Letters

I wonder what those of the greatest generation would think of how we as a nation are handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

I am a child (now 70) of “greatest generation” parents, and I well remember the stories my mother told of hardships on the homefront while my dad was overseas. There were shortages of nearly everything as America was on a war footing and almost all production was funneled for military use.

My mom told me of rationing books and stamps that were used to purchase essentials, such as meat, poultry, eggs and other scarce commodities. Gasoline was in short supply, and one could all but forget about buying car tires. People grew “victory gardens” to supplement whatever produce that could be bought.

In short, everyone tightened their belts and made the best of things, as all knew that winning the war was most important.

Fast-forward to today, where we again are at war. The enemy may be different, a virus, but make no mistake, we are still at war. But today, instead of everyone sticking together, we have the whiners, the naysayers and those who think only of themselves. Open the economy — let’s get back to normal! they shout. Let’s just forget about all the doctors, nurses and all the other front-line health care workers who are trying to keep people alive.

Everyone wants things to start to return to normal, but if it’s done too quickly or haphazardly, we will go back to where we were a month ago. We, as a nation, have already lost over 60,000 casualties to this war.

Let’s try to follow the science and not the political rhetoric, and, like those of the greatest generation, we too will win the war.

Ira Freiband

Hampton Bays