Heroism, not hysteria

The best part of being an American is the ability to express our unsolicited opinions, so here is mine in response to the opinion of Randy Rossi on bravery versus hysteria. While Mr. Rossi may believe that the majority of Americans cowered in fear over the pandemic, I believe instead that it was actually one of the more impressive feats of unity that Americans have shown to stay home and do what we could to hold down the number of infections so our first responders, the true heroes, would not be more overwhelmed than they already were.

In the first days/weeks of COVID as we all recall, the first responders had little to no PPE but continued to show up to work every day to fight an unseen, unknown monster trying to save the lives of the rest of us - and many of them died doing so. The collective conscious made the decision to stay home and do what we could to help them battle this fight.

We made masks for them, we found PPE resources for them, we encouraged and honored them, we bought them meals, hotels housed and fed them. Was it fun? No. Did we want to do it? No. Were we scared? Of course.

If you were lucky enough to spend the last nine weeks out and about and didn't get yourself or anyone else sick, well then you are lucky, but it's insulting and completely without basis to try and relate the last nine weeks of a pandemic to people fighting wars. Better that you had spent your time relating the bravery of our historically courageous military to that of COVID-19 first responders.

Donna Harwood

North Barrington