Times that try our souls

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
The above immortal words are taken in part from “The Crisis” by Thomas Paine, an English-born American political activist, philosopher and revolutionary. It was Paine who inspired patriots in 1776 to declare their freedom from Great Britain.
These times today certainly are trying the souls of men and women around the world as we continue to live in this nightmare and battle a fast-moving deadly virus. We have never experienced anything like this novel coronavirus in our lifetimes. It is a killer.
In Custer we see two types of reactions. There are those in one camp who are taking the virus threat quite seriously and are adhering to all the precautions and warnings. They are practicing social distancing diligently.
Then there are those in another camp who believe it is nothing but another strain of the flu and vow to continue their lives in a normal fashion. They think everyone is overreacting and believe this is all some kind of media hype.
The reality is that this virus is a new, powerful strain of the flu that we have never seen before. Hence, there is no vaccine available for the virus at this time and into the forseeable future. There is no known treatment for the novel coronavirus, but several existing drugs seem to help.
The best we can do as a community is stay at home as much as possible, stay away from any groups of 10 or more and do not touch our faces! The virus seems to be transmitted through the mouth, nose and eyes. If we self-isolate ourselves, we can get rid of this menacing virus a lot sooner.
For those who do not take this seriously, we ask you to think of your fellow human beings who do. The last thing you would want to do is cause someone else to be infected because you failed to follow prescribed commonsense guidelines like washing your hands and covering your sneeze. 
Custer cares about its citizens, both young and old. Initially, the virus was thought to affect mostly older people, but it has caused sickness and death in all age groups now. It tends to attack those with compromised immune systems, no matter their age.
A relatively short time of staying out of the public will grant us huge dividends in that we can emerge from our cocoons sooner and take to flight. 
After hunkering down for several weeks we will all be itching to stretch our legs and see our friends and family again out in a social setting. Mandatory closing of some service businesses like bars and restaurants are keeping us apart for now, but for how long will we want to do this?
The better we adhere to social distancing now, the sooner we will all be together again. But for another month we have to separate in order to come together.
Keep the faith and keep your chins up. This will be over before you know it, and we will be back to living the normal lives we have put on hold. 
 

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