Commentary By: Brian Burns
Yes, 2020 has been one hell of a year so far. We lost Kobe, Puerto Rico experienced a horrendous earthquake, and the COVID-19 virus has completely changed how we live. We don’t shake hands or make eye contact with people at the local grocery stores. A plethora of people have lost their jobs and businesses have shuttered doors. We have the safer-at home orders in place and get our social contact from social media and the television.
Yes, things look bleak at best, with no true end to this madness in sight. There is good news, however.
This will pass.
We will be stronger for it and appreciate things in ways that we never have. People have come together to help others in ways they never have before, and those things will be remembered and reflected on for years to come.
When we as a community, a nation, come through this pandemic, the ones that we lost will be memorialized and respected in the dignified way that’s deserved.
We need to focus, together, on becoming stronger as a community and as neighbors. The resiliency to raise from this and assist our small businesses in our communities to once again thrive. To rebuild what’s been broken.
We, as neighbors can do this. Together. That’s who we are and that’s what we will do.
Take this time to make a plan for the post-pandemic near future for you and set goals to achieve. Focus on the ones that are close to you and love. Support, even if in thought, our service workers, our healthcare professionals, and our emergency personnel. They are on the front lines. From being an emergency room nurse or even the cashier at your local Publix, they are there for us.
There are great things happening in 2020. Although tough to see right now, or even understand, they are wonderful things. And things that will be told in stories for generations to come. You are part of this history, although as grim as it feels right now, you have the ability to make this story one of heroic sentiments and a story of coming together as a community and nation.
Together, we will overcome this.
