Letters: Protests, dog control, BLM and more | Aug. 14

Pause protests ‘til virus subsides

The following is a plea to all protest and rally organizers: please pause any protests/rallies until there is a cure for COVID-19. Priorities need to be changed.

Any large group gathering only fuels the spread. More people will suffer regardless of gender, ethnicities, left, or right. Your “just” actions have become an injustice for many who are vulnerable when facing this virus. Any organized gatherings during a world pandemic is in fact a danger to public health.

Please think long term and truly practice diversity, equity and inclusion with empathy and compassion.

Please look at our children, who because of the tug-a-war between the left and the right are continuing to lose their right to be educated. The minorities, children with disabilities, children whose parents both need to work so they have to take care themselves, children whose families cannot afford wi-fi, children who use schools as a safe place to escape from abusive homes will be impacted greatly.

Whether you stand for the left or the right, stop organizing street protests of any kind.

Express by voting, not by gathering!

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House hearing hit low for decorum

July 28 had to be a new low for congressional Democrats who are members of the house Judiciary Committee headed by Gerald Nadler. The hearing was billed as William Barr’s Moment of Accountability. What we saw was bullying, name calling and untrue statements by Jerry and his cronies. Barr was asked questions and then given no time to respond or simply talked over. It was described by the Washington Post as a “sick reality show.”

Jerry refuses to admit that riots are occurring in the US. When Jim Jordan played a video of main stream media outlets describing peaceful protests. It was followed by scenes of burning buildings, assaults upon federal property and injured law enforcement officers. We were indirectly told not to believe our lying eyes.

The world seems upside down. Protesters are burning black-owned businesses in the name of BLM. The presence of police is allegedly causing crime. Law enforcement officers on federal property seem to be the cause of civil unrest.

Had Nadler and his rough riders been alive in 1836, they most likely would have described the Battle of the Alamo as a minor distraction.

Isn’t it time to vote out these extremists?

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Benton City needs better dog control

If you are looking to invest in a home inside the city limits of Benton City, be aware of the lack of rules regarding aggressive dogs. We have had in the last few weeks two instances so far of unleashed pit bulls charging us in a very aggressive threatening manner. This small town seems to be full of unleashed dogs that roam freely about. Not a good move for investment opportunities for the city. Benton City, get it together and control the unleashed aggressive dogs within city limits and keep Benton City safe for all.

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Hazardous waste facility needed

An open letter to Benton County commissioners:

It’s been 10 years since we lost the household hazardous waste (HHW) facility. That’s a long time for the county government to provide a safe and legal way for residents to dispose of HHW. The twice-annually collection at one inconvenient site is not an adequate solution.

Please step up to your responsibility here and provide a reasonably convenient way for us to dispose of hazardous waste properly.

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U.S. built on idea of melting pot

Mr. Endres July 2 letter excoriated a writer for calling the current cultural conflict a war. I call it a struggle to retain the special/unique qualities of America existing nowhere else! Those include, all men are created equal, have certain inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Note attainment of “happiness” is all on the individual.

America is a melting pot. The idea being that through melting and blending together various peoples, a homogeneous mix and the unique culture of America is formed. Think “E Pluribus Unum” (out of many one).

Diversity of ideas has been replaced by forced acceptance of cultures, many antithetical to the American culture. For example female genital mutilation, honor killings, marrying off 10- and 12-year-old girls, women not allowed to vote, drive cars, go to school or leave their homes unless accompanied by a man. Cultures where it is acceptable to rape, mutilate and even cannibalize your neighbors due to their tribal or religious affiliation.

Leftists (Marxists) have murdered well-over 100,000,000 people, and daily force people into “re-education camps” and prisons, crush all dissent, religious liberty and impoverish nations to enrich party elites. Do we welcome and accommodate these cultures or political ideologies?

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Gov. Brown not telling the truth

Oregon’s Gov. Kate Brown is not truthful about what is happening in Portland. She is misrepresenting how federal law enforcement officers are conducting their protection duties around the federal building and federal properties. She calls the local criminals “organic protesters,” as if they are wearing flowers in their hair and singing songs of amnesty. No.

These are not “protesters” and they are not peaceful. The mainstream news media is doing no one a service by sugar-coating the actions of this violent mob in Portland. They are Black Lives Matter and Antifa members who are intent on damage, destruction and mayhem.

It is right for federal officers to be in any American city in which federal buildings are targeted for damage. These criminals got into the federal courthouse in Portland and set a fire inside the building! That is not peaceful! They tackle the federal officers and try to injure them, they throw bricks and frozen water bottles at them, they spit at them, they hit them with baseball bats. No, this is not a “peaceful, organic protest”.

If Gov. Brown wants to say something on TV, the least she can do it make an attempt to be honest.

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Let’s be outraged by Black murders

Since Memorial Day, America has been wracked with civil unrest over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. A huge national conversation has again erupted over unjustified police killings of Black Americans, unjustified killings that could be as high as the low hundreds per year. Outrage is understandable, because such killings violate the trust we place in our police.

But, where is the outrage about a related matter? Even though Blacks make up only 13 to 14% of the population, over 50% of murder victims are Black. In 2018 alone, the FBI reports 7,407 Blacks were murdered out of a total of 14,123 murders. Where are the protests, outrage and calls to action about Black Americans being murdered at a rate all out of proportion to their population size? Why are Black Lives Matter and most of the media silent about this? Don’t these lives matter too?

Rather than ask hard questions about why this is happening and what to do about it, perhaps It is just easier to demonize the police and ignore this bigger picture issue.

For fact checkers/skeptics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_use_of_deadly_force_in_the_United_States and https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/topic-pages/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-1.xls

This story was originally published August 14, 2020 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Letters: Protests, dog control, BLM and more | Aug. 14."