The times call for speaking the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our community today. Our great City will endure, will revive and will prosper. So too will our great Nation. We at the City, elected leadership, employees and appointed administrators understand and support the people of our City. We believe you are essential to overcome the hardships of these COVID-19 times. We are at war with COVID-19. This war is not limited to the territory of our country, county or city. It is not fictitious because we have yet to see its health effects in our city or county. This war is real and it is worldwide. All the mistakes, all the delays, and all the suffering do not alter the fact that there are in the world all the means necessary to crush COVID-19. And, as the past has demonstrated, in a worldwide war everyone has a part to play. Our part has been to keep public safety services operating to keep you safe. In turn, your part is currently to stay home, not travel, undertake social distancing, not congregate together except as a family, and to wash your hands often. We can, by practicing the above, help keep the COVID-19 at bay from our community and our homes. By abiding in the directives from your elected leadership and health care professionals, you and you alone can create the time needed by both the health care community and science to deduce the way to defeat this virus. But we must provide the time for the production and distribution of medical supplies and time for scientific work. The best way to achieve that time is through the current physical limitations imposed on all of us. In these critical days, I hope that you will give your support to your local elected officials, their past and future decisions, and to those who are tasked with keeping our community safe. in these critical days in which we find ourselves. I hope you will understand the necessity of social distancing and practice the same with all the fervor you can muster. As trite as it may sound, it is nonetheless true, the fate of the world depends on all of us doing the right thing. Take care, Terence E. O’Connor.
