Much has been said and written about the weeks-long shut down of the local, state and national economy due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

And sadly, there is far more to be written and told.

As the revenue figures from March, April and May — the months where much of the economy was shuttered — are being reported, we have seen both good things and bad things.

In recent days, we have learned the city of Vicksburg may not make the decision to drastically cut employees or their earnings, but Monday we learned Ameristar Casino is set to lay off 150 employees beginning in August.

The story is not yet written.

And while we start to feel the positive impacts of our local economy reopening, the best may be yet to come.

As an economy heavily dependent on tourism, we have yet to feel the resurgence of visitors to our parks, our museums and our riverfront — but it is coming.

We continue to believe that while the first part of 2020 will be known for how we as a society got knocked down, we fully expect and believe the latter half of the year will be known for how we stood back up.