Letters: Coronavirus, state bills, Trump and more | April 5

Thanks due our first responders

Thanks to all of the first resbonders, hospital staff doctors. You’ve always had difficult jobs. But with this virus you are put in a very dangerous position. I pray that you all will be safe and everyone can get through this as soon as possible. Thank you again

Take a look at radiation histories

The (op-ed) article, “The myth of Cows” by Mike Paoli in the March 15 edition of the Herald and comments by Jim Conca were great. The fears associated with low doses of radiation are much worse than the health effects. Our meeting in Pasco, “Applicability of Radiation-Response Models to Low-Dose Protection Standards” (Health Physics 118: (3), 2020) had heart rending stories from Japanese of deaths from evacuation, loss of businesses, divorce, suicide and loss of top-soil.

This made me realize that regulatory action was the problem, not health risk. Bruce Church and I, both from Southern Utah, published an article in the International Journal of Radiation Biology, “Cost of fear and radiation protection actions: Washington County, Utah, and Fukushima, Japan {Comparing case histories}.” Utah had almost 3 times more radiation dose that Fukushima, had no disruption of the economy or social costs and has grown into a wonderful winter resort. Fukushima actions almost destroyed the Japanese economy. Bottom line: The cancer rate in Utah is the lowest in the nation and Washington County where the fallout and radiation dose was the highest, has the third lowest cancer rate in the state. Do we suffer from similar fears in the Tri-Cities?

Dolven article was truly heartfelt

Thank you, Jeff Morrow, for a heartfelt article about Randy Dolven. We enjoyed watching his teams when he coached, watching his sons when they played for Kamiakin, and knowing that Randy was a class act!

Also, thank you to the Tri-City Herald editors for employing Jeff Morrow. Without his columns, there would be no reporting on local sports. Jeff, you are appreciated and needed by the people who enjoy local sports. We always look forward to your articles!

Fishing out, buses still are crowded

Fishing in Washington has been closed because of too close of contact on the fishing docks and river banks. However, it’s still okay to pack people into a public transit bus headed across town sharing the same air space. Ridiculous!

Letter described bills inaccurately

In the March 12 “Letters to the Editor” section, the letter “Democrats Push Demented Laws” caused me to do some research about proposed changes to state laws because of the author’s opinion that citizens of our state should be punished, not be helped. His far-right conservative opinions will not be repeated, but the bills will be briefly described so readers can decide for themselves if they are demented.

*SB5395 gives Washington students the tools they need to engage in safe, consensual relationships as adults, in addition to teaching them skills to identify and prevent sexual abuse.

*SB1775 causes two receiving centers to be created to provide services to commercially exploited youth (ages 12-16) referred by the Office of Homeless Youth and Prevention Programs.

*SB1551 contends that HIV is no longer the disease it was 30 years ago when the law was enacted to make transmitting it knowingly a felony. In a part of this bill, it is recommended that it be a misdemeanor.

*Finally, the author claims that SB6037 creates racist hiring quotas for businesses. Actually, it authorizes financial compensation of surrogates.

I disagree that these proposed changes to our laws are demented and destructive to our families and nation.

Politics at play in Stone sentence?

Since Attorney General Barr assumed the top post at the Justice Department last year, he cleared the president of obstruction of justice even when Special Counsel Robert Mueller had declined to do so and declared that the FBI’s Russia investigation, resulting in charges against Roger Stone, had been based on a “bogus narrative.”

Stone was subsequently convicted in federal court of seven felonies for obstructing the congressional inquiry of Russian meddling in the 2016 election of the president, lying to investigators under oath and trying to block the testimony of a witness who would have exposed his lies. The sentencing recommendation of the four prosecuting attorneys to the judge was seven to nine years.

After senior Justice Department leadership intervened to walk back the prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation, the four federal prosecutors who ran Stone’s trial quit the case on Feb. 10.

Although the Justice Department denies it, this was after our president tweeted: “This is a horrible and very unfair situation.” He added, “Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!”

Despite Attorney General Barr’s denial that the president influenced the Justice Department’s decision to scale back Stone’s sentencing recommendation, can this be anything but improper political interference in a criminal prosecution?

What we lost by voting in Trump

Candidate Trump asked, “What do you have to lose by voting for me?” What then, after three-plus years of the Trump administration, have the American people lost?

Trump’s constant gross exaggerations, outright lies, baseless boasts and needless insults have caused a loss of trust. His failure to accept any responsibility for anything has caused a loss of credibility. Trump’s appointments of unqualified sycophants and repudiation of science has caused a loss of competence and effective governance within his administration. The loss of trust, credibility and competence resulted in the loss of leadership. Accordingly, confidence in the presidency and the federal government has been lost by the majority of Americans. And it’s no surprise that around the world, there has been a loss of respect for America and its president. Finally, Trump’s complete botching of the coronavirus crisis has caused many to lose their jobs and retirement savings, while tragically, causing many others to lose their health and their lives-and the end is not yet in sight.

So what did we have to lose? Quite a lot after all.

Case numbers tell only part of story

Numbers of cases of COVID-19 reported by country are numerator data. There should be reports indicating number of cases compared with population of country, denominator data. Germany has 49,344 cases in its country of 83,783,000 people. This is 0.06% of the population. The U.S. has had 92,932 cases out of a population of 331,002,000 which amounts to 0.03% of population. There are many reasons for these differences in percentage of population involved with COVID-19. Clearly a country with 4X as many people is likely to have more cases than a smaller country. How can one draw a meaningful conclusion just knowing the numerator data?

Candles might help lighten dark hour

I am suggesting we all do a candlelight vigil on our porches every night at 8 p.m., “8 Minutes at 8.” I am using three candles: one for healing for all those sick, one for medical staff to keep them safe, and one for first responders to keep them safe. Please, let’s all “Light up the Night” in love, hope, healing and strength to get through the challenge COVID-19 has presented us.

Pandemic cause for reflection

This pandemic is a time for reflection:

Many people in these cities believe that capitalism is flawless. They believe that poor people are lazy, immigrants are criminals, and that taking care of all of our people is unfettered socialism.

Yet, look at what’s going on.

Our economy depends on everyday workers, who often are paid less than living wages while being insulted for wanting more. It’s not the executives and CEOs who are keeping this country afloat, but the people many Tri-Citians take for granted. It’s not realistic to keep arguing that health care is earned, when it’s clear how many people would die without it.

Our current version of capitalism relies on elevating the few. We are seeing a leader who refuses to view us as part of the global community, and members of Congress more concerned with the massive number of unemployed getting too much money. Our most vulnerable people are being suggested as necessary sacrifices for the economy.

I know I will be called a commie for writing this. I will be told that I’m just upset that Trump won the 2016 election. But please just observe what’s going on around us. We need to change.

Get right gear to health care pros

We as a society need to do more to protect our health care workers. They need the proper equipment, personal protective masks and protective clothing to allow them to perform their life-saving work. Please reach out to your elected and community leaders to demand the necessary gear, tools and equipment for them to do their jobs.

Is plastic bag ban a health hazard?

With sadness, I read of the ban on single-use plastic bag ban law being signed by the governor. The 8-cent charge for other bags will encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable bags. Many people bring their children to the store and the children wander around near their parent touching every item in sight. Any organisms on their hands, for instance, coronavirus, are left on the cans or packages. The organisms are then deposited in the bags used to carry them home. If we do not then launder our reusable bag every time we go to the store, the germs or viruses are then put on whatever we buy the next time.

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, we now have a law which will promote the spread of disease. One of the arguments for the law is that much plastic finds its way to a mass of plastic floating in the Pacific west of Hawaii. My bet is that none to few of the plastic bags in this flotsam comes from Washington state. It is known that most of this trash comes deliberately from East Asia or ocean shipping. And we will have to find other containers to carry trash and wet garbage to our trash cans. Maybe we should mail it to Gov. (Jay) Inslee. Congratulations and our heartfelt thanks, fear and ignorance. You have won against the people once more. State Supreme Court get busy. The people once more do not know what they have wrought.

Feral cats wise enough to survive

Re: Rose Archer’s letter March 39, “Cats put on farms are coyote bait.” I disagree. The cats involved in this program are feral and very cautious and smart, much more likely to survive this placement than a domesticated cat. One of my Dad’s barn cats is 18 years old! A few years ago, I undertook, along with the help of my friend and the staff of Prevent Homeless Pets,” the task of catching the ferals living and multiplying in the bushes at Fred Meyer in Richland. They were being hit by cars, (and it was a) dangerous place to live! We trapped them, Prevent Homeless Pets spayed and neutered them,… (and) they also examined and vaccinate. A couple were adoptable, but most were too feral and were placed on farms, a much safer and more enjoyable existence than a parking lot! While I agree the safest and best place is a loving home, most are not so lucky, and if this isn’t done, they multiply exponentially! In most cases, they are released back in the location they are familiar with, but now unable to reproduce, breaking the chain.

I love you my friend, but have a different view point.

Respectfully,

May new normal end social chaos

Before the Coronavirus, we were just a bunch of men, women, and children doing various things as part of life. That changed, because the media, business, and government got active in ways to limit th spread of the pandemic. Their intentions are honorable, and we all hope it will keep most of us virus-free. But the media and governmental fixation on the virus’ possible spread interrupted normalcy and has the unintended effect of consolidating all of us into a new social identity. No longer are we just men, women, and children. Now, we are boogeymen, maybe posing a danger from infection to and from other boogeymen. But in reality, we are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, grandchildren, cousins … the people that God created because He personally loved each of us, by name.

Analogically the virus is a shark in the ocean. We are together in a lifeboat, hoping to stay out of the water. Sooner or later, the tide will change, and we’ll beach the boat, and walk home with our families, but hopefully not to the social and cultural chaos we allowed to grow in the last 60 years.

Consequences of electing Pinocchio

So here we are again. After something like 80 years, lessons not learned are back. A little different this time, but same cause. Put a psychopath in charge and it’s disaster. As Dana Milbank of the Washington Post put it: ‘Behold, the perils of the Pinocchio presidency.’

Every congressional politician who unconditionally supported this grifter, con-artist and those who voted to make the Senate trial an evidence-less sham and voted against removing him from office is directly responsible for allowing the incompetent handling of the coronavirus that has resulted in worsening of the pandemic and collapse of our economy, must be held accountable! Their actions were unprecedented in the country’s history and such traitorous dereliction of their oath of office cannot be tolerated in a democracy! Citizens that unthinkably do, don’t deserve an democracy.

I am particularly referring to the majority of citizens and politicians of Eastern Washington and Oregon and Idaho that blindly followed this person and his party. You’ve undoubtedly cost the lives of many older people, like me, that might have lived longer had you allowed your common sense to rule rather than blindly follow incompetent, self-serving dogmatic nonsense from sociopaths. May your shame follow you.

Doubting wisdom of sports gambling

I question Gov. Jay Inslee’s judgment in signing a bill into law that would legalize sports gambling. With the COVID-19 outbreak and most businesses closed, and employees out of work, This seems like a very poor time to legalize something to spend money on that could be used for a much better purpose.

At times, wind power does stop

I would like to provide a fact in response to the guest opinion titled “Wind energy myths generate confusion.” According to the Bonneville Power Authority website, https://transmission.bpa.gov/business/operations/wind/baltwg.aspx, there was essentially zero wind-generated electricity added to the BPA network during the week immediately before the article written by Michael Rucker appeared in the newspaper. What wind power was delivered was generated on Saturday when the demand was lowest for the week. Raw tabular data is available from the BPA website from 2007 through 2020 for different sources.

Every megawatt of electricity generated by windmills in the Mid-Columbia must be backstopped with dispatchable generating sources to ensure electricity is available during the hottest days of summer and on frigid winter nights. So why pay for two electrical generators, or a wind turbine and an electric storage device, when one reliable and dispatchable power plant is sufficient?

Finally, as a nuclear engineer, I am proud to note that the Columbia Generating Station was steadily pumping out more than 1160 megawatts all week long without deviation, just as the plant did all winter long.

An observation on market timing

Many years ago, a client of my office called in and said she had a dream that the stock market was going to crash and that we should sell everything in her portfolio immediately, which we did. She called on Oct. 16, 1987 – a week before the worst day in stock market history, Black Monday.

Due to her prophetic powers, she didn’t need the help of a silly financial adviser. Her account left our books; and her ex-husband’s identical portfolio ended that year down 2%.

Expecting to hear tales of how rich she had made herself by 1990, I have to admit, it was anticlimactic to hear that three years later she was still waiting for her entry point to get back in! Meanwhile, her ex had turned $300,000 into $387,000.

She would have had an extra $87,000 in just 3 years’ time had she ignored her portfolio and premonitions.

I realize that you’re afraid to get in too early. True, this could get much worse before it gets better, but your chances of getting out at the right time and then getting back in at the right time are slim to none. Those odds are for gamblers only.

Act of compassion was noticed

Early Friday morning I passed one of our local cemeteries. It was cold. There, next to a new grave with a casket ready to be lowered into the ground, two groundskeepers were at the side, heads lowered, paying their respects. How comforting it would be to the family of the departed to know that their loved one was not alone, that two unsung heroes took the time to give of themselves to someone they did not know. Whoever you are, know that your grand act of kindness and mercy did not go unnoticed, anymore than the departed person was unnoticed. Your light shines. We should all follow this example of the best in humanity. Thank you.

This story was originally published April 5, 2020 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Letters: Coronavirus, state bills, Trump and more | April 5."