Many people fortunately still have their jobs, still are getting along OK without financial difficulties, and are weathering current economic anxieties without serious personal difficulties.
But for the many who have lost their jobs, exhausted their savings and otherwise suffered economic distress, these are "hard times," indeed. The word "recession" has special meaning to those in real economic pain.
The harsh meaning to many of our people is emphasized locally by the report that in just the first nine months of this year, there have been foreclosures on 1,111 residential properties - homes - according to official county records.
Multiply those 1,111 foreclosures - and more coming - by the number of people in those households and we can see that several thousand of our neighbors are going through real suffering.
As bad as it is to have had 1,111 local foreclosures in nine months, it is reported that the foreclosure rate is very much worse, and rising, in some other parts of our country.
Many of our people are in serious distress, but in many ways nationally, governmentally and economically, we are still doing some things that make situations worse instead of better.