Columns & Opinions

By JOHN E. SETTLE JR. Editor / Publisher

NFL

We are well into the 2020-2021 school year now. When the COVID-19 outbreak came in mid- March, the Caddo Parish school system had approximately 38,000 students enrolled. How many students are enrolled currently? This question was asked at a school board meeting recently and was not answered.

“Office” attire in our work-from-home pandemic is s-o-o-o cliché. Yet here we are. We’d blown our deadline, and the editor was threatening to hurt innocent words.

So, I did something. I really did something quite grown up. I bought a car.

Prior to the pandemic, my friend and I were working out at the fitness center. K. W., as I refer to my friend, looked across the floor at an individual and uttered, “They waited too late.”

Everyone knows this, but I have to say, life is hard! There are those days that it seems you cannot catch a break. Some days it is just too painful to try to find the bright side.

Gov. John Bel Edwards, who has his critics with respect to the state’s response to the coronavirus, has shown what real leadership can do in the face of crisis. From day one, he has taken the pandemic seriously. He has not sought to “play down” the virus. He has not called it a “hoax,” nor has he sought to disregard the science. Gov. Edwards has been honest and transparent with the citizens of Louisiana, which is a testament to his leadership and an example for other politicians dealing with this pandemic. In a time of crisis, leadership matters.