Idea on labor shortages and immigration, and other Tri-City Herald letters to the editor

State: Take action on Didier, masks

Which is worse, our elected leaders refusing to follow the lawful orders of the state or the state agencies refusing to take action to enforce these orders? Franklin County Commissioner Clint Didier continues to refuse to wear a mask in public despite lawful orders. He claims a medical exemption and that wearing a mask would cause him to have a heart attack. He has worn a bandana (mask) in public. Didier has worn masks and didn’t have a heart attack.

How can this be a legitimate medical opinion? Why isn’t the Washington Medical Commission investigating this COVID-19 information in accordance with its policy, “A practitioner who grants a mask or other exemption … without a finding of a legitimate medical reason supporting such an exemption … may be subjecting their license to disciplinary action?” Labor & Industries stated it could investigate the 22 complaints about Didier in 1-2 months. The pandemic is clearly not a priority for L&I. The lack of timely action by state agencies indicates the governor has not provided effective direction, or the agencies aren’t listening. We will never get out of this pandemic until our government has the resolve to enforce the lawful rules and orders it issues.

William Richmond, Richland

An idea to solve immigration issue

At the turn of the 19th century and the start of the Industrial Revolution, the Statue of Liberty became a symbol for what was needed: a labor force.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

That was over 100 years ago. It seems to me this country is at another crossroads, and we could use some help. I truly hope those words weren’t just for white Europeans. As I travel around, I see help wanted signs everywhere. And yet there are thousands of eager workers on our southern boarders. I understand we have to be careful, but we also need the help.

Here is a possible solution. Amazon, Walmart, Target and so many more businesses need a lot of workers. Get the government out of this mess and save the taxpayers some money. Let these large companies set up offices on the southern border and interview and check each individual’s background for possible employment. These private companies would be responsible for any individual they bring into this country.

Ted James Mitchell, Richland

Permanent DST makes most sense

It does not matter to me if we go to one time standard. But if we do, we should choose Daylight Saving Time. Living in the northern section of the country, we are used to the sun rising at 4:30 a.m. or so in the summer. If we choose standard time, the sun will rise an hour earlier. It really does not make sense to have the sun rise at 3:30 a.m.

Mike Curtiss, West Richland

‘Truth prepares us for the future’

“The truth brings the past into the present and prepares us for the future,” a quote from the poet Maya Angelou, underscores the importance of a factual account of U.S. history. And answers the contentious debate on how to teach racism in school. More than 400,000 enslaved Africans were transported and sold for the back-breaking labor under the lash of the enslaver for the growing of cotton and tobacco.

The value of enslaved people held as property at the time of the Civil War was more than all the railroads and factories. After the Civil War, they owned nothing as a result of their toil. In response to demands for their rights under the 14th and 15th Amendments and the Civil Rights Act of 1875, white Americans lynched them, beat them and incarcerated them. Destitute and terrorized, Black people were economically exploited through sharecropping and convict leasing. During the New Deal, red-lined maps marking neighborhoods where Black people lived discouraged bank loans. An outcome is crowded housing and the pollution from interstate highways. Black history is borne out today in Black people dying from COVID-19 at a rate 2.8 times greater than whites.

Mickey Beary, Richland