Opinion

In a crisis, ordinary people turn heroic

At 5:30 this morning I was staring at the ceiling.

I doubt that I was alone. Many of us are awake worrying about the present, unprecedented situation.

During these extraordinary times we are seeing the fortitude and resilience of ordinary folks among us. I see it every day. Our emergency services folks, the men and women who are facing uncertain financial times but are holding up. The people who cut our hair and are now having to watch helplessly as we become shaggy. The women and men behind the cash registers at the check out lines in our grocery stores. Our restaurant people who are not going to see us go hungry so they bring our order out to our cars with curbside service.

The women who dust off sewing machines and make masks for their neighbors and our front-line medical forces. The people who call to check on the elderly. Those delivering meals via automobile or school bus.

The public works people who keep the lights on. The water flowing. The streets open. The plight of our children whose education has been interrupted. The folks who show up with a casserole to cheer us up when the chips are down. These are our neighbors.

Our ministers who lift up the Word via the internet, phone, or computer. Mental health and social workers who will help us through this. Even that one friend with a weird sense of humor. Or the obnoxious character we tolerate in person or on Facebook. We are in this together.

These are the people who are the true heroes in all of this. You get the idea. It is the regular folks who live down the street from you who are the real stalwarts in the midst of this fog of pandemic.

This is a challenging time. A time when it will be well to dust off the great man theory. That is a 19th century idea according to which history can be largely explained by the impact of great men/women, or heroes: how ordinary people rise up to face great events.

This is a time when we notice that the most important people during this mess are not the well paid, the narcissistic, or vain celebrities among us. The real heroes are the ones stepping up. The average Joe or Josephine. If this pandemic shows us one thing, it is the inequality of wealth has been laid bare. It is ugly. Money, not leadership, decides who now gets elected and have power over our everyday lives. The wrath of Guest Columnist Bob Scott

the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling had horrible unintended consequences that money can legally control politics.

“There are no extraordinary men … just extraordinary circumstances that ordinary men are forced to deal with,” Admiral William Frederick Halsey Jr. (Bull) World War II. I would add women to his quote.

“These are times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” That is not what some politician said during this COVID-19 time. It was Thomas Paine in 1776. But it is so true today.

Yes, I am angry. I am angry at Washington. It’s past time our politicians stop acting as though they are in an adult Disney World and realize we are hurting. For Pete’s sake! Start listening to reason and not political expediency. So, what if you don’t get reelected? Office holding is service to your fellow man. It is not a profession. Read up on what greatness truly is. And by the way, check out humility and empathy. In between your fundraising. (Bob Scott was formerly a journalist and is currently the mayor of Franklin.)

Frontline heroes deserve our thanks To the Editor:

The “front line” people who risk their lives and health (both mental and physical) to help safeguard us deserve our thanks and our praise, especially in light of the current pandemic. They are all heroes and I hope that they will be publicly rewarded whenever it becomes possible to do that.

Meanwhile I want to give a special shoutout for Dr. Mark Jaben, the medical director for the Haywood County Health Department. What a precious asset he has been! I don’t know where or how he developed such amazing communications skills, but I am in awe that he is able to address issues head-on in a way that should not alienate people who disagree with him. Haywood is indeed fortunate to have competent leaders and Dr. Jaben is an outstanding example.

Heartfelt thanks to all who are doing their best to keep us safe through this ordeal. Joanne Strop Waynesville

Not enough lipstick to cover this pig To the Editor:

Trump’s attack on the WHO (World Health Organization) is classic Trump. Make bad decisions and then blame someone else for the consequences.

The reality is that the WHO issued warnings about COVID-19 long before Trump took any action whatsoever to do anything about it. WHO issued its first warning on Jan. 9. On Jan. 18, Health Secretary Alex Azar tried to brief Trump on the virus, but Trump ignored him. On Jan. 22, Trump said the U.S. had the pandemic “totally under control.” On Jan. 23, WHO updated warnings regarding human-tohuman transmission. On the previous day, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arizona) urged the White House to issue a China travel ban. Jan. 30, WHO declares COVID-19 a “public health emergency” but the same day Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary, says the virus in China will be good for the US economy. On Feb. 2, Trump finally restricts travel from China — almost a month after the first WHO warning.

Why is Trump attacking WHO when it is he who delayed? One reason is because Trump wants credit for everything good and the responsibility for nothing bad. The other reason might be that new WHO guidelines consisting of five prerequisites for opening up the economy are far from where the U.S. currently is. We fail even the first guideline, which is containing the spread. The second is widespread testing. Meeting these two alone will take at least a month — if ever, given that some Republican governors following Trump’s lead regarding an open economy are doing nothing.

On the topic of testing, Trump rejected the WHO offer for tests and insisted that tests had to be developed in the U.S. That first effort resulted in faulty tests that delayed any testing for weeks. It soon became clear that producing and distributing testing for COVID-19 was beyond the capability of the lackeys at the head of the Trump administration. So, Trump declared that testing had to be the responsibility of the states via the governors. LETTERS

Trump is great at exercising magical thinking whereby whatever he says suddenly becomes real. Fortunately, Mother Nature cannot be gaslighted. COVID-19 does not follow daily rallies disguised as briefings. Trump and company can make all kinds of pronouncements and brag about what they are doing, but then reality rears its ugly head. People have died for lack of ventilators. People will die due to lack of testing. There are locals with a lack of medical equipment and tests. The fault for this is a failure of national leadership. Pence and others can butter up Trump about his great leadership, but there is not enough lipstick to put on this pig to make it anything else. Norman Hoffmann Waynesville

Be careful what you wish for To the Editor:

How strange is it that some of you are becoming the thing you hate the most? In 2019, you were afraid to walk by a person that lives on the street. You said you’d never be that person. In 2020, you are afraid you’ll be that person. Oh, the irony.

You protest the “stay home stay safe” orders. You blame your government for your fear of losing your house. You don’t care if elderly and immune-compromised people die, you want your life back the way it was before you saw your mounting debt and empty cupboard.

In 2019 we wanted healthcare for all. Mental illness is a big factor in losing your home and being unable to work or be stable. We wanted easy and free access to doctors, prescriptions, and supportive programs that manage mental illness and addiction. We blamed the government and voters for this lack of a cure. After all, it is their fault so many go without.

Did you care back then when people needed help? Did you care back then about really finding a solution to people without shelter, and people suffering addiction? Did you just want them gone and out of sight?

Now that you are scared and wondering how you will survive during this shut down, should I pack your bags for you when they take your home? Irene Tyli Haywood County

Cocooning just isn’t easy for some I f you haven’t noticed, the boomers are having a hard time staying home during this pandemic. Doing nothing and performing tasks online doesn’t sit well with the natural disposition of this cohort.

I’m experiencing this up close and personal with my dad. His age, coupled with the fact that he’s a social butterfly, has made this all very draining. In fact, while he’s keeping social distancing in mind and has been good to carry around his hand sanitizer, I wouldn’t exactly say he’s doing an excellent job not going anywhere.

My mom was the cook in the family, so with her not here to whip up homemade meals or have snacks on hand, my dad’s been out and about getting takeout, going through drive-thru windows or running into the Hot Spot for corn nuts. He sold his house about two weeks before COVID-19 hit the U.S. After the sale, his goal was to travel the country in his RV, beginning with a two-week stay at my sister’s house in D.C. With travel restrictions, the trip didn’t happen and the RV is not set up for long-term living, so he’s been staying at a motor lodge.

My dad’s a retired teacher and a current trainer with Young Transportation. He was a driver at Young’s for two decades before transitioning to a trainer. COVID-19 forced Young Transportation to close its doors temporarily. With no house, no traveling and no job, my dad’s been sitting around twiddling his thumbs.

By nature, he is not a thumb-twiddler. For instance, he made Easter baskets for all the other residents at the motor lodge and set them outside each door to surprise everyone on Easter morning. He also made surprise Easter eggs for my boys and my boyfriend’s three kids. In these eggs, were rare coins from all over the world. You should have seen the kids’ faces when they cracked open a plastic egg thinking they would find a Snickers bar but instead discovered a one-cent piece from Barbados. One of the eggs even had a 1959 $1 token from the old drive-in theater in Sylva.

Last week when I asked about his day, my dad said he went to the tag office. I told him I could have renewed his tag online, but he said he’s always gone to the tag office so he didn’t know there was another option. That same day he stopped at a roadside stand and purchased ramps and a bunch of other produce. He asked me if I could cook some ramps and potatoes for him because he hadn’t eaten ramps since he was a kid. Columnist Susanna Shetley

I told him to come over on a night when my boys were with their dad. Even though my boys are older and good to stay six feet from their grandfather, it feels safer when it’s just me. Before my dad arrived, I cleaned all the doorknobs, light switches and the downstairs bathroom with a Clorox mixture. He sat outside in my yard the entire time other than entering the house once to use the restroom.

It was a beautiful spring evening so while he relaxed, I looked through all the produce he’d purchased. In the box were fingerling potatoes, strawberry onions, ramps, cucumbers, tomatoes, blueberries, strawberries and pears. There were also jars of elderberry jam, pickled corns and beans and a third jar labeled “Smokey Mountain Death by Garlic Salsa.”

That night we ate barbeque chicken, sautéed ramps and potatoes and an oldfashioned Southern side salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and salt. He enjoyed a couple Coors Lights. Once dishes were in the sink, we made a campfire. He lit up a cigarette, an old habit he’s tried to kick my entire life.

There he was, my 75-year-old dad in his flannel shirt, one leg slung over the other knee, smoking a cigarette, looking relaxed after eating a meal reminiscent of all those my mom cooked for him during their 52 years of marriage. His old F-150 truck rested in my driveway, hubcaps glowing from the light of the fire.

The order says “stay home, stay safe,” but my dad can’t sit within those four suffocating walls indefinitely. My sister and I have been reprimanding him for getting out too much, but he says he’s only running “essential errands.” And I guess for his generation, those errands are essential.

He pays all his bills in person, deposits money at an actual bank and checks the same post office box he and my mom acquired in the early 1960s when they moved to Weaverville. He’s learned all the names of the folks in his motor lodge. I still haven’t met some of my neighbors and I’ve lived in my house for almost three years. After two visits to the roadside stand, he knows the entire family that runs the operation.

Quarantine is hard for boomers because they’re authentically human. They are not attached to Netflix, Google or YouTube. They enjoy sitting down to meals, holding genuine conversations and keeping in touch with family and friends. They are hand-shakers and huggers. They pull grandchildren onto bouncing knees and into bear hugs.

My dad is at risk. He’s older and has early stages of COPD. He knows this, but we also know there must be a balance between his emotional health and physical health. I feel he’s doing the best he can while trying to maintain a sense of happiness and connection with others.

Watching those in his age bracket try to navigate this new normal makes my heart both heavy and proud. It may be easy for young people to hibernate and live in our virtual worlds, but it’s almost impossible for older folks. During all of this uncertainty, while we must remember boomers are our most vulnerable population, let’s also remember they’re also our most inspiring.

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