Letters to the editor: Shopping, voting, Trump, staying home, reopening
Shopping
As a senior citizen, I would like to thank the employees of Fred Meyer and Walmart for wearing masks at their stores. Unfortunately, employees at another store do not do so. Why?
During this “stay home” time, we all need to grocery shop. For all Idaho citizens who are striving to protect others from the virus, I suggest you not shop at such stores until they change their policy.
David Taylor, Meridian
Voting
Can you believe that this year, millennials and Gen Z will make up nearly 40% of the electorate? Youth and young adults are the most politically active demographic, and yet, are least likely to vote. Maybe, as Luke Mayville says, it’s because we’ve made voting seem like a chore, not an opportunity. The truth is, voting is the opportunity of a lifetime! Climate change, national debt, student loans, taxes, military spending, health care, prisons, public lands, civil rights. The list goes on. You don’t have to be a “political person.” If you care about any of these issues, make your opinions heard in the ballot box! It’s time to sock it to the boomers and take back our democracy. That’s why I’ve become an ambassador for BABE VOTE, the dopest, hypest, hottest nonprofit brand promoting youth voter registration. When you vote, you have the power to make huge change in your community and world. Twenty percent of people who took the time to request an absentee ballot don’t end up voting. Make sure you’ve mailed yours in by Tuesday June 2. And if you want to be the hypest hype beast and rep for BABE VOTE, go to babevote.org and click shop.
Shiva Rajbhandari, Boise
Trump
Delusional. It seems the whole Republican Party is backing a delusional man who happens to be the president of the United States, and the people of Idaho seem OK with that. Trump’s deceit/lies are constant. His delusion promoting a pill for COVID-19 and then ordering the U.S. government to purchase 29 million doses that have been proven ineffective and deadly yet currently used to treat our veterans is an outrage. Trump isn’t the kind of person I would want to do business with or even come into contact with more than once, and yet day in, day out, this man insults anyone who does not agree with his delusions, and it’s come to the point of mass insanity anyone still supports Republicans. What will it take for people supporting the Republican Party to realize their families are affected by Trump’s policies, and those policies are harmful, not beneficial to Main Street America. The United States is not being great, it’s being sold away to corporations and the most wealthy who pay less tax than you and I. Wake up. The Republican Party backing Trump bodes ill for all of us. Watch their actions. Who has been helped? The wealthy or you?
Mark Cook, Boise
Staying home
I want to thank everyone that has argued for opening up the state’s economy. They are braver than I am because they have said they are willing to catch the virus and suffer the consequences. I am not there yet.
I’ll probably continue to hunker down and wait for a vaccine or therapeutic that will increase the chances that I will survive if I catch the virus. I’m over 70, so my chances of surviving are not that great. I would ask, though, that you endure the virus (or die) at home and don’t use up the medical facilities that I may need if I catch the virus.
Joe Gallagher, Boise
Coordinated opening
As states reopen, they must consider the impact of border states. Without mutual support and coordination, we could see an unmanageable surge in disease, making our weeks of shutdown pointless. As a nation, we must do the same worldwide, to fight COVID19 and to protect our investment in the health care of developing nations.
In the latest bill in Washington, the House ignored that this is a global pandemic requiring a global response. It now falls to the Senate to ensure our country does its part in this shared global fight. Such enlightened self-interest keeps us all safer.
The Senate should insist on including support for lower-income countries to deal with the immediate crisis and to strengthen healthcare systems in the long run. It’s the right thing to do, and the only way we get through this pandemic as a global community.
Our government already supports international organizations like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as well as USAID’s programs focused on global health. We should build on these efforts to avoid setbacks in our progress, and I’m counting on Idaho’s Sens. Risch and Crapo, both in key leadership roles, to help make it happen.
Betsy Dunklin, Boise