The movement to ring church bells on Sunday night in honor of frontline workers is a nice gesture. It’s also a little bit comical that elected officials, who disappeared about the same time as Punxsutawney Phil, have popped their heads up to appear patriotic and brave.

The country and our community could have used some strong leadership in the past three months but what we got instead was more party politics on the state and national level and total invisibility from some local elected officials who have either tired of doing their job or have been waiting on something sexier to attach their name to and get some favorable press.

We are extremely in favor of honoring the health care heroes in as many ways and as often as possible. We enjoy the sound of church bells chiming and are so glad that some of the downtown churches continue pleasuring us at specific times each day and especially on Sunday.

What gets old and tiring is these good intentions being cheaply used by any governing body or elected official to their own glorification.

What happened to selfless acts of compassion or support? Why do these overgrown rodents (yes groundhogs are rodents) try to turn the spotlight on themselves when they have done either nothing or at most the basic job to which they were elected to help these people that are being honored?

If the lights are bright enough, will they see their shadows and go away for another six weeks or six months?

So on behalf of Punxsutawney Phil and the Wizard of Oz, we too are declaring a proclamation that all the church bells, chimes, doorbells, cellphones and car horns shall ring out at 7 p.m. on Sunday in honor of those true public servants who put their own safety at risk in order to serve the greater good of all people, not just one political faction or to boost the chances of reelection.

Now that the state is starting to return some of our freedoms, we have some reason to be optimistic and can look for some positives from the time spent in hibernation.

Maybe some good can be done with all the savings from almost no snow this winter and no need for overtime on communities payroll expenses for snow removal.

Maybe people of all ages and education will walk into the new sunlight of May 2020 with 20/20 vision and renewed energy to go about the task of making Butler County and this world a better place for all.

We may set off our fire alarms (no, not really) to remind people of this great proclamation that children will be memorizing just like the Gettysburg Address.

Hear ye, Hear ye; let it be known throughout the land Butler is not dead and We Got This Butler County.

—RV