A shot in the dark

I have been a journalist most of my life. Decided to become a writer at the age of 5, learned the printing trade as a boy, became a newspaper journalist while in college, worked as a weekly and daily newspaper journalist for several decades, taught journalism at three universities and ended up working as a volunteer reporter for this news source, Highway58Herald.org.

During those years I have witnessed and experienced a number of historic events, including several wars, the Great Depression and the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The depression wasn’t so great for my family because we lost our Kansas wheat farm when dust piled so high that it buried our wheat. I recall watching my father spray water in our house while dust darkened the noontime light outdoors.

I recall hearing about Pearl Harbor and wondering whether my homeland would soon be invaded by people I had not met and did not know. For years I followed accounts of men fighting and people dying across Europe and the Far East.

I later interrupted my life plans to serve in the Air Force and on occasion wondered if I would once again see my wife and infant daughter.

Later, as I worked as a newspaper reporter, fear gripped our nation and neighbors dug underground shelters hoping to survive a nuclear holocaust.

Recently I visited a friend whose life was forever changed by polio, a crippling disease that my four children escaped with the help of a sugar cube developed by Dr. Jonas Salk.

During my career as a journalist, I have reported nearly every type of experience that a person may conjure up during a lifetime.

Nothing, however, has impacted me nor the people I know more than the current COVID-19 pandemic.

We all are victims because the virus not only has threatened our lives but also has altered our lifestyles. Granted, too many people have lost their lives. The rest of us have spent too much time living in caves. I’m not a qualified shrink, but I know frustration when I see and experience it.

I have observed and reported how our leaders have attempted to protect us from the virus, especially those leaders in education who make herculean efforts to protect our children while ensuring some modicum of educational experience. And teachers who invent new methods of instruction in a virtual world. The cost in mind, body and spirit weighs heavy on our lives and souls.

As an over-the-hill journalist, I have and continue to observe what I call a national hopelessness, a feeling that we will never again enjoy the freedom we once knew to travel where and when we want to go, to be free of masks and mandates, to be able to call our own shots, to return to some rational form of insanity.

I especially become frustrated when I realize that the problem could be solved, and I want to voice an opinion on how that could be accomplished.

As a reporter I am expected to be fair, complete and accurate in my reporting. I’m charged with being a “watchdog” of governmental affairs on behalf of the public. I am not to express an opinion.

However, as the author of “Lower 58 Musings” I qualify as a columnist and am permitted to express an opinion about how we can protect one another and defeat the virus:

“Get your shots.”

Longtime Oregon journalist Dean Rea, widely known for his years as a University of Oregon journalism educator and editor at The Register-Guard in Eugene,  serves as a founding board member, correspondent and columnist for The Herald.