The New Era - All about Sweet Home since 1929

There’s been a lot of controversy over Oregon’s response to the coronavirus pandemic – the forced closures of businesses, the fines for businesses who violate the governor’s dictates during the six months we’ve lived under this state of emergency, and even the 6-foot distancing and mask wearing we all know.

As we’ve mentioned before in previous editions of this page, the costs of fighting COVID-19 have been tremendous. They’re costs we and our descendents will be paying for generations.

Not the least of these is the social cost of, basically, interacting much of the time in...