Letters to the editor: COVID-19, dams
COVID-19 response
We need more wisdom in our national response to the coronavirus. We have made great strides to reduce infections in the high risk groups. Every government action has also meant greater anxiety and dramatic losses to our economy. Closing down the entire country will save a few lives with huge costs and massive job losses. Many businesses will never recover; service industries will be decimated. Trillions in long-term government support of families and businesses will be needed, though bringing millions into the welfare system will have other costs. We already have an under-reported tragedy of veteran, teen and general suicides. I fear the unintended consequences of over-reaction by the government to save a few may ultimately cost many more.
We can’t reduce the chance of infection to zero without a vaccine. Until we have one, we all must observe strict hygiene and social distancing. Be mindful to protect the vulnerable but keep our economy alive. We need to accept our responsibilities in a balanced view of life. We don’t need the government calling out the national guard to clear us off the streets.
Kevin McElroy, Meridian
Wake-up call
Regardless of our partisan political views this election year, we share a commonality that has taken over our lives, forced us to our jobs — or forced us indoors to work from home — or forced us home, period, if we’re not looking for toilet paper from empty store shelves.
I strongly urge everyone to locate an online copy of Time, March 20, 2020, titled. “Madeleine Albright: Coronavirus Should Be a Wake-Up Call for World Leaders to Work Together.” Our nation’s first female Secretary of State (1997-2001) writes with wisdom emphasizing plain diplomatic “common sense.”
From my viewpoint, America is grappling with an unseen enemy as real as biological warfare—and so is the rest of the world. Instead of using xenophobic rhetoric, our president could (still) initiate a global collaboration among allies to solve the life-threatening needs of all nations stemming from the deadly spread of the contagious coronavirus, working for a shared common good. Then medical science research could advance faster through international collaboration and cooperation—and fewer lives would be lost in this CO-VID19 pandemic, all the while promoting goodwill among nations.
Susan Hodgin, Moscow
Dams
Hi. My name is Avi Rajbhandari and I am in 6th grade at Highlands Elementary. From hiking and biking with my family to skiing at Bogus and Brundage to fishing and kayaking with my Grandpa, I know first hand Idaho’s beauty. For millennia, salmon and steelhead fish have hatched in Idaho and taken the 900 mile journey to the Pacific Ocean where they feed off of ocean nutrients and return home to lay eggs and die, bringing with them valuable nutrients in their carcasses that offset those eroded away by the river. In the 1960s, someone thought it was a good idea to build four pointless dams on the lower Snake River and block off the salmon’s access to their hatching grounds. Since then, populations of this keystone species in Idaho have been decimated and now they are at risk of going extinct. $6 billion in tax dollars have been wasted trying to save the salmon and steelhead. Without breaching the four lower Snake dams Idaho ecosystems lose an important source of nutrients and future Idahoans will lose an iconic part of our culture. Governor Little and the workgroup have the opportunity to save these fish and keep Idaho beautiful.
Avi Rajbhandari, Boise
This story was originally published March 26, 2020 at 11:00 AM.