Wednesday, we ran a story of encouragement and determination, about a man who worked hard all his life, followed the rules and yet ended up in his 40s losing his job because of restructuring.

Roosevelt Winters could have curled up and quit, but he realized that he had to do something to re-create his life.

Winters, who attended college when he was younger, returned to school. In February, he will graduate from Shorter College with a degree in business management.

He also enrolled in the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia’s first internship program and was fortunate to land an internship as an assistant to Newton County Clerk Jackie Smith.

In these tough economic times many people have been dealt blows similar to the one dealt to Winters and have done nothing to help themselves except place blame on their tough luck and hold their hands out for an almost-bankrupt government’s handout.

Roosevelt Winters chose to man up and take control of his life and move in another direction. Check out his story at Covnews.com.

We will someday come out of this deep recession that is hurting everyone, and when we do, there will be people leading us like Winters, who reached the bottom but who refused to stay there.