip n Stroll will be April 22. QT opens in Clinton April 29. PC Commencement is May 15. Ware Shoal's Catfish Feastival will be May 26-29. High School graduation will be June 18. The City of Clinton welcomes rock-pop band Starship, which can trace its roots to the late 1960s summer-of-love, to Rhythm on the Rails Oct. 22 and 23. PC Homecoming also is that weekend. The Chamber’s mega-popular Fan Challenge Oyster Roast will be Nov. 4 - that presumes there will be Fall Football throughout America starting in late summer.
States are “opening back up” and unemployment is back down to single digits from very frightening double digits a year ago. March Madness is being played again. But, still, there are those nagging reminders - games postponed because of “Covid concerns within the program” and 16,000 students quarantined/restricted at Duke University after a fraternity “super-spreader.” Yes, we all want to be back to normal - No, we do not want to send our friends, neighbors and loved ones back to the hospital.
Back to the hospital - where our brave, frontline healthcare workers are experiencing the worst kind of burn-out.
We have been through a lot. We want to have a party. We understand that, and we do not dispute its value. But there are millions among us who have said that, for reasons only they know, they will not be vaccinated. We just hope they are not struck down by COVID-19.
We Americans are not good at waiting. Electronics makes it possible for us to have instant gratification. But we have a date - the Fourth of July - not for a massive party, that could be two years down the road, but for that backyard barbecue that we have so longed to have, for that bonfire free of Covid, for those full-stadium-capacity football games - We Can, as a Nation, get there. We Can, because we can do anything we set our minds to. We Can Achieve - in 2026 we will celebrated 250 years of that world-changing achievement.
We Can, because for the sake of the world, We Must.
