Find Courage and Speak Up
It’s a monumental, nearly impossible task to amend the U.S. Constitution. However, in 1920, it was amended to strictly limit the use of all forms of alcohol. Prohibition lasted for 13 years, even though drinking beer, wine and spirits had long been part of European and American culture, and large numbers of people opposed the ban.
We are living through a similar panic and hysteria today, with an even worse intrusion into the minutia of day-to-day life by governments. The prohibition era was propelled by moral panic and shaming. COVID hysteria is a moral panic that’s fueled by fear.
We see many new “cases” in Geauga county. That’s scary to some people. The people who “test positive” should speak up about their personal experience. Numerous articles in mainstream sources say that 80% of people who test positive have no symptoms at all.
Articles in the New York Times say that severe cases of COVID are rare, and government and NGO data suggest that the death rate of COVID-19 is very low, and data from the CDC suggest that reporting of those COVID deaths is exaggerated and misleading.
So as “cases surge” in Geauga County, if you got sick, and it was just mild, tell people. If you required a multi-day hospital stay, tell people about that, too. Your testimony can give real context to those case numbers.
If county boards of health broke down the cases by asymptomatic/mild/severe, it would give people better insight on what’s going on. It’s absurd that they don’t. It is a basic function of their office to provide useful data. They seemingly prefer to keep people afraid, which has its own adverse mental and physical health effects.
Journalists should get that data from the county boards of health and publish the results as front page news rather than being participants in fueling a panic.
Find some courage and speak up. It’s a way more important than almost any other civic duty. If everyone keeps going along to get along, or just waits for this to pass, who knows where we will all end up.
Kevin Kimmich
Chardon Township
What Did You Think Would Happen?
Tenacious. That is the one word I would use to describe former Newbury school board members (now “Newbury Task Force” members) as it relates to their on-going struggle to blame anyone but themselves for their ignorance or naiveté.
In a recent article, the team lamented about West Geauga acting as an “unwilling partner” in their quest to take back the property they gave away. It sounds like they feel their ultimate plan of “Let’s Make a Deal” may not work out the way they planned. It appears that when you give away 40 acres of prime real estate and $4.3 million, the recipients aren’t so quick to donate all of their fortunes back to you. What a revelation!
I guess that when back-door deals are made, the age-old concept of “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” reigns true.
Does this surprise anyone? As with any deal, there must be 100% buy-in and trust in all parties that everyone will be “taken care of” in the end. I think the ignorance of the former Newbury school board members is evident more and more each day as you drive by the vacant school that once held proud, smiling students in our community.
Remember that in the months ahead as you pass by a cold building, reduced to decay by even colder people.
Thanksgiving has come and gone. It was a different type of holiday this year, but still a time when we all sat back and reflected on what we were thankful for. For some, it was their friends and family. For others, the freedom we all share living in the greatest country in the world.
Whatever the reason, be thankful that 2020 will end soon and we will usher in a new year of hope and civility in our little town. A year without the questionable actions of those past members of the Newbury school board and task force. Something definitely to look forward to!
Phil Paradise Jr.
Newbury Township
