When I called to verify an Op Ed for last week’s Journal it reminded me that there IS something we, as consumers, can do, even if the present climate in our politics persists.

If you feel helpless, powerless or depressed about the current state of affairs in US politics, there IS hope!

Unless you live under a rock or in a cave or with your head in the sand – you must be aware of the facts that things are not good in many areas of our country. I remember the promises we were given that the nation’s economy would be “taken care of” on Day One! Lots of things were promised on Day One but here we are on DAY 262 [Oct. 9, 2025] and how’s the US economy doing on DAY 262?

Worse than it was on Day One?

Many say it is!

Unless you’re one of the country’s Billionaires.

Even before New Years Eve of 2024, some of us guessed this would be the case well into 2025. What I did was made a New Year’s Resolution to ONLY buy from locally owned stores, restaurants and businesses.

It was the ONLY New Year’s Resolution I have ever kept for more than a month or two into the New Year!

Ever!

For the most part, I am still keeping that Resolution, although I do admit to a very occasional saunter into one of those stores I’d prefer to avoid – the BIG BOX STORES – you know who they are! There is one item that I need and use regularly that cannot be found anywhere else. Everything else, however, I do get from locally owned businesses and grocery stores and restaurants.

Heaven help us if we lose our local providers!

I am a loyal customer of our locally owned grocery store, for example, and have been since I stopped only buying penny candy from Austin Davis’ little grocery store next door to Johnny Davis’ Tavern, many years ago! Remember them?

If you are wishing for a way to have your voice heard in this climate of retaliation and retribution, try taking your buying power to local-only businesses. It WILL make a difference.

No matter what your politics, who you voted for, or how you identify politically – you DO have the right to shop where you want to and eat where you want to – for now, anyway. Please don’t give that away to save a few pennies here and there. We do need to support one another because we will only get through this by doing just that – supporting each other!

We’ve learned some very valuable lessons since the election of November 2024 and those lessons continue into the forseeable future. Let us listen to one another, pray for one another and support local businesses no matter what their politics may be.

There’s an app that you can download – Goods Unite Us – if you want to find out who supports what and plan (and shop) accordingly.

And, in conclusion, please, be peaceful and civil to one another. We are not enemies! We are Americans!