- 2023: Ride my see-saw (12/30/23)2
- Five years on: When does it all become ‘enough?’ (6/23/23)3
- 2022: Things fall apart, but they can be rebuilt (12/29/22)1
- Getting at it fundamental to what we do (9/23/22)1
- Getting the hang of a Model T (9/8/22)
- Price: Community buy-in critical for volunteer firefighters (8/30/22)
- If I can be a little more like Ernie Pyle (8/16/22)2
This week's blog post has been canceled
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No it hasn't; and y'all should know me better than to let a week go without something.
All our patterns and routines have been disrupted to some degree within the last week. I think the newsroom has paced well with how the COVID-19 spread has impacted our community. It's been stressful, because it has been an hourly development up to now.
For me, the novel coronavirus pandemic (as it was designated by the World Health Organization a week ago) finally began to hit close to home when DePauw University made the decision to suspend in-person classes and transition to online learning.
Last Friday, each of the school corporations in Putnam County moved to cancel classes for this week and go to e-learning instruction. It's still up in the air at this point on whether students and staff will be able to return to school after their spring breaks.
Add to this Gov. Eric Holcomb's order that all restaurants and bars be closed to in-person dining through the end of March, our public library closing and a host of cancellations and restrictions, normalcy may seem now to have gone by the wayside.
After I read yesterday that Wabash was also suspending in-person classes for the rest of the semester, I just hung my head, because the campus was closed to visitors not long prior. It hasn't been lost on me as to how this closure truly impacts the seniors.
There are those who opine that these precautions are the result of hysteria. And, somehow, it's "the media's" fault that all of this is overreacting to a simple flu strain.
I have my rebuttals to this uncritical reactionism, as well as to going out of the way to hoard packs of toilet paper and hand sanitizer. However, this is beside the point here. I have seen some silver linings as we continue to adjust with what is still a fluid issue.
Each of the county school corporations is ensuring that their students have food at least through this Friday. Indeed, I spent part of my Tuesday morning with good people at South Putnam who were handing out grab-and-go breakfasts and lunches.
This was just one visible example of how community leaders are now stepping up.
Being human has not been "canceled." Connecting with other people has not been canceled. Kids going out to the playground hasn't been canceled. Work to be done has not been canceled, but will perhaps require a change of routine going forward.
This isn't really about being sentimental. It's about us being able to adapt and carry on. It's still about being smart, promoting good health and having others in mind.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update: Governor Eric Holcomb announced Thursday that K-12 schools were ordered closed through May. He also announced that state testing would be halted, and that relief to businesses and the unemployed would be provided in the meantime.
- -- Posted by small town fan on Wed, Mar 18, 2020, at 3:40 PM
Posting a comment requires free registration:
- If you already have an account, follow this link to login
- Otherwise, follow this link to register