LETTER: Stop blaming others and take responsibility

To the Editor:

As we see our COVID rates going up daily, I can anticipate the anger over the mitigations coming our way.

I can imagine people going out and placing their “Pritzker Sucks” signs in their front yards, and I ask, whose fault is this? Whose fault is it that our local businesses are facing impossible decisions over the very businesses they have invested their lives into? Whose fault is it that our seniors in high school are facing the possibility of not playing the sports they have worked on and loved their whole lives? Whose fault is it that grandparents aren’t able to see their grandkids? That Halloween will be different this year? That Thanksgivings will be altered this year?

This simple answer is it's our fault and there is no one else to blame. I know we want to blame “them” whoever the “them” is for you, but it's us that are at fault. Are we wearing our masks in waiting rooms? With family gatherings? When you’re working with others? You might not like the policies of one party or another, and you might think COVID-19 is a hoax, but the fact remains the longer you deny and the longer you don’t act appropriately the more people in the area your decision affects.

Our decisions matter. I would ask that we stop looking at this issue on a national level and think of our community, the people you know and the people you have chosen to live your life with.

We can no longer look to our national leaders as a unifying voice, but locally we can think of the faces we know and the business we love when making our decisions. We can get our numbers down, it is possible, it just takes some simple changes of behavior. If we can make those changes, we can see business survive and not see more empty buildings, we can watch local football again, we can return to as close to normalcy as possible locally. We must shift from blaming others, to thinking of others, we must take personal responsibility in our actions.

Dan Paufve

Sterling