(Editor's Notes by Christina Myer - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

During last weekend’s warm stretch, I indulged in a day or two of believing summer was on its way. I took the dog for a walk and realized too late the doggie water fountains at the park were not yet turned on because there will still be a few below-freezing nights.

I drove around with the windows down and enjoyed the breeze, opened the kitchen window and even took a mid-afternoon nap with the sound of a neighbor’s lawn mower lulling me to sleep.

And then a mosquito bit me.

Those little suckers (pun intended) are my biggest complaint about warmer weather. I’m one of those people who can be sitting in a group enjoying a meal outdoors, and everyone else is blissfully untouched while the biting bugs feast upon me.

But, if I’m planning for them, I can usually fend them off with a little bug spray. No big deal. Meanwhile, its time again to watch out for all kinds of other itchy things, too much sun, humidity, maybe an occasional snake on the trail … all that stuff that disappears when winter takes hold.

Good.

Because if we have the luxury of those inconveniences, it means we truly have left winter behind and can enjoy months of beautiful weather here in our valley filled with natural treasures.

Our lives are like that in ways far beyond the weather. On social media, you’ll see inconveniences referred to as “first-world problems,” meaning, if those kinds of things are what worry us, we have forgotten how fortunate we are to have reached the point of having those things as inconveniences in the first place.

Yeah, you’re going to get bit once in a while. But this season of transition gives us a good chance to remember maybe we shouldn’t take for granted that we are in a position to be bitten in the first place.

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Meanwhile, a note about the response to my column last week. Though it should not have surprised me, I was taken aback by the tactic of the majority of those who reached out to me personally in response to what I wrote. It appears as though being critical of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis earned me the disdain of those who chose to insinuate I must be someone who cannot be trusted around children.

Certainly it seems unlikely each of those people would have arrived at such an absurd correlation independently. One has to wonder, then, how they have been guided to believe if someone is critical of a (too far) right hero, that person must be a pedophile or someone who grooms children (though I will say those who made their feelings known to me used language that only implied what they were thinking, rather than using those words).

It is groupthink at its most evil, and is a strategy being employed all over the country.

I encourage you to look for the on-floor response by Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, to similar attacks. Though I might not agree with McMorrow when it comes to matters of true politics and fiscal responsibility, I applaud her calling out this atrocious, and thoroughly calculated strategy.

And, if it makes you uncomfortable to know supporters of certain elected officials have been encouraged to hurl such labels at anyone who disagrees with that person, again, I ask you to keep an eye out for candidates who are above such nonsense. Look for those who instead are truly interested in doing what is best for the people they hope to serve, in terms of jobs, education, healthcare, economic diversification and development … you know, the kinds of things an elected official is supposed to do. Look to those who seek to lift us all.

Christina Myer is executive editor of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She can be reached via e-mail at cmyer@newsandsentinel.com