It’s not the brightest of one-year anniversary events. This one has very somber overtones.  Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is asking everyone in the state to join in observing the one-year anniversary of the first cases of COVID-19 being diagnosed in Michigan.  The Governor and Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist are asking all of us to turn on our outside lights this evening between 8 and 9 pm.

For some people, it seems like an eternity. Others say the time has gone by like a flash. But few have forgotten how the initial virus reports were sent out, followed by the Governor ordering the state emergency center into operation in response. And then on March 12th last year, the first really momentous order from the Governor, the order shutting down schools.

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Then other closings, some with the indication that 2 weeks were needed to flatten the curve. We all know how that timing worked out. Since that time, the Governor has pretty much run the state on her own, ignoring the legislature and using workarounds to even avoid implications from State Supreme Court rulings that what she was doing was unconstitutional. Not much has changed.

Tonight’s light show is intended to at least remind everyone in Michigan that thousands are no longer here. The Governor puts it like this. “We’ve had a difficult year and lost so many fellow Michiganders. On Wednesday, Lieutenant Governor Gilchrist and I urge everyone to turn on their porch lights for an hour, so that we can remember those we’ve lost and remind ourselves that even in times of darkness, we’re in this together. As we mark this occasion, we also look towards the light at the end of the tunnel. We have three safe, effective vaccines, all miracles of science, that will help protect you, your family, and others from COVID and help us get our country and the economy back to normal.”

Lt. Governor Gilchrist adds some thoughts, “It’s been one year since COVID-19 was found in Michigan, and as a result, this virus has changed almost every aspect of our daily lives, but despite its darkness, we have seen the brightest light shine in the determined resolve of each other during these trying times. “The simple act of turning on our lights is a way to remember and honor those we have lost and show that we’re all in this together and we will emerge from this crisis, together.”

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