Column by Dr. Ann Hollingsworth
We can no longer say that the corruption, chaos, and disaster in the news of “those big cities somewhere else” is not here. These things have crept into Clarke County and are alive and well. The biggest problem areas seem to be with health care, education, and public leadership.
We see horror stories of Covid dictatorship elsewhere. We see people losing jobs and goods getting scarce – that is right here in our own stores. We hear of medicine being withheld unless Covid rules are followed. That is right here. Just recently a local sick person was denied treatment by a local doctor because she would not take the booster shot before being treated. This local doctor told her, “If you won’t take the booster, we won’t treat you” and then walked away from her.
I have not been a fly on the wall of our local classrooms to know what is really in the textbooks or what the teachers really pour into the minds of the students. But I do see evidence of departure from the values that gave the right to learn, such as refusal to fly the American flag anymore. I also see that this does not help the test scores for the local schools.
Instead of trying to lead the people to greater unity and strength of community, we have local public leadership running off folks who have done outstanding jobs and worrying about their own pockets instead of prosperous growth of the community.
Several years ago, a movie Appalachian Dawn was shown at a local church. This was a true story of a small Kentucky town which suffered from an unparalleled level of corruption, death, crime, and economic disaster. Finally, members of a local church said “enough is enough” and fought back with their faith in action. The community turned around, and now this community is thriving with happy and productive people. When are Clarke County persons of faith going to walk the talk to save our community?
