The voices are shrill.
    Times are tough. We can all attest to that.
    But life in Morgan County continues, still.
    Two fine examples of that were the recent MadisonFest and the Madison–Morgan Cultural Center’s Bicentennial Tour of Homes.
    With MadionFest were given a full weekend of events that were both fun and (gasp) affordable. It didn’t cost much to wander through the downtown square and marvel at the booths and the serious fun of barbecue cook–offs. A conservative estimate had the crowd at more than 3,500 for MadisonFest. Added to the weekend was the ambitious and extremely entertaining Equifest, a comprehensive working festival highlighting the diversity and importance of the equine industry in Morgan County. Both went off without a hitch.
    Last weekend the Cultural  Center’s tour of homes featured some of the finest homes Madison and Morgan County can offer. As a community we collectively scrubbed our face, put on our Sunday best and cleaned up pretty well.
    These were respites in the face of this economic Tsunami, but they were lessons, as well.
    Both events, one raising funds for a venerated Morgan County institution and the other raising awareness of our beautiful community, took massive planning and more importantly, conscientious and capable volunteers. We have plenty of both here.
    Therein lies the lesson. Despite the times, despite the adversity, the engines that could at the city of Madison, the Equifest committee and the countless docents and organizers of the tour of homes showed us what hard work, faith and synergy can do.
    There’s your good news, hidden in with the drug arrests, the robberies, the death. Sometimes in the worst of times the normalcy of a festival allows the mind to wander away from despair and back into the light.
    We hoped you didn’t miss any of it. If you did, check out the upcoming Rutledge Fair. That too, will pick you right up.