Are people in NJ really putting up their Christmas lights? (Opinion)

A Facebook post from Lacey showed some houses with their Christmas lights on. Some people said they never took them down and some may have put them back up to add a little brightness and cheer in this dark time we're living in. There is so much stress and anxiety both at home and at our workplaces that any encouragement or sign of positivity can help. We should all be concerned about peoples' emotional and mental stability as we go through this coronavirus shutdown.

We seem to be more divided today than ever before and unfortunately this crisis seems to be exacerbating those divisions more than ever. I remember in the late '90s when we thought the country was too divided along political lines, Judi and I said tongue in cheek, "maybe we need a war to get people to come together". In the few months after 9/11 it seemed we were united against a common enemy. Then within a year the divisions slowly crept back in and have seemed to deepen ever further.

You would think that this kind of crisis would bring people together and in some ways it has. You've seen stories of people helping elderly people get groceries or kids volunteering to do chores for neighbors while they're out of school. So if you can express some sort of positivity by putting your Christmas lights back up or just smiling at a stranger in public, it helps. You don't need to be right about your feelings on this whole thing. You just have to be the best person you can be while we all get through it.

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