Pandemic of hate

To the editor:

I’m beginning to understand a few questions I’ve wondered about in regards to people’s reactions to different events in history.

How could neighbors, friends, and even family members fight against each other in civil wars? How could the Jews willingly board the trains heading for concentration camps? I’m seeing parallels between those events and the COVID crisis here in our very own Marion county.

We are becoming split into two camps — wearers of masks or not.

Editor Eric Meyer has called three of our county commissioners horrible names — names I will not repeat and if you need to know you will have to read for yourself. His editorial of Nov. 18 was full of hate.

Going to the grocery store is no longer a simple pleasure of small town living. Since I am not a mask wearer, I give respect to others by making my choices quickly and trying to give distance to a fellow shopper wearing a mask. The one place we should find hope, peace, and healing is in our churches, but even there we have discord.

According to Google there has been one physical death in Marion County due to COVID-19 and in the meantime we have had numerous other deaths in our county: the death of church attendance, school activities, business, friendships, and freedoms.

Fear has taken a bigger toll than the disease. No longer is this pandemic strictly about controlling the spread of disease. It is encompassing the control of our very freedoms.

That is the reason three of our commissioners have stood against issuing mandates. They know the coronavirus is real and to be taken seriously, but they also know how serious it is to keep the government from spreading its control.

Therefore, I am taking a very public stand by thanking Kent Becker, Jonah Gehring, and Dianne Novak for their decision.

I will continue to wash my hands, keep my distance and pray for our county. I know that prayer and confidence in God’s word is my first and best defense against disease — of any kind.

Patricia Enos
rural Marion