Dealing With The Virus… Works Best From Bottom Up

It still feels like we’re waiting on the alarm to go off to end a nightmare. Or, depending on your perspective, maybe parts of this have been more like a dream. This virus is deadly serious, potentially from a health standpoint and for certain economically. But maybe for some folks this warped reality the past month has been a bit of both, nightmare and dream. That’s usually the best spot, somewhere between the extremes.

So, how could this possibly be considered a dream? Obviously the potential positives in this current situation pale in comparison to the nightmare of losing a loved one, getting gravely ill yourself or suddenly going from high-fives at the job to out of work.

Still, there have been positives. Working from home might not be best for everyone, but for many who are able to do it and still get paychecks it sure beats two hours looking at taillights commuting to an office and back. And there’s certainly more opportunity to connect and engage with the family when everyone’s stuck at the house.

From a hunting and fishing standpoint, I can guarantee there are kids who did more hunting and fishing this past month than they ever dreamt possible. That would have been the ultimate dream for me as a kid… online school that can wait until after dad and I go listen for a gobbler. I know a family who are on an endless spring break at a lake cabin where the bass and crappie get no break and no mercy. Count me in.

A primary reason kids are getting in on so much hunting and fishing? Sports have been put on hold. If your kid plays baseball, softball, cheers—any kid activity that involves competition—they don’t do much hunting and fishing. A travel team won’t allow the star player to miss a big weekend tournament to go striper fishing at Clarks Hill. Parents face pressure to not let their kids get left behind by other kids who are doing more—more practice, more lessons, more tournaments.

So, in the sense that more kids have done more hunting and fishing than ever this spring, I put that in the dream category. Good for them. Maybe it will pay dividends down the road one day when these kids have their own kids. Maybe they’ll remember how great it was to go hunting or fishing with mom and dad.    

Meanwhile, lots of folks lost their collective minds when Gov. Brian Kemp didn’t explicitly ban hunting and fishing during the shelter-in-place directive last month. I took a call from a woman literally in tears because GON published an article reporting that hunting and fishing weren’t banned—key word, reported. I’m paraphrasing, but basically she said thousands of hunters and fishermen were going to die because we reported hunting and fishing were still allowed. Trust me, our folks wanted to know what the deal was when the governor said to shelter in place. We weren’t going to not report it. And we certainly were not going to report something that wasn’t true just to fit this woman’s beliefs or agenda—or our own agenda. Just the facts.

This was during the same time period when people lost their collective minds because the governor’s executive order opened beaches. People had seen TV reports a few weeks earlier of kids on spring break in Florida and couldn’t parse those scenes from the reality of someone who lives near a Georgia beach being allowed to take a sunrise walk in the sand as the waves wash ashore. So, four weeks later, was the governor right to allow hunting and fishing and walks on the beach? Does he have “blood on his hands” as some vehemently stated on Facebook? Did GON kill thousands for reporting that hunting and fishing were allowed?

Take responsibility for where you get your information. Make the best decisions for yourself and your family. It shouldn’t be from that person you went to high school with who posts 18 messages a day on Facebook. It also shouldn’t be from what now is referred to collectively as the mainstream media. Both the dude from high school and the mainstream media have an agenda these days, and it’s partisan. Bottom line, it should work best from the bottom up. It starts right there in your house. Take care of yourself and yours.

Remember that it works best from the bottom up when the government want to take away rights. And remember it the next time the collective mob loses its collective mind. Some of us can best take care of our own families just fine, thank you.