COVID’s rise

THUMBS DOWN: The numbers just keep going up, here, across the state and across the country. More and more people are becoming infected with the COVID-19 virus, and more people are dying.

This is a serious threat, but people can help slow the spread. We have urged our readers to stay safe, wear masks, avoid crowds, keep a safe social distance. We know it’s wearisome, sometimes people just want to get out and do what they normally do.

The holiday season is approaching, a time when families get together, when people celebrate. A lot of traditions are being set aside this year. The New Ulm Community Friends, for the first time in decades, won’t be serving Thanksgiving dinner for all comers. The Springfield Nativity Pageant, with its live camels and donkeys, won’t be put on this year.

Let us hope that next year, these traditions will be back and people can enjoy them without fear of COVID-19.

Democracy wins

THUMBS UP: Whether your candidate won, or lost, or is still fighting to claim victory, we can all agree there was one big winner in the Nov. 3 election. Democracy came out as the big winner.

More Americans voted in the 2020 presidential election than in any other before. About 66 percent of eligible voters went to the polls, or mailed in their ballots. Nearly 160 million people, up from 138 million in 2016.

We know that put a strain on the election officials and ballot counters, but so far they seem to have done a fine job. President Trump is still claiming that hundreds of thousands of fraudulent and illegal ballots were counted, but we’ll wait for the courts to decide that.

We will give Trump credit for the massive turnout. Voters either love him or hate him — there’s no apathy where he is concerned. He pulled in far more voters than in 2016, but Joe Biden pulled in more.