By Keith McNeill
I was in Buy-Low in Clearwater the other day to buy groceries. While I was there I ran into a local politician I have known for many years from when I was editor of the Clearwater Times.
I asked how he was doing and, while we were talking, along came one of the Times’ regular letter-writers. I introduced the two of them and, the next thing you knew, the three of us were yakking away.
A Buy-Low employee came along and, in the nicest possible way but with steel in his voice, asked us to move along.
He didn’t quite say it this way but his message was, “Come in, get what you need and then get out. Don’t stay in the store any longer than you have to.”
I can’t say that I blame him a bit. He was right and we were wrong. Old habits die hard but it is necessary to change in order to adapt to changing circumstances.
Our food service workers, the people who work in our grocery stores and the few take-out restaurants still open, are just as much in the front-line during our fight against COVID-19 as are our health-care workers such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists and so on.
They come face-to-face every day with possibly hundreds of people, anyone of whom could be infectious. We owe it to them to do everything we can to protect them.
That brings to mind the issues of food security and maintaining local businesses.
The North Thompson Valley is blessed with a variety of ranchers and farmers such as the Rainer Farm, the 4 Bar S Ranch and Jayne D’Entremont’s Canny Crofter.
This present crisis has shown that, when push comes to shove, we need to have local food sources such as these. When it comes to having enough to eat, we cannot rely on the global economy. Some measure of self-sufficiency is essential.
Closely tied with that is the need to support local small businesses. Many of them are shut down right now but there are ways to help keep them afloat, such as by buying gift certificates or perhaps pre-ordering items to be received in a few months.
Some local businesses are still open and will deliver, meaning you can shop by phone or online. Others ask that you phone or email your order ahead of time so it can be picked up without your having to go into the store.
What with wildfires and sawmill closures, the people of the North Thompson Valley have been through a lot during the past few years. However, as Barriere Mayor Ward Stamer has said, today we are living through a situation that is unprecedented in our lifetimes.
Perhaps in a couple of months, this COVID-19 situation will have blown over and we will be wondering what all the fuss was about.
Perhaps, but I doubt it. Murphy’s second law says, “When things go wrong, they get worse.”
Things likely will get worse before they get better, and possibly they will get very much worse.
If that happens, then we the residents of the North Thompson Valley will need to hang together because otherwise, we will surely hang separately.