MEEKER | Range Call is done for the year. Its success should be seen as a positive indication that Meeker is on the way to a somewhat regular routine. The Delta variant of COVID-19 had already surfaced here before the event was held and more outbreaks are predicted for the near future. One might think that our eagerness to get back to normal would leave room for the accommodations needed to keep everyone safe.
The first thing we all need to do is stop pining for the past and change our vocabulary. Get rid of the word normal, in the case of maintaining public health. Do not fall for the latest suggestion which is to simply put the word new in front of it.
I wish I had some good suggestions, as I hate it when I hear someone say we are almost back to normal or another person tells me to think of the way we are changing public events as the new normal. When they insert the two words, get back, I stop listening.
Using a verb in front of the word normal, such as “we need to get back to normal” makes it seem so easy to move forward. Unfortunately, this encourages community complacency. It seems as if some residents tend to fall back into the old way of doing things. Moving forward to find new ways to solve such problems as a pandemic outbreak, in the near future, is essential. Yet, it seems that enough of us understand what we may be facing in these days.
Each new step taken towards opening our community fully must be supported by all of us. The most organized among us are able to look at these changes differently. They are of the “one and done” school of task completion. When the Meeker Classic starts in September, we will have stopped worrying about the looming “what if…” questions and do what we have always done. We will be “back to business.”
By DOLLY VISCARDI – Special to the Herald Times
