I wanted to take a minute today to address a Facebook post (something I don’t really do much) in which a follower commented in reference to T-G post: 35 Cases of COVID in Bedford County. She plainly stated, ‘We don’t care.’  

This one really bothered me more than the post, “Must be slow news day.”  

I’m addressing the ‘we don’t care’ post here, because this is my venue for writing such responses. I prefer not to make a lot of comments on FB, well, because I have some issues with the way people handle their responses (not as constructive criticism but many times uninformative and vulgar.)  

I choose to be more informative on such serious topics as COVID19. So I say this merely because I believe we as a society need to be concerned until this thing ends all together.  

“We” in the newsroom have read charts, graphs, statistics, over the last year relating to COVID. But we’ve never stated once that ‘we don’t care.’  

When someone says, ‘We don’t care,’ in response to a near-end to a pandemic that has killed many people in the world, United States, state and certainly here in Bedford County, I take some offense. What ever happened to positive outlooks, thinking about those still suffering or yet to suffer? It’s possible, maybe even to the person who posted this comment.  

Actually, who is the “we” the person is referring to? You see, there’s a lot of open-ended stuff regarding Facebook comments.  

I’ve had friends to survive, others to die from COVID-19. I’ve made new friends as a result of COVID in the last 2 years. I’ve heard their struggles and seen the pain in their eyes.  

I have family who’ve worked the front lines, been exposed but were blessed to survive.  

Many have succumbed to the pandemic in various ways. Many are still reeling from the depression.  

We should really care that Bedford County is down to 35 cases (some other surrounding counties now much lower) because too, it means we’re not out of the woods yet. But it is certainly worth a count down, considering that we had thousands of cases since the onset.  

Are we really at the point ‘we don’t care?’ about what happens to someone else? That’s sad.  

Since March 2020 in Bedford County, we’ve had over 14,000 COVID cases and 221 documented COVID-related deaths.  

For me, I plan to trudge on with the numbers. I plan a huge headline when we get to ‘0’ COVID cases. Yes, some people say we may never get to zero. I choose to pray and think positively that we will.  

This county is to be commended for how people have stayed strong and literally weathered the pandemic nightmare. (Ask local businesses.) Yes, for many, that’s the best way to describe it.  

I am compassionate to the fact that people are getting tired of hearing about ‘it.’ At the T-G, we’ve worked the entire time of the pandemic, never ceasing operations. No one is more tired of writing about it than ‘we’ are; we even have categories in our Tennessee Press Association (TPA) contest for COVID-related features.  

If there is possibly a small group of heroes (not by any means putting us above nurses, doctors, etc.) that might be the journalist who’ve worked and potentially exposed themselves during the pandemic. Thank you, fellow journalists.  

So when people say ‘we don’t care’ be careful how you use first person reference when talking about the coronavirus. Do people even realize how serious those words are?  

Some of us do still ‘care’ about this dreadful virus coming to an end. To me, there’s a great celebration coming. As I’ve said before, I long for the day we can in effigy, burn those dreaded masks.  

Until then, let’s keep counting down.