Focus on the positive

I wanted to thank you for your article on the front page of the paper urging a focus on coping and overcoming the health crisis. In these trying times, we are all suffering from anxiety, and the news every night is causing many of us to panic. Panic only exacerbates our anxiety.

I wish the news would focus on the positive and give us some hope. They are experimenting with drugs that are very close to being widely used to combat this (i.e., the malaria drug) - let's focus on that. The panic is exacerbating all the hoarding that is going on. I left Jewel last Saturday after waiting 45 minutes to check out with my normal weekly shopping only to see a woman in the parking lot pulling one cart while pushing another cart, both overflowing with bottled water. It took every ounce of restraint in my body to refrain from approaching her and asking her if her water had been shut off.

We should all be very proud of this country and its citizens. This country has endured the Civil War, WW1, WW2, the Great Depression, Vietnam, 9/11 and everything in between. We are a very resilient country and we will get through this.

I hope families with young children are using this time to re-connect and have real conversations around the dinner table every night - something that doesn't happen much these days with our overloaded schedules. Go for walks, listen to the birds, play cards, play a board game.

My hope is that the Daily Herald will focus on the positive and attempt to ease the anxiety.

Diane M. Barnes

Wheaton