The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

In the 20 years it took for the United States to dig itself in, then out, of Southeast Asia in the Vietnam War, more than 58,000 American military personnel died.

In the last 173 days, an invisible enemy has killed more than 135,000 Americans — two-and-a-third times as many as the Vietcong killed in 20 years — and has sickened 3.2 million more.

For many of us, the coronavirus pandemic seems an extreme inconvenience. But if we don’t decide on a united effort, it will be far worse for far more, and quickly.

Some are calling for another complete lockdown. Some say it’s now too late for that, and that many more will die at an even more horrible rate.

One thing is clear amidst all of the arguing: if we don’t unite against the invisible enemy, we will lose this war. Already, it not only kills our most vulnerable, and even some who are very healthy, but its “recovered” victims often are far from disease free from a virus that is still not well understood and seems to attack more than our lungs.

It robs even our children who don’t get sick of what can never be replenished — time and learning during crucial, optimum learning years. This will hurt us for generations.

And it’s killing our great engine of commerce, the thing that makes paying for the American way of life possible.

Americans must stop pretending this isn’t as serious as war; it’s far worse. Unite.

Scott Hunter

editor and publisher