Letters to the editor: Essential businesses, child care, Trump

Essential

In Idaho, it’s largely business as usual with nearly all activities permitted except, say, our barbers and hairstylists.

1) Construction. Many tasks require two or more people to work together in close proximity, e.g., lifting a heavy window into place or two landscapers setting a heavy tree in a hole. Also, take a systems view... just having thousands of construction folks out of their house each day means more risky trips to the store, drive thru, etc. to sustain these workers. They should be at home! How important is it that landscaping gets done?

2) Retail. Besides witnessing a game store and vape shops open in Idaho, a friend of mine is a manager at our local home improvement store. For fear of losing his job, he can’t complain to his boss, but he and his unit employees are scared to be around the throngs of people in the store. Virtually none of them he reports are there for essential items. They are there because they are bored, planning projects. He counted eight people in line standing right next to each other getting paint mixed. There is no such thing right now as essential painting!

Jon Ingalls, Coeur d’Alene

Child care

I’m writing today to implore our governor to help the working parents dealing with child care. One area that has been overlooked are state employees who are working from home with no child care for young children. Many of those employees are being asked to work 40 hours a week while dealing with infants and toddlers. It’s an impossible burden. It would be a huge relief to many of those parents if the governor would issue an order that 25-30 hours a week is now full time during this crisis.

I know some will argue that nobody should get a free ride. But these parents are pulling double duty now. Their only other choice is to abandon their jobs. For those who worry about productivity, study after study shows that decreasing work hours to 25-30 hours doesn’t decrease productivity. At its heart, Idaho is a state that cares about families, and I think it’s time that the governor really stepped up to prove it. Gov. Little’s crisis response has been criticized in national media. It’s time for him to show that Idaho means family and show the national media that Idaho does indeed breed bold and decisive leaders.

Renee Magee, Potlatch

Circus

Obama had a workable health care system for Americans. Trump trashed it. Now look where we are. Trump inherited a rising economic tide. He trashed that with a tax cut for the rich and left us a trillion-dollar debt even before this mess. Obama had a workable nuclear treaty with Iran. Trump trashed that, too. Obama had a unit at the White House to scour the earth to be aware of possible coming pandemics. Trump trashed it. We had an honest and professional and dedicated State Department. Trump trashed it — firing those who told the truth. That’ll teach ‘em. We had a credible and trustworthy Department of Justice. Trashed by Trump and Bootlicker Bill Barr.

Now we see (again) the depths of his incompetence and complete arrogance (“We got this bottled up”). Other countries — Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea — saw this pandemic coming. Our clueless leader denied it. The wall is really protecting us too, huh?

This is what happens when we elect a lying clueless spoiled New York daddy’s boy demagogue with a string of failed marriages and bankruptcies to show us how to lead the USA. Reminds one of 1939 Germany and Italy? When you elect a clown, expect a circus.

Robert Elgee, Hailey