Letters: Zintel Dam, COVID-19, gun control and more | March 22

Why not new use for Zintel Dam?

I remember why Zintel Dam was built it so would eliminate the occasional flooding all the way onto Rainier street in Kennewick. It accomplished the goal of that time, and we have never had a flood since then.

But now we are in an entirely different decade and we have another use for the dam. Water could be easily stored in this large basin for KID to use when there is a water shortage.

For KID to “take away” a family’s livelihood for future water usage and spend millions of taxpayers dollars on something that already exists is not in the best interest of the public.

Take precautions to curb Covid-19

A rough comparison of influenza and COVID-19 mortality rates in Washington state. On March 16, 80 deaths are attributed to influenza in 22 weeks, and 48 deaths from COVID-19 in eight weeks (https://www.doh.wa.gov). COVID-19 has resulted in 65% more fatalities per week, while circulating, than all influenza strains. The infection and death rates rise to a peak, then drop off during an outbreak.

COVID-19 has not yet peaked, while influenza is past its peak, so COVID-19 may be twice as deadly as influenza, or worse, and deserves a serious effort to contain it. It’s much harder on the elderly and those with health issues. Most of us count “elderly and those with health issues” among our family and friends — or maybe that’s us!

All of us should be doing the relatively simple things that it takes to contain this bug: clean hands frequently (with soap or sanitizer), avoid large gatherings, and stay home if you become sick. If you have COVID-19 symptoms (cough, fever, difficulty breathing) and seek medical attention, call ahead to warn the emergency staff. We haven’t seen a COVID-19 case from the Tri-Cities yet, but it’s here, or will be very soon.

Editor’s note: A Tri-City case was confirmed on March 17

Small businesses will need help too

This letter (is) regarding coronavirus and business closures.

I own two food-service businesses in the area. If the state wants us to close our shops, most of us would understand. To do this without crippling those who can’t afford it, the federal government needs to defer all loan payments, utility payments, and rents for two months.

It would also be helpful if the the government could allow all of the employees to collect unemployment during the closure.

And though there are many large business owners who can afford to take that kind of time off, many small business owners, especially those with newly opened businesses, will have a very hard time during the closure. This problem is compounded by the fact that most small business owners don’t qualify for unemployment.

So, it would be helpful if small business owners could get a waiver to collect unemployment as well.

Take smart steps to halt hoarding

In our current crisis, we are seeing absurd runs on items like toilet paper, hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes and paper towels. These are household necessities, and it is time to stop the nonsense.

During the gas crisis in the 1970s, we had governors who used common sense and came up with solutions that set the standards. I remember being able to only buy 10 gallons of gas at a time, then we had the even-odd license system, which stopped the lines.

Then our AG’s went after price gougers instead of constantly suing the federal government.

Time to put your big boy pants on and deal with some of this. Limit the amount of items that can be purchased at one time and stop the hoarding and price gouging.

Gun control laws simply don’t work

Gun control laws have no real control and are as oxymoronic as: Drug control laws where Americans buy and consume megatons of illegal drugs that finance cartels whose size and firepower equal the Mexican military and require billions of dollars to try to enforce. Speed control laws – when have you not been passed by speeder(s)? Cell phone while driving – some use the 60:40 rule, 60 percent phone, 40 percent driving.

My impression is that half the Tri-City firearm-involved crimes are committed by persons prohibited from even touching a firearm. It is illegal to threaten, harass, assault or injure anyone with a weapon, regardless of whether it is a bat or an AR-15. Notice the common thread; lawbreakers break any law they don’t want to obey whether for profit or personal desire.

So, what gun control law do you think will work?

Pregnancy factors to think through

Kurt Lewis recently wrote about pregnancy. His letter wishes every pregnancy would produce a living baby. It’s an ideal; but his letter never mentioned women! Every pregnancy risks a woman’s health. I remember caring for two hospitalized pregnant women. One died of cardiac failure, the other died of kidney failure. Neither baby survived. Abortions would have prevented these women’s deaths.

Every American has a right to privacy. I hope Mr. Lewis doesn’t believe that women who terminate a pregnancy should be imprisoned; because the threat of punishment enslaves women. It erases Democracy from half our population.

It’s a violation of our Constitution’s First Amendment, to force any woman to obey somebody else’s religious preferences. Such political tyranny is “Fascism.” If Mr. Lewis wants to protect pregnancies, he must sacrifice to end what victimizes women: poverty, homelessness, abuse, rape, incest, sexually transmitted diseases, unaffordable healthcare, racial and gender inequality, guns, whatever threatens women. We also know that more pregnancies end spontaneously (God?), than by human decisions.

Reader wonders, what’s better?

Not long ago, an individual responded to my criticism of Donald Trump by saying I had no regard nor appreciation of how much he’d “improved the quality of life” for Americans. I wished the author had specified all those improvements but we, I, were left with only a generality.

But really?

At first I hesitated to respond to kudos for a man who has sown so much chaos on these shores, who has gifted well over a trillion bucks to the unneedy wealthy, appointed people without qualifications based on their toady loyalty only, caged children, has ridden the coattails of Obama’s economic recovery and thought he was responsible for its continuance, railed against news bureaus for seeking truth, and the lies the pinnochio’d 45th told for three years would stretch his nose across the Atlantic and, happily for him, well into Russia.

(My list is small in keeping within the 200-word guideline.)

The only “improvement” I have seen recently is in his inaction to a pandemic — failing to respond earlier and sowing confusion. He has indeed improved life for coronavirus’s existence.

This is leadership?

This story was originally published March 22, 2020 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Letters: Zintel Dam, COVID-19, gun control and more | March 22."