By Bette Holland of Dawson County 

The past 3 months have been very different. The world has been ravaged by a virus that is highly contagious, has no vaccine and is very deadly. 

Some people have taken it very seriously. Many have sacrificed their lives to save the lives of strangers.  Yet some say this virus is just like the flu.  They don’t want to stay home, and they don’t care if by getting out in public in large groups they are endangering the lives of others. The facts are that in the 2 months the coronavirus has been in the US, it has killed more than 50,000 people. In the last 8 months, 20,000 people have died from the flu. That is not nearly the same.

We have health care workers who go to work in hospitals every day knowing that they will be working to save the lives of people who have contracted this virus. Sadly, the facts show that Trump knew about the seriousness of this disease in January when he and the senate were briefed about its dangers. Senators Loeffler and Perdue sold their risky stocks and Trump said the virus was nothing to worry about.

Then our “flakey” Governor decided to listen to Trump and took a look at his state budget. He had already cut taxes twice this year and as a result, had to cut the state budget. But then he looked at the bottom line and realized it would be very expensive to pay for the unemployment benefits resulting from business closures. So, he is opening the very businesses of the people who would need those benefits and as a result, these folks will now no longer be eligible for unemployment if they are afraid of being infected by this virus and prudently decide to stay sheltered in place. Even President Trump didn’t agree with Kemp and through him under the bus.

And no, we did not get this virus because of globalization or immigration. One-third of our medical personnel are immigrants and they are working tirelessly to save the lives. We also have a full contingent of immigrants who are harvesting the food we eat. Those two groups of people make our lives better.