Letters to the editor: Health care, leadership, dams, transgender bills
Health care
Tragically 1,000 people died of coronavirus in the United States on April 1. On that same day, 1,600 people died from each cancer and heart disease, 200 people from diabetes and another 100 people in car accidents. And these statistics have been evident for many years. Why we focus on one cause versus another is human, but let’s not lose our perspective on other aspects of health care we can battle through a concerted effort.
While current news is newsworthy, mortality doesn’t discriminate.
Ronald Voigt, Eagle
Leadership
The coronavirus outbreak has been challenging for medical workers, those who lost their jobs and small businesses who have had to close their doors. Not to mention the thousands of Americans who have lost loved ones to the virus, many without being able to comfort the dying during their final hours.
But it also provides an opportunity to observe true leadership from elected officials, medical experts and even everyday citizens. Here in Idaho we have three leaders who have stepped up when the very lives of Idaho citizens hung in the balance.
I’m speaking of Gov. Brad Little, Boise Mayor Lauren McLean and Dr. Tommy Ahlquist. Gov. Little and Mayor McLean made the difficult decision to order Idahoans to stay at home and businesses to close to slow the spread of Covid-19 so as to not overwhelm our hospitals. Mr. Ahlquist started the Crush the Curve initiative to bring more virus testing to Idaho.
I salute these proven leaders for showing their mettle when we all needed it most.
Rick Tholen, Eagle
Dams
I’m a freshman in high school, and I struggle with getting a girlfriend. People are always telling me, “there’s plenty of fish.” Sadly, because of the four dams on the lower Snake River, this idiom is no longer true.
Before the dams were built, wild chinook and steelhead annually returned in the millions to the Snake River Basin. In 2017, only about 5,800 chinook and 15,500 steelhead came back to what historically was renowned as one of the largest salmon-producing ecosystems in the world.
People should also stop calling me “penny-wise, pound-foolish” because taxpayers have spent over $17 billion in failed attempts to restore salmon and steelhead but complain about the relatively small cost of breaching the dams or about the slightly higher price (mostly because of government subsidies) of using rail over barge shipping.
I guess we can still say “chickens come home to roost” because, with the new Columbia River System Operations draft EIS, and 30 years of inaction, Idaho’s wild salmon and steelhead will soon be extinct.
If you would like to save our fish and keep saying these idioms, please submit public comment online at comments.crso.info or by mail urging CRSO to reject the DEIS.
Shiva Rajbhandari, Boise
Transgender bills
The past two weeks the media and press have, with 95% of their news, kept us informed that America is sick. The other 5% of the news continues to keep us informed about “transgender.” I don’t believe this issue should have ever gone to the State Legislature. This issue should have been taken care of with common sense, medical field and science.
The legislation dealt with athletics and gender change on legal documents. If document change ever takes place, there will be millions rushing to the DMV to have both their age and their weight changed. It just might be called the “new me” or new normal!
Curt Vieselmeyer, Boise