Letters: Masks, Cancer Center, Fire District 4 and more | May 24

Remembering the era of catalogs

I would like to put a little laughter into this very scary situation that we find ourselves in now, and many items that we need are not available.

Is anyone still here who grew up in the 1940s and 1950s in Kennewick? Memories are blowing through my mind about growing up back then. In the beginning, we had no toilet in the house, but we had an outhouse outside. I remember that we used either the Sears, Roebuck or Montgomery Ward catalogs for toilet paper. The pages back then were very light and useful. You just ripped a page out of the catalog and solved your problem. Of course they can’t be used now because they can’t be flushed and the catalogs are mostly gone, as most of the good things we had, have disappeared. Sometimes it was really a special chilly thrill to have to go outside at night to use the outhouse, especially in winter.

Back then was a special time when this area was small and a great place to grow up, and hundreds of things to learn and do. Many years of special memories and friends are forever. This is just one of hundreds of memories.

Down the rabbit hole with COVID

From The Herald photo of Trudi Inslee’s “Heeere’s Johnny” (mask-free) grin while wielding those scissors, to the absurd comment by Tri-City health official Rick Dawson that we really do not know who has the underlying conditions that may have contributed (to the contracting of) COVID-19, I feel I’ve gone down the rabbit hole.

Every week, more data comes out that, while to be taken seriously, COVID-19 is not the dire threat it was first made out to be. Democrat governors are taking credit for the subdued spreading of the virus, yet the lionized Andrew Cuomo couldn’t understand why the majority of new cases were from those who were forced to stay in their residences. Studies show that masks probably have limited effectiveness. In the meantime, those people who have more life-threatening diseases, such as cancer and heart disease, wait for medical treatment that may not come. While the country waits on the chimerical solution to the problem of COVID-19 with benchmarks that are almost impossible to reach, we suffer in our physical and financial health and well-being.

There are more intelligent ways to handle this crisis, other than the “one size fits all.” I can’t wait for sanity to be restored to this nation.

Loss of freedom worse than virus

I am getting increasingly frustrated. No, angry.

The government is taking away my freedoms under the guise of protecting other people. They use their own data, which I believe to be collected and reported with bias, and open discussion and feedback from its citizens is not respected. It is very clear that the government does not respect my freedom to choose. I don’t trust the media, I have lost trust in local, state and national politicians.

My ability to be heard has been taken away. Today the governor of Washington sounded more like a dictator. Why does he think that I want to hear from him about a pandemic? He is a politician. I want to hear from medical professionals in open conversation and debate, not hand-selected medical experts. I want the freedom to take care of my friends, family and community and do what is best for them because I care about them. I do not agree with protests or protesters, but what other options are we given? Tell me where does my opinion matter? The coronavirus is not the enemy. Dying from disease is not my fear. Losing my freedom is what I fear most.

How do current deaths compare?

For an honest perspective, I would like to see the total average U.S., Washington state and Tri-City death numbers for the last few years compared with this year’s numbers.

No surprise virus may not go away

Interesting headline in the Herald (May 14, 2020); “WHO Official: Virus ‘may never go away.’”

To my knowledge, only one infectious agent has ever been eradicated. Smallpox. And that took a great deal of time and a monumental effort. If the WHO has just now figured out that the virus “may never go away,” there is a staggering level of incompetence in that organization, and they desperately need to be fired.

Don’t make masks a political issue

I have noted with interest a TV ad by a notable local store owner with the message: “We are all in this together. Please shop locally.”

He also indicates that his store will protect you as best as possible when you are inside shopping. I appreciate this sentiment and would like to shop inside local stores whenever possible, while still adhering to the governor’s COVID-19 guidelines. However, my experience in most stores, other than Costco, is that I and a few others, along with the staff (at times), are wearing protective masks, while many other shoppers are not. In other words, folks, we mask wearers are protecting you, but you non-mask wearers are not returning the favor.

This does not feel like, “We are all in this together.” Wearing a mask is such a simple thing, and if everyone did this, it would make a difference in our collective safety. Please don’t make this a political issue. My husband and I are elderly, and therefore at a higher risk. We are not ready to sacrifice ourselves to COVID-19. Our children and our grandchildren still need us, and we still have a lot to contribute to society.

Cancer center fate sad, disappointing

How sad and disappointing that two of the three hospitals in the Tri Cities, which are now owned by a for-profit company, are stepping away for a facility that they both, in their former existence as true community hospitals, co-founded and funded, the Tri-City Cancer Center.

It’s a facility that for 25 years has served the Tri Cities population. It is truly shameful that these two hospitals and the company that now owns them not only wants to sever ties with the TCCC, but they also want to be paid for abandoning the TCCC. It is shameful not only to the ownership, but in the case of Trios, the board that literally bankrupted Kennewick General Hospital. That resulted in the sale, (and) that the current ownership values profit over patient care and service. This action smacks of greed of which there should be no place for this attitude and behavior in the medical world. I would hope that the demand to be paid to leave TCCC be reconsidered by the ownership, and if that is not the case, then TCCC refuse to give away the community’s money to these greedy people.

Why does size of business matter?

I’m having a difficult time understanding the logic of letting big businesses stay open and not small businesses. If it’s “safe” to go to the grocery store, why is it “unsafe” to shop at the Octopus’ Garden in uptown Richland.

Gus, the owner, can wear masks and require customers to do the same just like the clerks at Safeway, Home Depot and other “essential” stores. Gus and the other small business owners are losing a lot of revenue because they are required to close their businesses. This makes no sense to me.

Beyond Clarkston lies real America

Saturday night, having gathered up the nerve that the ruling class thinks so many of us lack, I crossed the border at Clarkston. Re-entering the United States without papers and a well aimed police thermometer, I was immediately struck by the sight of innumerable citizens recreationally and commercially enjoying Lewiston, Idaho.

What I saw and experienced firmly established that in selected locations the vast majority of the American citizenry indeed possess a tremendous reservoir of self reliance and common sense.

Yesterday, it was back to Coronaland where our three mini-fuehrers, Huey, Dewey and Lucille masquerading as governors still reign supreme. It is terribly disheartening to watch the continued obeisance which so many of our fellow citizens afford the self-styled experts who think themselves uniquely gifted and entitled to continue their rule by executive diktat.

Completely devoid of any experience in the travel industry, I can wholeheartedly recommend that should you be so inclined, you couldn’t help do better than a trip across the freedom bridge to the real America, where at least a resemblance of our country, the way it was envisioned, is starting to re-emerge.

Back levy lid lift for Fire District 4

My name is Kai Nielsen and I survived a heart attack in 2013. I am grateful to the emergency responders at Benton County Fire District No. 4 who saved my life. I also want to thank everyone who supports emergency services through their tax dollars. You saved my life, too, in a roundabout way.

Benton County Fire District No. 4 has a fire levy lid lift on the August primary election ballot. Funding will be used to hire firefighters and paramedics to respond to calls. It also will pay for costs associated with COVID-19, such as personal protective equipment for first responders.

I know everyone is tired of the pandemic, but if we hadn’t invested in our fire district, things would be a lot worse. Money is tight for many people, but I hope folks will prioritize tax dollars for emergency services this fall when they get their ballots.

Volunteers vital to Pasco Food Bank

For the last couple of years, I have volunteered at the Pasco Food Bank located on Sylvester Street. The Food Bank has been managed by Connie and Stan Arlt for 20+ years with dedicated volunteers Rae, Lowell, Herm, Eva, Val and others. They provide boxes of produce and dry food products to Pasco’s low-income, at-need families. With the onset of the coronavirus, they have gone from handing out 275 boxes to over 450 boxes every Wednesday morning with the help of their volunteers, members of the National Guard and a wonderful group of retirees from Battelle. And that’s with never knowing from week to week if they will have the bulk donations of food from Second Harvest they need. Yet they persevere knowing it will all work out.

Kudos to that group for showing up every Tuesday with their masks and gloves to stock what donations they get and then on Wednesday to fill and hand out the boxes. They provide a service few people know about but is much needed in the Pasco community.

Costco masks not worn properly

Costco recently started requiring its customers to wear masks as a condition if entering the store, yet allows its employees to improperly wear their masks. To be effective, a mask must cover both the nose and mouth.

I’ve witnessed several employees, not only at Costco but at other stores, wearing masks below their noses, which does little good. When I asked an employee at Costco why he wasn’t covering his nose with his mask, he said, “It’s optional.” Really? Either the company policy is cockeyed or there is a lack of adequate supervision.

Either way, they are putting customers at risk and operating on a double standard.

This story was originally published May 24, 2020 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Letters: Masks, Cancer Center, Fire District 4 and more | May 24."