Chairman’s Message

After the planes struck the Twin Towers on 9/11, our country went into a state of collective shock, collective grief, and collective fear. We huddled around TVs and newspapers, reading stories of those who had perished and those who had risked their lives to save others. We wondered if another attack was coming—and where it would hit, and when. Everything that had once felt stable and strong was shaken to its core.

More recently, I remember the recession we came out of around 11 years ago. Once again, the fear was palpable. Many lost their homes, jobs, and/or businesses. It was a real struggle, and it took time for people, communities, and the government to come together to strengthen the country and each other’s lives.

Now we have this horribly contagious virus that is affecting the entire world. Because of the virus and our combined reaction to it, people are dying, travel is restricted, the economy is weakened, the stock market is taking a real hit, and oil prices are plummeting. Preparation again is the key ingredient needed to come out the other side of this nightmare.

Times like these remind us how interconnected we all are—how individual actions are never totally separate from the whole. Now is the time to take precautions to protect the most vulnerable among us, and to give the heroic doctors and nurses on the front lines a fighting chance of saving lives. For more information on what you should be doing to protect yourselves and others, check the CDC’s website, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html, or the WHO’s website, https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019, frequently for updates.

Let us all pray for the best but prepare for the worst.

See you on the other side!

Adolfo E. Gutierrez