Letters to the editor: Word choice, transgender bill, library bill, education standards
Words matter
In response to K.C. Cowen’s letter: First Amendment laws guarantee you certainly may call politicians as many nasty names as you want. I take particular exception, however, when you glibly say Idaho Legislators are “… becoming the Hitlers of the USA.”
Really?
Are you saying the Idaho Republican Party is secretly plotting to declare war on Montana and Wyoming? Do you think Governor Little is planning to order the interment and execution of 6 million Jews from throughout the Northwest?
Eighty years ago, millions of men and women from the Allied nations fought, bled, and died to beat back Hitler and his National Socialist Party (Nazi) Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe, and Kriegsmarine. I assert that Brad Little is a far cry from Adolph Hitler; the Idaho Legislature is not equivalent to the Großdeutscher Reichstag. Making these comparisons is absurd.
Someone that calls anyone “Hitler” better understand what they are implying. This is the type of political hyperbole that “… [steps] over the line.” Rhetoric of this caliber serves only to obfuscate real issues and further divide our nation.
Words mean things. Casually throwing around terms like “Hitler,” “Nazi,” “Fascist,” or “Communist,” without comprehending their meaning is preposterous.
David Breithaupt, Boise
Transgender bill
Reliance on evidence makes medical care effective. Guidelines and standards of care are made when there’s agreement about how to improve health. The Idaho Medical Association. American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, Endocrine Society and Pediatric Endocrine Society are the largest medical societies providing standards of care for those with hormone-related concerns.
Idaho’s physicians treat children, including providing gender-affirming care for transgender minors. There has been collaboration from providers in many areas of pediatrics, psychologists, hospital administrations, community members and others, allowing Idaho to provide outstanding care for transgender individuals based on universally accepted standards of care.
Decisions about treatment for transgender youth are in accordance with universally accepted standards of care. Families and providers should decide what medical care is in their best interest.
House Bill 675 will criminalize health care according to evidence-based guidelines from major medical societies and Idaho’s health care systems. Providers conduct complex evaluations using medical evidence. We possibly consider reversible options for an adolescent without affecting fertility. Medically appropriate care would make physicians and parents criminals.
It’s necessary to provide Idaho’s youth with evidence-based care and do our best as medical providers and health care systems, without providers and parents being charged as criminals.
Daniel Flynn, pediatric endocrinologist, Boise
Education
I’m 16 years old, and I go to Boise High. This is my climate story. A few years ago a fire started less than a mile away from my house. I was sound asleep in my bedroom until my dad stormed in and told me that we had to leave. Less than five minutes later I was in the car looking out my window only to see the hills blazing red and orange.
The next day, we came back to the house which fortunately was not damaged. The air was full of gray and there was ash floating around everywhere that I looked. This was a scary new version of my home.
This event made me worried for the future of the place that I live. It seems like every summer brings more fire and more smoke.
One of my favorite things in life is nature. Climate change is undoubtedly affecting that. Although 74% of Idahoans believe climate change should be taught in schools, right now our state science standards are under attack. House Concurrent Resolution 27 threatens to make scientific fact partisan and undermine K-12 educators. I urge readers to call their legislators in opposition of HCR27 and HB437.
Tyson Russell, Boise
House bill 666
House bill 666 is too vague. The materials the legislators are focused on are almost exclusively about sexuality, but the bill does not clearly define what “harmful material” entails. Where exactly do they draw the line on censoring materials “deemed harmful to minors”? As a librarian, would I be arrested if a child checked out “Bambi” because it tells about the violent death of a mother? Or for “Charlotte’s Web” because the slaughter of a pet is suggested? Or Dr. Seuss’ “Hop on Pop” because it encourages children to be violent toward their fathers? What about “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” for its magic, mysticism and violence? Would they consider those materials harmful? Parents can restrict what their own children read, but do we have the right to tell other parents what their children should read? Or anyone for that matter? Do we have the right to judge all materials by our own set of values and restrict others from accessing books we don’t like? Isn’t the freedom and right to read protected by the Constitution? This bill is stomping on our First Amendment rights. What comes next? I’m afraid to ask.
Nancy Roberts, Meridian
Librarians
Idaho’s House of Representatives has passed appropriately numbered House Bill 666, which mandates fines and/or prison for Idaho librarians who check out materials to a minor that could “harm them.”
Of course, our (legislators) don’t define what that harm is, or what those materials are, but this is not about “paper cuts.”
I think I first encountered “a harmful book,” as a 13-year old, when I avidly read anti-war novel Catch 22 by Joesph Heller. For the first time, I was harmed by graphic descriptions of Italian brothels and prostitutes and such un-American activities as war-profiteering, Army officers who lied, cheated and abused their men, those men dying slowly and horribly in combat and even – refusing to fight.
I’m a much better person for being exposed to all that at such a tender age, but then we have Idaho Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, who proudly says:
“I would rather my 6-year-old grandson start smoking cigarettes tomorrow than get a view of this stuff one time at the public library or anywhere else,”
I note Catch-22 has landed on the list of the American Library Association’s banned and challenged classics.
Ray Brooks, Hagerman