Letters to the editor: Responsible driving, international students, outbreak
Responsible driving
Whatever happened to being a responsible driver?
A judge sentenced a driver, Christopher Lammey, who fatally struck an elderly couple in a Boise crosswalk last year to two years of unsupervised probation and 365 days in jail, but the judge suspended all but 15 of those days. He also replaced the 15 days jail time with 120 hours of community service and his driver’s license is suspended for a year.
Is everybody in such a hurry that inattentive drivers have no regards for pedestrians in a crosswalk? Is one minute of a driver’s time to stop, so important that two of our seniors had to give up their lives? No, I think not.
I feel that the just sentence should be at least one year or more in jail, two years supervised probation, a stiff fine along with at least 5 years loss of a driver’s license. Don’t you?
Ada County Magistrate Judge Michael Oths should be recalled from the bench.
It is time we start putting tougher judges on the bench and people that break the laws of this state must be held accountable for their actions.
Paul Arsenych, Boise
International students
At a time when many of us are facing financial and professional insecurity due to COVID-19, the Trump administration is taking action that will further undermine our economy and our international reputation. ICE announced on Monday that international students whose schools have migrated classes online for the Fall semester to protect students from COVID-19 will have to leave the country, or risk being in violation of their visa status. This is unwise for several reasons: 1) this is a time when we should be limiting, not increasing, travel to minimize virus transmission both within our borders as well as outside, 2) international students are good for the economy, as they spend money here, 3) international students strengthen our academic systems and professional outputs – this is true across tech, medicine, architecture, the performing arts, etc. I personally have studied alongside several international students at Boise State and felt lucky for their presence both as friends and collaborators. I know that my research has been strengthened by having input from diverse perspectives. Simply put, this decision was not made with America’s best interests in mind, but rather with pettiness. Our country would suffer without our international students.
Juliette Rubin, Boise
Outbreak
As a physician executive I need to sound a voice of alarm. We are in the midst of a vast COVID-19 outbreak and we are headed for a cliff. If we don’t move more aggressively we will not see the relative safety that we enjoyed last May until next spring. It is clear that masks, distancing and hand-washing work. Some feel that it is an affront to freedom to mandate these, but societies must honor the “social contract” that protects shared services like health care. Too many in our communities have refused to do so. Others act like COVID-19 is not a big deal. Italy, New York and now Florida, Texas and Arizona prove otherwise. Sticking our heads in the sand comes with a price that will be paid by all, but tragically and most heavily, by those who built the communities that we all now enjoy. In their time of need they deserve our protection. Civic, health care and religious leaders, along with responsible citizens, need to demand that we all observe these simple steps. We need to take the narrative back from the fanatics, it is a matter of life and death.
Charles Davis, Boise