In the midst of chaos comes hope

The year started on a high with LSU winning the College Football Playoff National Championship in New Orleans. Then, a month or so later, the wheels fell off the proverbial wagon.
A global pandemic hit and washed up on America’s shores. This COVID virus infected millions of Americans while also stretching the limits of constitutionally protected rights. Storm clouds grew.
While this was going on, a scandal was exposed which rocked the highest levels of American government. Evidence surrounding the truth behind the unmasking of General Michael Flynn was released by the Department of Justice. This evidence suggested top members the Barack Obama White House, including the president and former Vice President Joe Biden, had knowledge of what was happening and were encouraging it. The storm clouds grew larger.
Within the past weeks, these storm clouds over the American landscape grew even larger with the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis which sparked protests and other demonstrations across the country.
On a personal note, last Thursday marked one year since I became editor of the Ville Platte Gazette. However, it was not all fun and games that day as I got a phone call saying there was an error on a chart which showed the number of COVID cases at nursing homes in the tri-parish area.
This error was the latest in a series of other errors I have been making over the past couple weeks. I am not one to make excuses, but, over that same time, I have been busy working on different things and dealing with bumped up press deadlines. As a result, I have been rushing which caused me to get careless and not adequately fact check all the information that was submitted. Thus came the mistakes “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.”
In the midst of all this chaos that has been happening, there was a reason for hope. This reason came Saturday when the SpaceX rocket was launched for the International Space Station. It was the first time in nine years that such an event had happened.
I watched the launch in Baton Rouge with my mom and sister, Allison. I could not help think how many other families were huddled together around a television set doing the same thing. I also thought about the fact the launch was a reason for hope for what America can become. She has her faults, which are being seen with the riots, but she also has what made her great for 244 years, which is expanding her frontier which and message of “peace, justice, and the American way.”
Such a reason for hope happens every time America is mired in chaos.
Then, a day later, I watched Return to Mayberry on MeTV. This rerun of the made for TV movie capped off The Month of Mayberry and was a much needed escape from what is plaguing our country today as Sheriff Barney Fife was searching for a sea monster in Myers Lake I cannot help to think how much greater this country will be if we watched more of The Andy Griffith Show.
Sunday was also the Feast of Pentecost. This should be the source of eternal hope that the Holy Spirit will always be with us no matter how bad the storms of chaos get.