Ferocious times call for couragous measures

These are ferocious times we live in.

The past week or so has been a tad bit disconcerting.

From last week's skate park vandalism to bomb threats made against Wal-Mart and Ephrata schools to, of all things, a conspiracy of second graders to commit harm to a classmate, it all makes the prospect of setting foot outside each morning more and more unsettling.

Just when you start to suspect the sky might be falling comes volcanic ash dusting alerts courtesy of Mount St. Helens.

If this kind of unrest is the result of having a shortened winter and unusually warm March weather — which is sparking fears of a drought across the Pacific Northwest — than I say bring on snow. And I hate snow.

That's to say nothing of the headlines coming in from overseas, whether it be the latest insurgent attack in Iraq, the death of an Italian police officer that might just have actually been the result of a conspiracy, or any other instance of hatred, violence, prejudice or intolerance.

And it's to say nothing of the daily struggles each of us faces personally, the small but mighty battles every single person shoulders on his or her quest to just get through the day and make it home safely each night.

These are ferocious times we live in.

Which makes it all the more important not to deviate from one's schedules or way of life.

We heard all the time after Sept. 11 that to do things differently — to allow fear to rule our lives — was to "let the terrorists win," so much so that to say it now appears to border on the cliche. But there's truth to the sentiment, as to change one's ways out of fear is to lend credence to the activities of those scurvy little spiders who are doing their darnedest to drag down humanity as a whole.

So send your children back to school, shop at Wal-Mart, keep getting up and getting outside each day.

Find whatever good feelings you can — be they solace, security, comfort, compassion — and revel in them. Do something you love. Laugh in the face of tremendous, seemingly insurmountable adversity.

It's actions such as these that show we shall not be moved from our course of decency and good humor. If anything, the bad news headlines will only strengthen our resolve to be happy.

Matthew Weaver is the business and agriculture reporter for the Columbia Basin Herald.