• The public health emergency, AKA COVID-19, whether by design or by chance has been very divisive. 

• Regardless of where your intentions lie or your belief system is, you can, and most likely will, find someone who supports your beliefs on the internet. That doesn’t make them, or you, inherently right or wrong, expert or novice.

With that preface behind me, I’d like to acknowledge that the past year and a half has been trying for nearly everyone. Our sense of community has been attacked, lives have been lost, families and businesses have struggled with an ever-changing landscape that leads to truly difficult decisions. We know not what anyone else is going through until we stop and listen!

I don’t read the newspaper consistently and I don’t watch the news, so some may say I’m out of touch. To some degree, that may be true. I do, on the other hand, engage with real people all around me and do what I can to be present, engaging and empathetic. Times are hard, folks, let’s lean into each other and find new ways to be supportive!

All that to say, as a species we are not infallible. We live, learn, make mistakes, try again, fail, succeed, hope, improve and continue. In our current discourse with regards to COVID (and beyond), what happened to common courtesy? What happened to being an active listener and generally just a good human? Passion should not be confused with malice. 

So, I’d like to challenge anyone that happens upon this blurb. Can we return to a place where we engage with one another? A place where, regardless of your vaccination status, your race, religion or creed we can accept one another? At the end of proverbial day, I can’t imagine anyone wants to get sick nor get anyone else sick. Enough is enough, it is time for us all to come together, to listen and be heard. Enough with the division!

Richie Griffin

Co-founder 828 Market

Waynesville