COVID vaccine, Rep. Klippert, school mascots, and other Tri-City Herald letters
Firings dismantle our community
I spoke (recently) with a nurse from Kennewick, who having gone through COVID-19 and acquired natural immunity, was fired from her job in an elder care facility for refusing to take the vaccine. She loved her job, had served through the pandemic, and was now looking at job that paid $13 an hour.
It seems worthy of a Monty Python skit complete with head-bashing boards that we must now argue about natural immunity, but here we are.
And it’s not only health care workers; we are pushing skilled workers and solid citizens of every kind out of our community. It’s so dull, witless, and heartless. We are dismantling our community. Unless we fight for it.
Ben St. Hilaire, Kennewick
Mascot changes show respect
Washington school mascots and names that are perceived as disrespectful will officially be illegal at the start of 2022, a law that Gov. Jay Inslee enacted in good taste. Many of the schools immediately affected by such change currently hold symbols that represent Native American tribes, such as the Kamiakin High School Braves and the Legacy High School Thunderbirds.
This new legislation has encouraged healthy and productive discussion between school districts and local tribes, an experience that was shared by the Kennewick School District in their most recent Facebook post (Nov. 19). The district confirmed their communication with the Yakima Nation and explained that “the Tribal Council does not feel that it is within their purview to authorize the continued use of the Legacy High School mascot and image.” This district’s active communication and compliance represent the values driving recent pushes to eliminate the presence of racism in American policies and communities, including equality, respect and toleration. Even though the change may seem inconvenient, it would be worse to continue on without showing respect and empathy toward the desires and needs of our fellow men.
Evelyn Melville, West Richland
Reader resents Klippert ‘hit piece’
I was looking for an article on the Hanford worker “Stop the Mandate” rally. Instead I found an article about Brad Klippert choosing to not take the COVID-19 shots. What a disgusting hit piece. The article clearly attempts to paint him as reckless and dangerous to children.
In reality, Brad is a patriot and a great man. He has been a fantastic state legislator. How this article even got printed, much less made front-page headline news is beyond me. It is the very definition of “Fake News.” This newspaper apparently thought this information was more important than the article below it regarding the red wave sweeping through Kennewick City Council elections. This is why trust in traditional media is waning and newspapers are dying.
Jeff Van der Pol, Kennewick
Partisanship: We must do better
Rep. Paul Gosar was censured by his colleagues for advocating violence. In this era of hyperpartisanship, the vote fell along nearly straight party lines.
That meant our Washington 5th District Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers voted with her caucus. That’s a shame, as it isn’t a partisan issue and violence against women is among the more serious plagues of our time. She would know this due to all the pending bills addressing missing and murdered Indigenous, Black, LGBTQ community. The survivors, friends and loved ones of all those victims are reliving their pain all over again, thanks to actions like Ms. Rodgers’ and Mr. Gosar’s.
It’s an opportunity lost or ignored. There is less than a year until the next congressional election, and I will remember this day when I complete my ballot. We can and must do better than placing partisan gamesmanship over human lives.
Paul Franzmann, Walla Walla
Respect due for first responders
Citizens of Washington state, and especially those who have been in need of law enforcement and first responder assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic, should now question and be appalled by our state vaccine mandate, issued by Gov. Jay Inslee, that personnel in these categories either comply or be terminated. Instead of appreciation and respect for all they do to keep us safe, his “solution” was to ignore their many years of public service, deciding their jobs are now expendable.
How is that fair to them, their families and the citizens of our state? They didn’t waver in their help during all the time a vaccine was not yet available, even though they were being endangered by COVID-19 as well as the nature of their jobs.
Contrary to Destiny Kuespert’s Letter to the Editor on Nov. 11 that stated police officers are in the job for “power and a paycheck” their actions and dedication suggest otherwise. If she and Gov. Inslee ever need medical care, assistance due to a car accident or are a victim of crime, I would hope they could show more consideration, appreciation and respect for law enforcement and first responders who come to help.
Bonnie Hallet, Kennewick
Consider whether it’s in God’s plan
There’s a new fight about being privileged and white.
Am I to be ashamed because of the color of my skin? God made others different colors. So who’s to blame? Me? You? God has a plan He’s made just for me. It’s the same plan He’s made for you of what color to be. It’s a shame people can’t see the light and know that God’s plan is right. He loves us all no matter the color, no matter how short or tall, big or small.
God wants us free from (the) slavery of sin. No more slavery of men. He is the only master. He has all the answers. So stop throwing a fit about the past. It’s not coming back. You can’t cancel it. You can’t change it. You can’t rearrange it. You might be “woke” (is this a joke?) but God knows your heart. He wants you to see the light. Are you ready for Him? Will you let Him in? You won’t regret it. So don’t fret it. He’s gonna judge the lies when we all die. So be prepared, if you dare, to seek God and let him in. In the end — He will win.
Claudia Minnich, Kennewick
More CO2? We just will get green
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the findings in the IPCC AR6 report in August 2021 a “code red for humanity,” saying we can only avert catastrophe by acting in the next couple of months.
The first UN environment director claimed half a century ago that we had just 10 years left, and the then-head of the IPCC insisted in 2007 that we had just five years left. At the COP26 Climate conference in Scotland last week Gov. Jay Inslee said, “The actions we take in the next 5 years will determine the fate of our species.”
Of course, the premise of these statements is solely based on the results of climate models which have overpredicted warming from CO2 for 40 years.
One reason for this in my opinion is the models input an equilibrium climate sensitivity parameter (ECS) that is independent of CO2 concentration, thus ignoring the Doppler (or similar) effect in the radiation transport equations. As the CO2 concentration goes up, the effective radiation absorption rate of CO2 will decrease, thus reducing the calculated warming increase significantly.
Hence, as atmospheric CO2 increases beyond 400 ppm there will in reality be no catastrophe, no existential threat to the species, just significantly more greening of the planet which is a good thing.
Craig Brown, Richland
Intelligent life?
Martians are still looking for intelligent life on guests and hosts on MSNBC.
Rudy Tomich, West Richland