The American poet T.S. Eliot once wrote, “What we call the beginning is often the end/And to make an end is to make a beginning.”
But the pandemic overseers of Durango do not subscribe to such wisdom. They make edicts about color levels, health codes and mask-wearing as if they were weather forecasters opining about prevailing winds. Are not councils, legislatures and governors the decision-makers elected to secure and protect rights of the people?
Lack of resources certainly doesn't seem to be the problem; by reading voluminous health departments, codes, masks policies and regulations one could stock a new library.
Freedom hasn’t a place where holders of it are forced to live in an indefinite state of fear, despair and hopelessness. The people have created none of this crisis but have endured all of it. Our leadership is rudderless and adrift in pandemic mania. They have abandoned any individual or critical thinking, instead aligning themselves collectively to unelected health officials.
If elected leaders cannot act or rule then let the people relieve them of such indecisiveness. Public health officials and governments peddle lockdowns and the futility of trying to reopen, but local businesses and many more residents see springing hope, recovery and revival.
Now is the time to demand answers and to ask questions on how Durangoans get their lives back or at least the ones they once knew. That takes making an end to this crisis and making a new beginning.
Jaime McMillan
Durango
