A legacy of failure

To the Editor:

My generation's parents lived through the Great Depression and the sacrifices made during World War II. During the war from 1941 through 1945, that generation was asked by its country to make do with less material things including some food items. Children would circle their neighborhood collecting scrap metal to be recycled for the war effort. There was a collective patriotism that everyone understood was necessary to preserve democracy and our way of life. The enemy was tangible; foreign nations fighting for their way of life, while we and our allies fought for ours.

We are now fighting an enemy that is invisible, except for its visible toll on human lives in this country and worldwide. Like a prior generation that was asked to stand united together, our generation has been asked to make sacrifices in order to control and defeat COVID-19. Compared to the generation of the 1940s, the request of us is minuscule. True, the pandemic has prompted governments to close businesses and schools, or make gatherings limited to control the spread of the virus, but necessary. In about eight months, innovation has allowed some commerce to flow and school classes to continue via the internet.

Fighting this virus is difficult at best, since it is new to us and we are still learning. Fighting it without leadership from a president who ignores the science and was more in tune to stock market numbers than infections and deaths, has brought us to a point where we see so many of our neighbors resisting any “infringement” on their rights — many taking their cue from the president as he downplayed the virus even as he contracted it.

President Trump will soon be gone, but his legacy will forever be his failure of duty to country. Wayne Kirkbride

Twain Harte