{"id":1318848,"date":"2020-03-17T17:22:43","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T23:22:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=994791"},"modified":"2020-03-17T17:22:43","modified_gmt":"2020-03-17T23:22:43","slug":"publishers-column-shifting-away-from-the-mob-mentality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/publishers-column-shifting-away-from-the-mob-mentality\/","title":{"rendered":"Publisher\u2019s column: Shifting away from the mob mentality"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Jerry Raehal<\/strong>
<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

In our relationship, my wife and I have some very distinct roles.<\/p>\n

For example: She worries a lot. I tend to worry about nothing.  We balance each other out.<\/p>\n

It was interesting, however, as the coronavirus news started to come out that neither of us were worried. Sure, we took it seriously, but we weren\u2019t running to the stores or buying masks. That view changed last week when she made a trip to a store.<\/p>\n

\u201cCostco is scary,\u201d she texted me. \u201cIf people aren\u2019t panicking, going to a store will make them.\u201d<\/p>\n

One incident on her trip: My wife stopped in an aisle to look at something, a woman came behind her and hit her with her cart. My wife visibly stumbled, yelled out in pain, and looked back to see what happened.<\/p>\n

The woman who hit my wife looked at her, did not apologize and just started shoving stuff into her cart.<\/p>\n

My wife, who is probably too nice of a person (and made me write that there some nice people at Costco, too), was bothered by the lack of consideration this woman had for her by not apologizing, but also the lack of consideration for others as this woman \u2014 and many others \u2014 was clearly in panic mode.<\/p>\n

Winston Churchill said, \u201cWe have nothing to fear but fear itself.\u201d Apparently that doesn\u2019t apply to people if they\u2019re afraid of not having any toilet paper.<\/p>\n

Coronavirus should be taken seriously, but at this point, a mob mentality of panic is a bigger concern. We need to readjust this mob mentality from fear to helping \u2014 each other and ourselves.<\/p>\n

So how we can do this? Here are a couple of ideas:<\/p>\n

\u2022 If you go to the store, fight the urge to buy everything, even others are doing so. Buy what you need for the next couple of weeks, not more. If we do that, we should avoid shortages.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Be considerate of each other in public. At this point, we\u2019re not around each other that often, so we might as well make it pleasant. \u2026 from a socially acceptable distance.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Take this one day at a time. The timeframe keeps changing. The truth is, we don\u2019t know how long this will last, and I know that can cause its own level of stress. People\u2019s jobs and businesses\u2019 futures are at stake. That\u2019s a very real fear. We cannot control the future, but fear of the future can overwhelm and control us.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Stay connected. For some people like me \u2014 who is an introvert at heart, there are aspects to social distancing I like. But as humans, we have to stay connected. We have scheduled FaceTime for our kids and their friends on almost a daily basis. At the Post Independent, we\u2019re launching a Happy 1\/2 Hour webinar with our team to keep us connected even if we can\u2019t be in the same office.  Figure out ways to do so.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Practice gratitude. In times of distress, it\u2019s good to focus on areas of gratitude. I\u2019m grateful for being able to get my work done from home, but also getting daily updates from my kids about their Lego challenges. (They are not interruptions but unplanned breaks).<\/p>\n

\u2022 Try to find a North Star to get you through this.  I\u2019m also a big believer in seasons and reasons. We all have seasons of highs and lows, and while we\u2019re in the season, we may not understand why. But all seasons pass and somehow make us stronger afterward.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Stay healthy by working out physically and mentally. Stress will break down your immune system. Working out and taking care of yourself mentally are important.<\/p>\n

Those are a couple of ideas but I\u2019m certain there are plenty more.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, it\u2019s important to remember we are all in this together. There is a ripple effect of actions, either positive and negative. We can control that.<\/p>\n

Now, I have no doubt some of you will read this and want to blame the media. And I get that.  We are told almost daily we are either doing too much coverage of the coronavirus or we\u2019re not doing enough.<\/p>\n

Trying to find the balance of informing the public is a tough one and one that our newsroom as well as our sister papers are in constant contact about. I\u2019m proud of our team.  <\/p>\n

But we also don\u2019t control how people act. We didn\u2019t cause the NBA or other sports to suspend their seasons. We didn\u2019t cause President Donald Trump to declare a national emergency, nor cause Gov. Jared Polis to shut down businesses. We reported on it.<\/p>\n

Some people read news stories and are fine. Some people run to the store and buy all the toilet paper. And some people say we\u2019re causing a panic.<\/p>\n

Whether you think we\u2019re doing too much or too little, I can tell you we are constantly trying to meet the public\u2019s need for information. And if you have ideas on how we can better provide that coverage, let us know.<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading. Be safe.<\/p>\n

Jerry Raehal is publisher of the Glenwood Springs Post Independent. You can reach him at jraehal@postindependent.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jerry Raehal In our relationship, my wife and I have some very distinct roles. For example: She worries a lot. I tend to worry about nothing.  We balance each other out. It was interesting, however, as the coronavirus news started to come out that neither of us were worried. Sure, we took it seriously, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1318848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 18:29:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}