Letters to the editor: Legislative session, wear a mask, tax cut, dam proposal
Legislative session
To our Republican Legislature,
Having observed the recent mishandling at the Capitol of CDC guidelines and common sense that resulted in suspending the session, a question comes to mind: Why should we let you take more power? Don’t you first have to show a level of competency with your existing authority? Recent sessions have shown most proposed legislation leans more toward fear than actual need.
A partial list of these fears would include: the attorney general, for consistently providing correct advice, public television, LBGTQ rights, Australia, history, science, racial issues, bipartisanship, masks and Gov. Little. Also fears about sex education, the university system, federal involvement (unless it involves gifts of money), free and fair elections, living wages, Ammon Bundy, medical marijuana, ballot initiatives and affordable health care.
Lastly, a woman’s right to — basically anything.
Perhaps reflect on where all these fears come from in this patriarchal system. In your quest to return Idaho to a place and time that never existed, fear is not a constructive emotion.
Mark J Bussolini, Boise
Teaching children
We are in the middle of a deadly pandemic, but whenever I am running errands, I always see a number of people without masks and more often than not, they have small children with them.
We know that “children live what they learn,” and this is what their parents are teaching them?
1. “I don’t want to wear a mask, and if I don’t want to do something I don’t have to.”
2. “COVID-19 is extremely contagious, the variants even more so. I know I could spread this disease, but I don’t care about anyone else.”
3. “I know that COVID-19 can kill, and someone could die because of me, but that’s not my problem.”
So for all you parents without masks just remember this: “Children live what they learn,” and you might not like learning what you are teaching them.
Sharon Jarrett, Meridian
Tax cut
The Idaho state government is to be commended for having surplus funds even after the economic blow of COVID-19. Or maybe no commendation is deserved.
Only seven states have a tax rate lower than Idaho. If the state taxes are low, how can we have a surplus? It’s simple, don’t provide services for the citizens. It’s like putting the family’s money in the bank instead of providing food and shelter. Lots of money, starving and cold children.
Idaho’s education spending per pupil is the lowest in the nation. Our children are educationally starving. Our infrastructure is not keeping up with growth. Making homelessness illegal will not solve the problem. That excess cash could help solve these problems. Instead, the Legislature is trying to pass a tax cut that will mostly benefit those at the top.
Contact your legislators before April 6 and let them know Idaho’s kids deserve better. And make sure you include defeating HB1110 which will take away our constitutional right to put initiatives on the ballot.
No commendation deserved!
Penny Neely, Caldwell
Breach the dams
Congressman Mike Simpson has the only sensible plan to save Idaho’s wild salmon. It’s unfathomable to think we are on the brink of naming the Salmon River the Un-Salmon River, or Salmon City the Non-Salmon City. There are thousands of miles of wilderness with habitat as grand today as it was a century ago. Yet salmon no longer return to spawn. Their passage to the ocean is blocked by four dams in the state of Washington. Forward-thinking politicians like Frank Church, Congressman Simpson, and Cecil Andrus set aside these pristine areas so future generations could enjoy salmon — a resource we are borrowing from our children. We cannot allow politicians caught up in corporate greed to make our legacy the extinction of what were once some of the world’s largest salmon runs. Salmon are a bipartisan issue. There are salmon fishermen on both sides of the aisle. In fact in Idaho way more Republicans enjoy salmon fishing than Democrats, simply because there are so few Democrats in Idaho. Time to debate the science has passed. The last of the Lower Snake River dams closed its gates in 1975, Idaho’s last statewide salmon fishing season closed in 1978. Call your senator.
Mitch Sanchotena, Nampa