Letters to the editor: Lymphedema, patriotism, rule of law, climate change

Lymphedema

Especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, lymphedema patients must have the medical supplies they need to safely manage their condition at home. The Lymphedema Treatment Act (S.518/H.R.1948) is a bipartisan bill that will improve insurance coverage for medically necessary, prescription compression supplies. Without this central component of treatment, lymphedema patients are at significantly increased risk of infection and hospitalization. With more than 450 cosponsors, the Lymphedema Treatment Act is the most supported healthcare bill in Congress and should be passed into law this year.

Nikki O’Leary, Boise

Patriotism

I am retired now. I’d like to think I’m a bit kinder and smarter after all the years. I am a registered Republican and have been my whole life. This election I am voting for Joe Biden. I love this country. The best thing I can say to help you understand how I feel is summed up in a quote I read today, by Sydney J. Harris; here it is:

“Patriotism is proud of a country’s virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their own specific virtues. The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country’s virtues and denies its deficiencies, while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, “the greatest”, but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is.”

Tony Hall, Boise

Rule of law

I just finished reading Idaho Freedom Foundation director Bryan Smith’s internally inconsistent, contradictory and fiction-laden account of the vanishing rule of law (“Even during coronavirus, we need to keep the rule of law”, Sept. 17, 2020). It was an insipid and disappointing piece, especially for one who remembers what the Idaho Republican Party used to be. Smith would be well advised to put away his Trump playbook and spend a little time studying logic, reason, the barren underpinnings of the IFF’s so called political philosophy, and maybe even a little history about the causes and rises of fascism before next attempting to persuade his fellow Idahoans to sign on to his particular brand of idiocy. Talk about a hoax.

Douglas Siddoway, Ashton

Climate change

The word ‘disaster’ is used daily to describe the impacts of wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, record heat, and droughts aggravated by climate change. Some Idahoans seem to think that climate impacts only happen in other places, not here at home. But Idaho is not immune from climate risk and most people are awakening to that fact.

The Boise Climate Adaptation Assessment provides a look at the most significant climate related impacts that Boise will experience by mid-century. Boise will have about 4 times as many days/yr over 91 degrees, more drought, creating critically dry forests, more large fires in the Boise airshed, increasing chronic air quality problems. As we plan for these impacts, we must also plan for an influx of people from regions where climate impacts are even greater and people are forced to leave their homes (sea level rise is expected to displace millions). And the financial costs and risks are significant. President Trump’s disastrous rollback of policies to reduce carbon emissions is wrong. He’s been wrong about medical science and he’s wrong about climate science. Most Americans now describe climate change as “a crisis” or “a major problem.” Maybe we’re finally waking up.

Kayti Didricksen, Boise