Letters to the editor: Masks, election results, health order

Right to life

Yes, we have freedoms and rights — one being a right to life. We are born with the gift of oxygen to breathe. We risk losing the ease of the breath of life to the invasion of COVID-19. Once COVID crosses our defense barriers of the nose, mouth or eyes, it may challenge our ability to access enough oxygen to breathe comfortably. COVID can choose to ravage our bodies like a hurricane or leave just a sprinkle of rain droplets.

Each of us has the choice to believe COVID exists or not. Life is a gamble. Once infected with COVID, we could lose control of our rights to an effortless breath that healthy people take for granted. This virus becomes a decision maker as to whether we have no symptoms or possibly die. Medical options are rapidly advancing, yet COVID has already won the war on over 260,000 Americans’ last breath.

Please respect the rights of others to live and to breathe an effortless breath. COVID-19 is not a hoax. Choices. Right to Life for all. Please, wear a mask.

Vanessa George, Boise

Finding solutions

Solutions hurt millionaires, so solutions are rare. Journalistic media right and left and political entities right and left avoid dissemination of taboo notions from their ubiquitous platforms from which our egos may choose a suitable place to search for solutions and truth. Dare we engage our imaginations? Contemplate now four forbidden policy proposals intended to address excessive health care costs: (1) Disallow drug companies to sell their wares for less in other countries. (2) Require health care providers and drug makers to post for all to see the prices of their services and products. (3) Allow Idaho’s Medicaid to purchase American made drugs from Canada. (4) Institute competitive bidding for Medicare’s drug and medical equipment purchases. Does that sound like socialism to you? Isn’t it revealing that Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, practically alone, have promoted policies of this ilk while talk radio, cable news, political parties and politicians tend to distract us instead with reminders of our duty to scorn the “other side” and that our scorn is just because they hate us so. “ How do we recognize false prophets?” once came the question. “Know them by their works,” replied the teacher.

Gordon Counsil, Caldwell

COVID-19 and religion

I find it interesting that religious institutions do not need to follow COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, according to the recent Supreme Court decision. I would have thought that any building, whether school or restaurant or store, would have to limit the number of people safely attending in the space available. There are also people stating that God has told them not to wear a mask, and that God will decide who lives and who dies. Which all leads me to propose that religious people who ignore the recommendations of the CDC stay away from clinics, doctor’s offices and hospitals. Continue to trust that your fate is in the hands of the Lord, and accept whatever happens to you. The rest of us will stick to the idea that it is within our power to affect the outcome of the pandemic by simply wearing a mask and keeping our distance from non-family members so that we can protect our essential workers and the most frail members of our society.

Lori Poublon Ramirez, Meridian

Brave New World

Since the Boise mayor issued an order encouraging Boiseans to call a hotline and report neighbors for alleged health order violations, the silence from other elected leaders is deafening. What happened to “Keep Boise Nice” as proclaimed by our former mayor? When did we become a community willing to secretly call government officials on a neighborhood business? If we study history, that system didn’t go so well in 1930s Germany. Is this now the new Idaho way? Put us in the column with Oregon and California? Is our Attorney General Wasden, our top legal authority in Idaho, at all concerned that this new approach will invite abuse such as falsely reporting a community business of violations merely because one doesn’t like that business or its owner? Does this “tell on your neighbor” system stop with the virus, or will it remain for other purposes? We’ll lose our Idaho culture if elected leaders don’t step up to lead and to resist this Brave New World right here in our own state.

Lynn Bradescu, Boise

Election result

It is apparent that our President, Donald Trump, is attempting to do an end-run around our democracy in the aftermath of the election. He is falsely claiming that the same, reliable system we have used to pick our leaders our whole lives has somehow become corrupt and flawed in four short years and on his watch. In 2016 Donald Trump did not win the popular vote, but he declared the election was fair and decided since the Electoral College is how we pick Presidents. We all nodded and agreed and moved on. Now, to steal the presidency, he is attempting to overturn not only the popular vote but the Electoral College decision as well.

Donald Trump is an embarrassment to the United States, but Idaho’s elected leaders are an embarrassment to our state. Why aren’t they speaking up to protect the integrity of our democracy in Washington, D.C.? Why are they allowing this absurd behavior to continue? Why are they betraying the people they swore to protect?

If their irresponsible behavior continues, I don’t know if I can trust them to genuinely represent Idahoans.

Kathryn Taghon, Meridian

Absurdities

I am reminded these days of the immortal words of Voltaire: “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities”. When I ponder these words I think of Ammon Bundy and his deeds and the antics of our outgoing president. But I am also pretty sure that they and their staunchest supporters think likewise of diehard progressives like me. For the good of this country we all need to back ourselves off the ledge and take more thoughtful stock of reality. After all, we are all in this together.

Don A. Essig, Boise