The meaning of the motto on the front page

Everything depends on everything else, it seems, so stopping one part of our economy, our society, affects every other part. We’re all so interconnected.

That’s partly why Gov. Inslee’s earlier hopes that people would “just do the right thing” were dashed. In more populous parts of the state, the slowdown he ordered was interpreted at a vacation by so many that recreation sites were flooded with cars and people. Even outdoor sites were reportedly impossible places to accomplish “social distancing.”

And so the order announced Monday evening: Just stop everything not absolutely essential and stay home, stay safe.

I can hear the complaints now and sympathize. I’m not exactly sure how this newspaper will make it through this because I haven’t had time to figure it out.

But I do know it is worth our shared sacrifice, and that the communal act of a people acting nearly as one to achieve a common goal will be good for our country, even if we’re broke.

Since World War II, we’ve drifted ever further from the norms that held this country together through that horrid, world-wide conflict. Those norms involved assuming at a basic, non-thinking level, that each individual is not as important as the overall cause, the good of all. That wasn’t an absolute across society, I’m sure. But the leaning was pretty heavily toward, “We’re all in this together.”

That’s why a few weeks ago, I had decided something like that should be the motto below our newspaper’s “flag,” at the top of the front page.

Then the pandemic hit with enough force that it started to change our lives in the U.S., and I knew it had to go on the page.

Take a look, it’s there right now. Because all of us being interconnected also means we’re all in this together.

Scott Hunter

editor and publisher