Editorial | Have you noticed something familiar in the air? Relief? Hope?

||| BY LIN MCNULTY, theORCASONIAN EDITOR |||

There’s something going on, something afoot, stirrings beneath the surface. Have you felt it?

I first felt the unrest shuffling after the result of the 2020 presidential election, although there were plenty of instances when that, too, seemed endangered, that perhaps nothing in our lives would ever be okay again. There was a pandemic, for crying out loud, political upheaval, and financial insecurity not experienced in generations, if ever.

Through it all, our Orcas community pulled together in ways that would impress many other communities. We came together to feed and house our citizenry. It’s what we do!

If you were able to be in attendance at the recent virtual Community Conversation with Island Hospital, you just might have picked up on the excitement of the folks preparing to move in and take over our medical center. We’ve had this kind of anticipation before, with other medical providers stepping in to help resolve our island healthcare dilemma. Island Hospital has even been one of those backers. But, never like this!

Through the untiring efforts of the Anne Presson team that makes up the Orcas Island Health Care District (OIHCD), I feel that our medical needs have not only been finally recognized; the needs have been explicitly communicated to Island Hospital and many of those previous unknowns are now being addressed. After-hours care?!

We will have a summation of the meeting from Orcasonian reporter Susan McBain on Monday, and the meet will also soon be available for viewing. I recommend everyone watch it to truly absorb the exciting new realm we are about to step into.

As reflected, even today, in the ever-changing March’ skies, there are occasional patches of blue. My grandmother would have said ‘there’s enough blue to make a pair of Dutchman’s breeches.’