Letters: I expected better from Gov. Little. He owns efforts to criminalize medicine | Opinion

Gov. Little,

I really thought more highly of you than what I have seen this year.

I thought you were braver. I thought you were smarter.

You just let right-wing activists take over parental rights and medical care in this state using the feeble excuse that you got more phone calls to your office asking you to sign HB71.

You know that is a lie. You know those were paid robocalls. Compared to the very real, 650+ physicians who signed a petition to veto the bill and not allow the standard practice of medicine to be legislated in your state. The state you are responsible for. The kids and families that you govern.

You didn’t even have the gravitas to face the parents and doctors who scheduled time off of work to meet with you.

Parents and doctors have sacrificed so much time and emotional energy in the last two months fighting against paid lobbyists bringing out-of-state bills to take over our rights as Idahoans. But you couldn’t face them.

The lives of adolescents are on your head, and the decline of medical care in this state is your legacy.

You should be sorely ashamed of yourself.

Angie Devitt, Boise

ESAs are a species of voucher

In regard to Chris Cargill’s April 9 guest opinion, an ESA is a form of a voucher. The main difference between an ESA and a traditional voucher is that a traditional voucher can only be used at participating schools that meet state requirements. As mentioned, an ESA as proposed in Idaho could also be used for other schooling expenses. The ESA programs are unregulated, there is no financial oversight, and there is no academic accountability. While a private school would not receive taxpayer funding for a student it rejected; private schools can still reject students. The ESA proposals do take funding away from public schools, although in several a small amount of funding would remain from departing students, slightly increasing the per-student funding, but potentially having a significant effect on fixed school district costs. Let’s adequately fund Idaho public schools first before we take money away from them for ESAs.

Robert Neilson, Meridian

On baseball and zoning

Some of you may be aware of the rule changes in Major League Baseball. There’s a pitch clock to speed the game, larger bases, shift restrictions and more. In 1884 pitchers were first allowed to throw overhand rather than underhand. In 1973, the American League added the pinch hitter.

Things change — slowly in baseball.

That’s like Boise’s zoning code, but even slower. It’s more than 60 years old.

If an institution like baseball can change, surely Boise can evolve its zoning code. The way they played baseball in the 1960s is not how it’s played today. The development patterns that worked when I was in high school are not what is needed today.

Traditionalists bemoan the changes to baseball while some of us look forward to a faster and livelier game that is a better match with our faster-moving lives. We adapt. How many of us long for a return of the underhand pitch?

The rezone, with its streamlining, creates the opportunity for Boise to move into this century. We can shed the constraints that leave us with a deficit of housing where a fast-growing population accelerates housing prices putting homes out of reach for too many.

Gary Hanes, Boise