We have often heard the expression "No pain, no gain," used in reference to increasing one's physical fitness, meaning "one must push one's self in order to become physically fit." The same could be said of mental acuity.
Riverbend News will celebrate its first birthday on Thursday, Aug. 5. Congratulations to Emerald Greene Parsons and all the staff at the newspaper. I was thinking about things borne out of pain. Riverbend News is one of those businesses that came about as result of the fiscal pain suffered by Community Newspaper Holdings and their decision to "shut down" three area newspapers: The Suwannee Democrat, The Jasper News and the Mayo Free Press. At least two of these newspapers had been in business, serving the communities in our small area for over one hundred years and then, one day, "no more newspaper."
In looking back, I can think of several positives and some negatives to that resulted from "hard times." Most folks in our area reaching their golden years receive a social security check. Social security was one of those programs borne out of the Great Depression, when Wall Street crashed in 1929 and, as a result, millions lost money, homes and hope. The late President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected in 1932, promising Americans "A New Deal" and he meant it. Out of hard times came the Social Security Administration, the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission (FDIC), which insured banking deposits up to $100,000, as 40 percent of America's banks failed.
There have been unsung heroes too, that rose out of "hard times" in regards to the health of the nation, such as Dr. Jonas Salk who developed the polio vaccine and, later, Dr. Albert Sabin with his famous oral vaccine, "polio sugar." Countless thousands wore leg braces, lived in iron lungs and thousands died as a result of infantile paralysis, polio. I will be 63 in October and I can well remember getting in a line to take polio sugar. That little drop of vaccine placed on a sugar cube that was given out en masse by local health departments. I don't remember anyone not taking it who was able, as from what they witnessed.
Now, I am going to move into something I usually avoid, but here goes a bit of controversy. I was among Hamilton County's first cases of COVID-19 over a year ago. It was not a walk in the park and, as much as I appreciate all that has been done towards the development of the vaccines for COVID-19, I, along with so many of you, mourn the deaths of friends and loved ones who we lost during the pandemic. State-wide, we have lost over 30,000 over the past year, hundreds of thousands in our nation and millions across the world.
When the COVID-19 vaccines became available, I didn't debate the safety of it or whether I should take it. I took the Pfizer vaccine and I am so glad I did. My 87-year-old mother took it, too, at the Health Department in Jasper where Tom Moffses, Administrator of the Department of Health for Hamilton and Columbia Counties, did an outstanding job coordinating testing and administering vaccines. In Suwannee and Lafayette Counties, Kerry Waldron and his staff have done the same.
Despite all our best efforts, if we average the percentage of those who have taken both doses of the vaccines in Suwannee, Hamilton and Lafayette Counties, we come up with a figure of less than 26 percent of the collective population. That means roughly three out of four are still not fully vaccinated.
The vaccine may not be perfect, but it's a chance and it's definitely, in my opinion, a positive, like the polio vaccine was and the smallpox vaccine was and just like our Riverbend News is such a positive. All were borne out of hardship, now wonderfully providing a more positive and a better life for us all. God is good all the time and He does answer prayers, but I think He wants us to use the abilities with which we are blessed and, sometimes, we must "step out on faith" the way Emerald Greene Parsons did with the newspaper and the way each person who has taken the COVID-19 vaccine has. No one can assure us 100 percent on anything, really, not even our next breath.
Happy Birthday to the Riverbend News. COVID-19 brought you to us and that's the truth. Good things can and do come out of bad situations.
From the Eight Mile Still on the Woodpecker Route north of White Springs, wishing you a good day.