Editorial: Now is the time for Portage Co. residents to unite, not point fingers

By Brandi Makuski

Portage Co. residents are a tough breed of people. We’re a strange mix of rural and mid-sized communities, liberal and conservative values, and cannibal sandwiches, lutefisk, and pączki. We voluntarily live in the heart of Wisconsin, which over the last few years has been pummeled by blistering cold weather for half the year; floods and derechos for the other. We love our beer, our cheese, and our parks.

We’re just close enough to big city action while maintaining our small-town feel. It reminds us that we’re part of a larger organism, the ever-growing and changing United States of America.

Our nation was built, in part, on the idea of free-market capitalism and personal responsibility. But we are also a nation that cares for its less fortunate citizens—that includes the less-learned, the underprivileged, and those who suffer from ill-health. Our state and federal budgets include line items for programs to help some of those folks, and community organizations, like the United Way of Portage County, report year after year of successful fundraising for its community support efforts. The latter is a clear indication we have a community of caring, generous people.

The early days of the COVID-19 pandemic were scary for many. Some found those early days to be a bit of a novelty: at first, it was kind of exciting to batten down the hatches and hole up at home. And binge-watching Netflix all day was, for some, a bit of a vacation.

But the pandemic, and resultant business and school closures, sent more people, craving human interaction, to social media for longer periods of time and with more frequency than ever. Debates abounded endlessly on the cause of the disease, its transmission, its lethality, and how reactions of local, state, and national leaders may or may not affect the masses.

Soon, people chose news sources that best fit their personal ideologies; accused media outlets of fearmongering regardless of how the story was reported; played off the fear of others using Facebook memes; and argued with one another about how bad things were actually going to get.

Namecalling, insults, and finger-pointing at the political parties became part of these conversations, and soon, some had nothing to do with the pandemic at all. Democrats were called over-reactionary dimwits, and Republicans labeled as uncaring oligarchs. To read some of the comment sections on social media, it seemed no two people could agree on much.

In the mix, a variety of legitimate news outlets and government agencies attempting to keep the facts straight. But boring facts and “We’re all in this together” statements from local officials simply couldn’t compete with snarky memes and sensationalized claims that President Donald Trump told Americans to drink bleach as a way to kill the coronavirus.

The crisis also put legitimate news outlets—the Metro Wire among them—into a frustrating situation. Some days, in the time it took to verify and write a single story, the information being reported had changed at least once. Information was being pumped out by state leaders at a near-breathtaking pace, and although the information was often vague and generalized, it wasn’t uncommon to find a dozen new emails from one state department or another before lunch every day of the week.

At press, Portage Co. has been lucky. We’ve had only seven confirmed cases, and no fatalities, of COVID-19. Our county is in a much better position than some others, and that is something for which we should all be grateful. It could be worse.

And it still could get worse. No one really knows how the public health will be affected by allowing businesses to reopen following Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling. But that’s where personal responsibility comes into play: business owners have been given a lot of clear guidance from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation on how to reopen safely, and those who don’t follow may not have a successful relaunch. If safeguards aren’t in place, customers aren’t likely to come.

This isn’t the time to blame pundits, bureaucrats, or figureheads thrust into the spotlight during this crisis. The Supreme Court has made its decision. If there ever was a time for arguing, it’s over.

The future of our county’s economy is quite literally in our own hands. Now is the time for the Portage Co. community to unite, wash those hands, take necessary precautions, and get back to work.