OPINIONS/EDITORIALS

Not sure which was more sobering last week, watching the nation's restaurants and stores shut down as confirmed virus cases spiraled upward and medical folks tried to cope, watching our governments' inept responses to the crisis or reading an article that called the coronavirus a media extinction event.
Granted, it's not quite to the point where, like the dinosaurs, we're looking up to see a giant, life-ending meteor barrelling in our direction.
But, like so many small and medium-sized businesses, we have been hit hard by this pandemic -- and we at The Times are struggling to survive.

As I wrote this column, Franklin County and the Harris Corporation were in the midst of its second deadline to improve the multi-million dollar emergency radio system.
In February, county commissioners crafted a letter that did two things:
• It put in writing their disappointment with the radio system that's had issues ever since it was installed in the fall of 2012;
• It spelled out the kinds of improvements that officials and staff wanted to see by certain dates.

Dear editor: We thank you, Carey Johnson, for the article you wrote: "Virus changes lifestyles in an instant." This article is written in a very positive way.
We see the picture of the public school system providing lunches for our children.
The online version of The Franklin Times is now available free for people to stay informed of the virus.

Dear editor: They did what I said. I've asked lots of people to donate blood to the Red Cross and many did at Rock Spring Baptist Church recently.
Cheryl Noe was very happy. I do believe I saw her "cut a step." The Red Cross has good stepping music in the background. Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Stallings didn't cut a step but made lots of steps working.