Thumbs Up

Sampson Regional Medical Center’s administrators and staff are always proactive, an important strength to have in any hospital, but especially a local one. They deserve a thumbs up for that alone, but extra applause and appreciation should go to the hospital for its most recent response to an increase in flu activity

Because of the rise, both locally and across the state, the hospital issued a directive Wednesday, restricting visitation for an indefinite period of time.

Some will likely be angered by the move, particularly if it directly impacts how they would prefer to visit friends or loved ones, but we think hospital officials were spot on in their decision and wise to enact it as quickly as they did.

The restrictions protect patients, those visiting patients, hospital staff and the general public, tamping down the prospect of spreading the flu.

It is a move that deserves gratitude not criticism.

Mandatory visitation guidelines are hospital-wide and restrict visitors under the age of 18 or adults of any age who have fever or flu-like symptoms. It’s possible those restrictions could last until March or even longer based on how long the flu hangs around.

We urge people to take those restrictions seriously and follow them to the letter.

The hospital is trying to provide, as they said, “quality care in a safe environment.” We must help them in that endeavor and we should thank them for caring enough to make such decisions, ones that are in everybody’s best interest.

Thumbs Down

President Donald Trump just doesn’t get it. Presidents are supposed to set an example for our country, not belly on up to the bar and spew out lewd remarks at every turn. He’s supposed to rise above the masses, thinking before he speaks, speaking from the heart, but not from the gutter.

And presidents are suppose to set a tone of racial equality, encouraging us to set aside differences of color, religion and economic status so that we might work together for the greater good of our country.

He did neither last week during a meeting to hammer out immigration reform and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA program, spewing profanity presumably directed at people in repressed countries.

It is offensive on many levels.

And this isn’t about him being a Republican. This is about him being the president and behaving as such. And every American, Republican or Democrat, should agree, denouncing that which is wrong and applauding those things which are right.

In this case, Trump’s use of vulgar language — both a Republican and a Democrat have acknowledged he did so — only adds to a litany of offensive thoughts the president has expressed both in public and in closed door meetings.

Just as disturbing is how others have backed away from acknowledging how wrong the president is. While some have said his comments aren’t okay, the majority have been silent. And of the Republicans at the meeting who have spoken out, they’ve offered vague, confusing and even contradictory explanations of what happened.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. Plain and simple. Trying to polish it up, dance around it or simply play dumb doesn’t change the facts.

It would be refreshing if the president would clean up his mouth and it would be nice, too, if when something is wrong, people, no matter their party, would acknowledge it.

Trump needs to mind his mouth