We are better than this!

The communities of Havre/Hill County are better than our current behavior reflect. I think an apt comparison to our current situation is to compare our response to the Bear Paw/Beaver Creek fires a couple of years ago. This was an emergency situation threatening our area. The response by the communities showed friends and neighbors doing whatever was necessary to save all from the inferno.

Not all volunteers could drive a bulldozer or a firetruck, but everyone pitched in with food, drinks, equipment, water trucks, whatever. No one cared if we were saving park property, private property, reservation property, or federal property; it was an all hands response.

As a native of Havre/Hill County this response was absolutely what I was sure to be the community response! We always help our neighbors in need.

The COVID pandemic is the current inferno threatening Havre/Hill County right now. Although the problem is nationwide, we can only control our immediate surroundings. We need to help ourselves! Please everyone stop making a political statement about masks and gatherings. You need to have enough care and consideration to follow the mandate to wear a mask in public. It is not violating your right to ask you to help protect our community and neighbors. The science behind mask wearing is indisputable.

Everyone is appalled by the statistic that North Dakota has a death rate of 1 in 600 residents from COVID; but do you realize that in Hill County our death rate is 1 in 511 residents! These are not imaginary statistics but each death represents someone or related to someone we probably knew. My own mother was one of the 32 Hill County deaths and I can say it was a horrible way for her to die. Our family made the sacrifice of not being able to visit with Mom in person for over six months because of the Care Center isolation. This was tough, but we made due with window visits and telephone conversations for the greater good of the entire resident population. But the part I need everyone to realize is that if the one death is your family member, how will you feel about not doing everything you could have to prevent the spread of this disease?

Wear your mask when you are in public. Yes is uncomfortable and a pain, but it is the one thing that each person can do to support our friends, neighbors, and community. It is a small price to pay to protect each other.

Stay away from gatherings of groups. The COVID virus is highly contagious and is in high incidence in our community, so just because you know the people you socialize with, does not make them immune from being a COVID carrier. Be aware of your family “bubble” and stay safe.

Yes, the vaccines are coming to protect us, but even in the best-case scenario we will not have full access until probably mid 2021. We must stay vigilant until everyone can be vaccinated.

Come on Havre, we are better than this!

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Elaine Morse is a retired Havre health care worker