Our good friend, Terri Draper is the Communications director for our local hospital. She called Ken one evening, in tears. She asked him to be part of a grass-roots group to advocate for safe care. In our town, there is a group of what we call Anti-Maskers. They have held anti-mask rallies, advocating that the government is trying to control us and that masks are a violation of our rights. As they protest and carry on, the number of COVID cases has dramatically increased and the number of those hospitalized has grown to beyond capacity.
Terri was calling to ask us to be part of a grass-roots effort to counter the negative effects. She asked a lot of the prominent people in our community to come to a zoom meeting about it. We were amazed and impressed with the people there. Terri is a kind, caring woman with much influence in our community. People responded to her plea. It is an impressive group, including an area authority 70, a congressman, and other prominent leaders. She asked Ken to be in charge of the group and keep the effort going.
Each week Ken meets with Terri via Zoom and they share ideas and plans. Ken then contacts all in the group and passes on information and encourages them to do their part.
Neither of us are crazy about putting ourselves out there on social media, opening ourselves to rebuttal and criticism, but feel it is the right thing to do. It is wisdom.
We are seeing some success. We notice many others willing to express their desire for us to comply with the recommendations of social distancing, hand washing, and mask-wearing. One prominent local politician who used to be very outspoken against restrictions and mask-wearing has done a complete about- face on the subject, recently publishing an opposite view.
The hospital produced a powerful video, taking us into the ICU and COVID wards of the hospital and interviewing those on the front lines. It was very moving to me. It has had over 185,000 views and thousands of shares. It can be seen on mine or Ken's wall on Facebook. We think it has had a powerful impact on people. It sure did us. Our friend, Terri, is in the video.
We all need to do all we can to stop the spread of this insidious virus. We are trying to do our part.
1 comment:
You and Ken are both so good to help with this effort! I admire that you are doing a very difficult thing by putting yourselves out there with all the criticism and strong views and vocal people that are not tactful or respectful of the views and feelings of others.
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