LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Frontline workers deserve more than just our gratitude

Posted

TO THE EDITOR:

During this pandemic essential workers in many capacities have been protecting the rest of us from COVID-19 at the risk of their own lives. Some have caught the virus with at times fatal consequences.
Terms like war, invasion, combat, etc., have been used to describe engagement in this pandemic, with no certainty as to when it will be completely over.
The praise and respect given to these frontline workers, many of them not well paid, is well deserved. However, their future prospects and our society would be well-served, I believe, if they were offered at some point opportunities such as college, technical school or other post-secondary education at no cost, as a concrete expression of genuine gratitude.
I hope and pray that the people of our country will engage in a serious conversation about these and other concrete ways to help all who have served, are presently serving and will serve so sacrificially and so faithfully.

Father Thomas O’Neill, Senior Priest, Middletown