Letters to the editor: Liberals, Middleton teachers, health-care politics, pre-K
Typical liberal thinking
Nov. 9, “You have to listen to Rush and Savage if you want an education on propaganda” were the words used by Eric Gironda of Boise. The Statesman once again allows people to submit letters to them without any fact checking? In very typical liberal progressive non open-minded thinking Mr. Gironda wants to blame Donald Trump for the sick pipe bomber and the horrific anti-Semitic shooting in Pittsburgh. Blame the person who carried out the act. It has been widely reported even by the left-wing “Slate.com” that Bowers was as anti-Trump as he was anti-Semetic. Facts matter when you are trying to stir up hate and the constant barrage of unfounded propaganda bashing our president. Mr. Gironda, if you stepped out of your echo chamber and into the world of reality you might see all of the property damage, violence, hate speech, domestic terrorism activities of Antifa unless you want to deny truth. You can’t deny all of the folks in the Trump Administration being driven out of restaurants and threatened. Lastly I’m sure you agree with Matthew Yglesias, Vox, that what happened to Tucker Carlson was appropriate as well. Reality counts.
Jeffrey Engelbert, Eagle
Middleton teachers
Another story about the Middleton teachers? Really? That is not news. There is nothing “new” here. These employees of the people will get off with a free vacation and life will go on. Now, if you want to report news, why don’t you interview the children and the parents that are the minority. Ask the parents how they explained to their children that their teachers don’t want them in this country. Ask how they explain that their teachers make fun of them.
Margaret Harrell, Star
Elections and health care
One thing that we learned from the midterms was that this was a health care election for many Americans. For the last eight years, the GOP has tried numerous times to kill the ACA — Obamacare. They have never put forth a credible alternative. The argument has always been framed in terms of fear, anger, “socialism,” and too much government. In the end, this was partisan ideology that was shouted and reiterated instead of addressing a real need of all citizens. Compromise was never sought; it was always “Kill the Bill.”
What Obamacare sought to do was put people first in terms of access to affordable quality health care. It was never perfect and the GOP effectively demonized it to many voters. Approval ratings for the ACA have gone up ever since voters realized that it was striving to meet a critical need for them.
Now we have a divided Congress. Will we see bipartisan collaboration on health care? While I am fully expecting that nothing of consequence will be accomplished, I will be paying attention to see what these politicians do and say about health care. Watch carefully and take note of who really serves your family’s interests.
John Lodal, Boise
Pre-K
According to a recent report released by the National Institute for Early Education Research only one state in our country meets the requirements for a strong pre-kindergarten curriculum and it wasn’t Idaho. In fact it reveals that Idaho wasn’t even readily able to provide information on the quality of its programs. I wonder why? I realize that Gov. Butch Otter will be leaving his office soon but he should be able to provide the current state of Idaho’s pre-K standards within the scope of this report. What are the plans to get it to “Alabama’s standards” or better?
Robb Liekis, Boise