Letters to the editor: China, hoarding, legislature, bailout
China’s role
March 18, in Italy alone, 475 people died from COVID-19.
Why have China’s communist president, Xi Jinping, and his accomplices not faced charges for crimes against humanity?
According to the Wall Street Journal, Xi covered up the virus for over a month. He deliberately chose this path even when doctors told him it would result in mass infection and mass death.
• He forced doctors to destroy samples.
• He forbid doctors from sharing vital information with the medical community, even when doctors told him it was necessary to prevent outbreaks abroad.
• He punished the brave doctors who shared information.
• He only allowed China to report an outbreak after the WSJ reported the outbreak. He only reported human-to-human transmission after WHO reported it.
You don’t need to hold a gun to be a mass murderer.
This ONE day in this ONE country is 10 times bigger than the Vegas shooting.
If we were angry about the Vegas shooter, why are we not 1,000 times more angry about this?
Why don’t we hold Xi accountable? He and his key accomplices should be captured and held trial like any other mass murderers.
Those killed and their families deserve justice.
Brett Wharton, Boise
Stop hoarding
With the mass hysteria and hoarding going on these days, surrounding COVID-19, I am reminded of a quote from Gandhi, “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.”
These words could not be more timely than they are today. I have gone to two different grocery stores over the last few days, with my very short, and appropriate, grocery list. It took four trips to those stores just to get a few essential items. I saw people with overflowing carts and many empty shelves in their wake.
Some of the items, which were hard to find, made no sense to me. Produce and dairy products are perishable. Why buy more than you can possibly use in a day or two? Why buy a year’s supply of canned goods, and frozen foods, when you see that you are emptying the shelves, therefore denying your neighbor of those same items?
Can we really call ourselves a civilized country, when we seem to be acting like it’s everyone for themselves? Luckily, I have also witnessed acts of kindness, which have restored my faith that there are still good people that walk among us. Let’s learn from them!
Michal Voloshen, Boise
Legislature
Whether following CDC guidelines of avoiding groups of 50 or more or the White House plea citing groups of 10 or more, the Idaho Legislature knows better than either. They will continue to meet. Citing guidance from Central District Health Department, (how helpful) and contrary to guidance from almost any other source, including the governor’s office, the Legislature sees no concern with their current “shoulder to shoulder” seating and assembly arrangement. This plan was reported to local news outlets by Megan Blanksma, House Republican Caucus Chair. Not surprisingly, other senior house leaders declined to be the face of this calculated-risk decision to “soldier on”, despite authoritative guidance to the contrary. While thousands of Idahoans are responding, at real and painful financial and family sacrifice, to follow guidance to flatten the curve, the Idaho Legislature flaunts such public wellbeing concerns. And this, despite the reality that many members of the legislature are in the specific high-risk group we are all trying to protect, and many others have family members waiting back home, also in high risk categories. Once constitutional imperatives to adopt the state budget are complete, set the right example – GO HOME.
Norma D Jaeger, Meridian
Bailout
Congress is proposing a stimulus of $1,000 per person. Trump is proposing billions to bail out the airlines. My question is: Is this bailout to pay the stockholders or the bonuses to the executives like was used with the bailout with the banks?
The one thing this does prove with the stimulus to the people is that the people run the economy, not the corporations. It’s people spending, not the 1% that invest. It would seem to me that the logical thing would be to raise the standard deduction for a single person to $30,000 a year, head of household $45,000 and married filing jointly to $60,000. As these people spend, just like Congress wants you to spend this stimulus, it is proof that taxing the higher earners is the only way to keep the economy going. People will continue to purchase online, deliveries of goods and services will continue, but not if the people don’t have the money to spend.
It seems the present administration is more concerned with the profit and bonuses for the executives with the bailout of the oil and airlines.
Jerry Johnson, Payette