I hope that everyone was able to recharge over the break. We’ve all started to settle back in, albeit amid ongoing tumultuous times, and must steel ourselves for meeting the challenges 2021 will bring us. We stood firm during 2020 and set the bar high for ourselves. I am very proud of our Extension family, and our excellent work has been noted. What will you do this year to excel beyond the successes of 2020 that Extension created?
I want to remind everyone to tune into the Extension Town Hall this Thursday at 9:30 a.m. on Zoom. Make sure you register for the Town Hall meeting before Thursday. The meeting will be recorded for those who cannot join the live session. Members of your Extension Leadership Team, Dean Belli, and I will be presenting. Please do your best to attend the live webinar.
For some organizations, work slows down at the end of the calendar year, but that is never the case for Extension. The Agribusiness team is no exception. The 37th installment of the Southeast Ag Lenders School was held virtually, the SC Center for Cooperative and Enterprise Development one-stop-shop for start-up businesses was launched, and experts such as Dr. Adam Kantrovich provided valuable insight into 2021 trends. Additionally, the Water Resources team has not let up on helping communities with flooding issues, and the Horticulture team has free food crop production virtual meetings planned for later this month and February.
We have built trust with South Carolina citizens, but we could certainly lose it a lot faster than we gained it. We must do our homework before we present to our stakeholders. We must respect the opinion of others. We must be willing to listen with an open mind. We must formulate our remarks based on unbiased research-based information. Extension is still as needed today as it was in its early years. People are longing for systems they can continue to believe and trust in, those that respect everyone as equals who deserve opportunities to improve their quality of life no matter their background.
Keep striving for greatness, grit, and generosity in 2021 within your professional and personal roles. I ask you to embrace what is good and most important to you in your life. More than ever, it is important to acknowledge what we cherish and strive to honor and protect it, as this will be our guiding light over the next several months. Instead of focusing on the uncertain, let’s focus on what is certain; one such thing is what we as Clemson Extension can do for our communities, our families, and the state of South Carolina. Our citizens find comfort in knowing that Extension is a constant they can continue to depend upon, and more people will come to know that this year.
Many of us have looked forward to starting a new year for many months, and yet 2021 has presented even more uncertainty within the first two weeks. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to extract heavy tolls on our country and the world, but vaccines have been unleashed to start putting out the fires. Our Capitol was attacked, and differences are laid bare, but tomorrow we usher in our 46th presidency.
My wife shared this story, and it made me think of the state of our country today. If you catch two species of ants – 100 of each – and put them in a jar, at first, nothing will happen. However, if you violently shake the jar and dump them back on the ground, the two species of ants will fight until they eventually kill each other. However, the real enemy is the person who shook the jar. It feels as though this is what is happening in society today. The question we need to be asking ourselves is who’s shaking the jar and why?
Unfortunately, our state has seen a distressing uptick in virus cases over the past several weeks, as was predicted. The vaccines are being rolled out, but this is no time to back off the basic proven safety protocols: face coverings, social distancing, and hand hygiene. We absolutely will gain ground faster if everyone does their part. Please be part of the solution. We cannot just sit back and assume vaccines will take care of everything, as until then, many will continue to suffer, and more lives will be lost.
As always, please take good care of yourselves and your families, and thank you for what you do for Clemson Extension.
