We Deserve to Get and Give a Break Today

Over and over again, during the COVID pandemic, I’ve heard how our leaders, be they national, state-wide or local, have not been up to the task. Indeed many of the descriptions of these leaders were substantially more vehement than “not up to the task.” The leaders I am talking about here are not just politicians but owners of restaurants, principals of schools and CEO’s of companies.

Certainly, all of these leaders have made errors, some big and some small. However, we, as nonleaders, must remember that the leaders, most of whom are not trained physicians nor public health administrators, had to make many decisions and make them fast. They were bound to get some wrong. And we need to remember, they got many decisions right.

As COVID enters yet another stage, we, as a public, need to give leaders some grace. When I mention grace here, I am referring to courteous goodwill. We need to give our leaders our goodwill and understand that the vast majority of them are doing the best they can with limited information and contradictory perspectives.

This does not mean that we need to accept each decision meekly. It means that if we disagree with a decision we ask about it politely and listen carefully to the rationale. It means we don’t barge into school board meetings and demand to be heard or fly and refuse to wear a mask. If sometimes even after listening we disagree with the decision, we accept it anyway with a bit of good humor and the understanding these are difficult decisions.

We need to spend more time coming together and less time girding our loins for a huge argument.

Let each of us give grace and let each of us hope to receive grace as well.