Tough times may lie ahead, but we're not helpless; there are things we can do

Rochester Voice President Martha Soto Galicia, editor Harrison Thorp

Covering the COVID-19 crisis is one of the most frustrating things to cover as a journalist.

We pride ourselves on being proactive, predictive, able to discern nuances and tendencies for where stories are going and where to invest our time.

Well, with the coronavirus, throw that out the window.

It didn't take too long after 9/11 to figure out who was behind it, what was their capability and how we would strike back.

This enemy is much more enigmatic, less predictable; there is more uncertainty every day.

But there will be a curve back to normalcy. It may take weeks or even months.

In the meantime we must stay vigilant, practice social distancing and do all the things our health experts are telling us, which I'm sure you know by heart by now!

So what do you do when you have all this extra time you'd be at the gym or dining out or hanging out with friends?

We've been doing a lot of spring cleaning - well, not a lot - but we've been doing some.

And we've been going on some long walks on a sunny day. On a recent rainy day we watched some film noir, including Deadline USA with Humphrey Bogart. What a great journalism movie! (You can find it for free on You Tube)

So a lot of this is just waiting it out in a solitary way.

We hope everyone is doing their part to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.

And while the feeling of helplessness we all feel is among the most troubling, there are things we all can do to weather the storm.

Here at The Rochester Voice we're doing a few things, too.

We're reducing our annual subscription to $10 so that folks around Rochester can get the news they need from the Northern Seacoast's most trusted - and attentive - news source. Just go to the subscription page and click on that option.

We are limiting vastly the amount of face to face interviews to keep everyone as safe as possible.

And when we do interview in person we practice social distancing.

And don't forget. If you have a story about the coronavirus and the state of emergency that you'd like to share write us a letter to the editor or email us with story ideas at therochestervoice@aol.com

Thank you, and rest assured, we will get through this!

- Martha Soto Galicia,

President

- Harrison Thorp

editor