Near…what?

There is an old saying that news travels fast. But it seems that bad news travels even faster with no brakes. Today’s subject is, of course, the wedding.

We first heard about it as a Facebook post. The ‘Ritzville Wedding’ was all the rage. But the questions most asked were: Who got married? Where was it at? Did you get invited?

We all now know that the wedding was ‘near’ Ritzville, as in about 20 miles near our little burg. Twenty miles is a fair distance isn’t it? I received texts from friends around the area: Did you go to the wedding? Do you know anyone that got sick? No, no and any other question no!!

My cousin texted me from Seattle, “What’s going on in Ritzville? That’s a lot of people to be congregating there.” I replied, “The location of the wedding is closer to where you grew up, north of Rosenoff Road than it is to Ritzville. It is 20 miles out of town, approximately half way between Ritzville and Moses Lake.” She told me that she heard it on NPR (National Public Radio), and then she said that the story was in the Seattle Times and that the Grant County Health folks were being interviewed about new cases.

This is a national story that is negative news for Ritzville. Talk about fake news. A reporter from a Spokane news station came to Ritzville and was telling the story with downtown Ritzville as a back drop. The TV station needs to make an apology to our community for this type of reporting.

It seems that whenever there is an accident on I-90 or Highway 395, it happened near Ritzville. A couple of years ago there was a story about a car accident near Ritzville. I read the article and noticed the mile post marker that was reported. It just so happened that we were going to Spokane that day. When we got to the mile post marker that was reported, we were two miles from Sprague in Lincoln County. Wow, that is really close to Ritzville isn’t it?

I’ve noticed that when something negative happens near Spokane, it is reported as being Airway Heights, Cheney, Medical Lake, Fairchild Air Force Base, Reardan, Spangle or Deer Park. Even if it happens in Spokane, it is in the Hillyard, Logan, Lincoln Heights, Shadle, or Five Mile neighborhoods. So why is Ritzville the focal point? I know that the location of the wedding just happens to have a Ritzville zip code, but it certainly isn’t that close to Ritzville.

I’m not angry with the people that were married, or those folks that attended this wedding. Honestly, I’m sure that they tried to have the wedding in their community and were flatly turned down because of COVID-19. We have been told that we can’t congregate for church, weddings, funerals or sporting events. Schools have been shut down, and have finally started to open up again. The governor has just shut the state down again for certain businesses, and it is really hurting small businesses and small towns in eastern Washington. It is no wonder that a couple was willing to get married with family and friends in attendance at this point in time at a remote location. I just hope that their marriage lasts until death do them part.

Getting back to the governor’s shut down for a month and to stay home and not enjoy Thanksgiving with family and friends, why didn’t he tell the people of this state that he was going to do that before the elections took place? Just wondering in print. It is no wonder people take chances, because they still want to live their lives with just a little bit of freedom.

This Thanksgiving is going to be a bit different from the norm. We will be trying to enjoy a tradition that is important to most every American. Two weeks ago, we celebrated those that served in the military that secured those freedoms for us all. We should never forget that.

At this point in time, my wife and I will be celebrating Thanksgiving ‘near’ Ritzville!