Editorial

EDITORIAL - Social distancing is tough for most of us. We love gathering in ballgames, movies, theatres, restaurants, churches, and family.  Seeing our neighbors and friends in the local grocery or chatting at the post office is a normalcy of life, was the normalcy of life.

The new normal is shocking. Now we have to dodge people in the grocery store and be six feet apart in the post office all while wearing a mask. We don't even know if our neighbor is in the grocery store or the post office. We can hardly recognize our neighbors walking by each other in the same subdivision if we are wearing our masks. Masks? Can you believe this?

EDITORIAL - Easter Sunday can fall on any date between March 22^nd and April 25^th. The dates change because Easter happens on the Sunday following the Paschal Full Moon. The word Paschal means "Passover" in Greek which is a transliteration of the Hebrew word Pesach. The Paschal Full Moon is the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. This is sometimes referred to as the Egg Moon. This moon sometimes occurs in March and sometimes in April. So, April 12 is not locked in for Easter every year, but it is the date for 2020.

Easter 2020 will be remembered for a very long time as the Sunday America had no Easter. Or, the Easter where churches did not gather in small and large buildings. This is disappointing to multitudes. It is the "one" Sunday that many Americans attend church. Globally, churches pull out all the stops for presenting their best music. Ministers have been working the last several weeks polishing up their sermons.  But it's the same story, the old story that, once a year, people come to hear. 

EDITORIAL - The Coronavirus is a pandemic that most of us don't understand, but we are learning. This disease has taken over 9,000 lives and made over 220,000 more people sick. We've heard via television about it starting in China and its impact even before arriving in America. 

So far this is what we know about Coronavirus. The disease is life threatening.  If the disease does not kill you, there is a chance you will be very sick with severe respiratory problems. Thousands of respirators are needed across the country because of the nature of the disease.  Who wants to be in an intensive care unit of a hospital on a respirator? 

EDITORIAL - Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil is coming out soon to see or not see his shadow on his big day, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.  If old' furry Phil wants to fly first class or even coach anywhere, he had better do it this year. The chances are he will be walking or riding with a friend in a car next Groundhog's Day. 

A new rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation would permit airlines to stop accepting emotional support animals on planes allowing only service dogs that are professionally trained to perform tasks or assist passengers with disabilities, including psychiatric disorders.

EDITORIAL - The world was shocked January 26, 2020, by the sudden death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others. A helicopter that spiraled through a California sky and crashed took the life of one of the world's greatest basketball players. During his career, Bryant had played 20 years for the Los Angeles Lakers leading them to five NBA championships and an amazing 33,643 points.  This is currently the fourth highest NBA scoring record.

Some of us remember exactly where we were when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. We remember where we heard John Lennon had been murdered or where we were when Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered or when the Space Shuttle Challenger flight exploded in space. For years now we will remember where we were and what we were doing the day Kobe was killed.

EDITORIAL - The holidays can be glad, sad or bad. Take your pick and choose a direction.  I choose glad. Who wants to be sad and who needs bad? I don't want either one and neither do you. There is enough in life that confronts us every day that has the propensity to get us down.

Don't go crazy eating this holiday. I hear every year from people who say, "I'm going to eat whatever I want during the holidays and I'll change in January." These are the people who gain five to ten pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day.