When freedom’s enemy has been terrorism, domestic or foreign, the Midcoast and the rest of America have shown support by coming together and turning out. We’ve shown we can still go to the movies, still worship or not, still vacation, dine, run a marathon, educate, learn and vote.

Now the enemy is invisible; it sounds as a cough or other symptoms, and it is tiny. But it is many.

While we can rightly analyze, learn from and, if we choose, criticize any nation’s handling of the coronavirus, for now we mostly need to deal with it as it lies: It’s in Maine and in Lincoln County, and around the world. So now, as we have seen and reported this week, we are doing the right thing, again, coming together to show support – by doing the opposite of what we’ve done all along.

Say strong, say determined, say unrelenting and undefeated, by staying home as much as possible, and being around as few as possible when you do go out. And have a really good reason: Are you getting groceries and other supplies for you and yours? Are you part of the area’s feeding programs for children whose schools have closed? Or are you one of the brave in uniform or behind a register? 

Thank you if you are serving others; and, all of us, keep in mind we all are serving one another now, by trying to avoid exposure. Keep it up.

Week’s positive parting thought: I never thought a press time tweet about Tom Brady really leaving the Patriots would fall into this category. I was all ready, if needed, to write the reluctant headline, “Say it ain’t so, Tom.” Then the virus landed. And dismayed as I was, and shared with our editor Kevin Burnham, I realized later it was nice for a moment to think only sports, only a beloved football player who gave us so much New England pride, instead of the constant thread running in all our heads, certainly those who work for a local paper, about the virus.

So, Tom, thanks for the memories, and thanks for the timing of your news. I don’t agree with your choice to go, but the virus is a leveler that puts things in perspective. So fly free, Tom, leave New England; hopefully not by plane, unless it’s a flight with fewer than 10 occupants.