Letter: Smiling through the masks

Hi Mr. Doud,

Thank you for the nice opinion piece written in the May 9th edition regarding smiling — it was great to see a positive angle to what can be a very sober topic.

I think COVID Pandemic will warrant future think-tank discussions; the sociologists and the psychologists looking at cause-and-effect behavior and the way COVID shaped a generation.

It is interesting to see the silver-lining effects. I know COVID has been heavily compared to a war-time mentality of pulling together (I have even seen pictures of “Victory Gardens”). I have read articles on our youth developing ventilator pieces and masks with 3D printers, and those at home sewing masks. This is exciting to witness. Innovation has positively affected some of the peak economic periods of our country, as far back as scientific farming, up to onset of personal computers. We likely have future Elon Musks and Steve Jobs attending school here in the Valley somewhere.

Mostly, though, articles like the one you wrote give us hope that despite the situations we endure today, we will come out of the other side of this pandemic better and stronger as a society.

Thank you so much for the silver lining.

— Juli Gregson