Letters to the editor: Build Back Better, climate change, pandemic, civility, jury duty

Climate change

To Rep. Mike Simpson and Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch,

Thank you for supporting HR2820 and voting for S1251 respectively. “The Growing Climate Solutions Act” helps rural farmers and ranchers get credit for reducing their carbon footprint. Similar urban mitigation actions that will help people withstand excessively hot climates need funding. National Geographic reported that on the same street in Los Angeles, the neighborhoods with trees were 5 degrees cooler than those with none.

The bigger and simple solution is carbon fees and a monthly dividend to American households which can happen without raising income taxes. This avoids big government programs that will eventually occur otherwise. The monthly dividend gives Americans the free choice and the cash dividend to decide voluntarily what’s best for their family to reduce their increasingly costly fossil fuel energy usage.

HR 2307 Energy Innovation & Carbon Dividend will do this. Ask your representative to cosponsor and senators to introduce a Senate version.

Ed Wardwell, Boise

Build Back Better

The Build Back Better Act guarantees publicly funded pre-K for all 3- and 4-year olds. This expands access for more than 6 million children and saves families an average of $8,600 per year, per child. Universal pre-K would also ensure more children are kindergarten-ready, enabling the U.S. to compete in the global economy.

Research by the National Institute of Health shows that early learning leads to higher test scores and better grades in reading and math, higher college admission rates and fewer teen pregnancies.

Over 20,000 Idahoan families lack access to child care and early learning, forcing some parents to work reduced hours or drop out of the labor market. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry estimate that untapped workforce potential results in an economic loss for Idaho of $479 million annually.

Gov. Little and the Idaho Legislature should work to allocate these resources immediately, so kids and families across the state have access to the high-quality early learning they deserve.

Oliver Thompson, Boise

Legislature

Vito Barbieri. Judy Boyle. Brent Crane. Gayann DeMordaunt. Barbara Ehardt. Greg Ferch. Karey Hanks. Ron Mendive. Jason Monks. Dorothy Moon. Mike Moyle. Ron Nate. Heather Scott. Bruce Skaug.

If you are concerned about the far-right turn our Idaho Legislature is taking, cut out this letter, tack it to your refrigerator for the next elections, and if any of these names appear on your ballot, vote against them. I don’t care which party you vote – just vote against them.

This list is not exhaustive, and it doesn’t include candidates for higher office, like Ammon Bundy, Priscilla Giddings and Janice McGeachin, but it’s a start. If we can get rid of these people, we can begin to return sanity to our state. Thank you.

Jean McNeil, Boise

Pandemic

We hear so much about what we have lost due to the pandemic, yet we did have the potential to rise above the negativity.We had the opportunity to work together to defeat a deadly virus. We were reminded that we are but a part of a community, and that each one of us must do our part to ensure the success of the whole. Family time became valued more highly. Essential workers were recognized. Unlike the Greatest Generation, who knew freedom was something everyone deserved and was worth fighting for, we, the COVID-19 generation, have decided that our individual freedoms are more important than other people’s freedoms. Instead of listening to our president, our scientists, the CDC, we have begun worshiping people who have no business giving their opinions on social media. We have given up civility and good manners, disrupting school board meetings with our ill-informed demands. Our children could have been exposed to responsible adults. Instead, they have had a front row seat to the worst in human nature. If there are children suffering psychological problems due to the pandemic, it’s not due to wearing a cloth mask. It’s due to the lack of adults acting responsibly.

Lori Poublon Ramirez, Meridian

Respect and decency

When did respect lose its power to shouting and aggression? Our society has been overtaken by a small group of people who appear to have only their interests at heart. Where has our decency gone? Until recently, shouting (name calling and profanity, too) in public would not be tolerated by the folks witnessing such. Is this actual communication or nonsense? There was actually a time when people of different viewpoints could exchange ideas in a thoughtful and peaceful manner. It appears that individual “freedoms” overrule the good of caring for our neighbors. Too bad! As an optimist, I believe that the majority of people would choose happiness and peace rather than anger and chaos. Let’s hope this happens soon.

Terry Hathaway, Boise

To the jury

To the jurors before the verdict:

Today, you are jurors, called-up souls deliberating a verdict. Outside the courtroom, unbending opponents on opposite sides of the street are shouting. Some of them are armed. You will make one camp jubilant, the other angry, but both will be there as you leave, full of pent-up energy. You cannot consider this, just as you cannot read the news, full of clamoring experts, as you go about your duty. Ignore the voices, knowing that some will praise you, while others blame your bias, fear and ignorance — because why else would you do this.

Be assured that some of us know you take your responsibility seriously. You were not chosen by your qualifications, just random lay people kept in a room of strangers. We compelled you to represent us for $16 a day. Now you must decide together who is vindicated, who condemned. This will make some of us happy, and others not so much.

You represent us all, but you cannot represent all our views. We will listen for the word “not,” or its absence, in your sentence, because you must decide. Something is or is not. It’s a rough lot you drew, forced to use your “common sense,” a tool intended for common things, to now decide life and death. I want to thank you, before you tell me your verdict.

Greg Hampikian, Boise