Letters for November 6

Take care of each other

Bob Loweree’s letter to the editor (“Unhappy with Inslee,” Nov. 30) highlights the misconceptions and distortions of science that makes the control of the COVID-19 pandemic so difficult.

Governor Inslee’s measures are protective. We have a responsibility to take care of each other. The point of these guidelines is to protect the “elderly, the sick and the afraid.” All of us have a duty to follow the medical science to help our community.

A single study taken out of context does not make the science of masks, social distancing and hand washing any less compelling. Masks and social distancing work. These measures are backed by science. Now, more than ever we need to come together as a city, as a state and as a nation.

COVID fatigue is real, the economic consequences of the COVID pandemic are real. If we want to minimize these impacts, we all need take care of each other, follow the science, act responsibly and follow Gov. Inslee’s lead.

Let’s take care of each other.

Allegra VanderWilde, MS1

Russell VanderWilde, MD

Spokane

Hold them responsible

Bob Lutz was in my opinion doing an outstanding job keeping the number of COVID-19 cases in Spokane mitigated until he was fired by what I consider (firm opinion) a vindictive, hateful, “don’t give a damn if anyone dies” team of individuals totally lacking in health care knowledge.

Amelia Clark, Nadine Woodward, and Al French for starters. For me, they rank at the bottom of the intelligence scale along with the “Hop-a-long Cassidy” anti-mask cowboys of Idaho’s northern panhandle board of commissioners wanting to cut health care funding because their health district wisely mandated masks.

Since Bob Lutz’s firing the numbers of new COVID cases and deaths in Spokane as well as our anti-mask neighbors in Idaho have skyrocketed! Duh! Is there any way we can hold those individuals legally liable?

By the way I hardly hear any input from Spokane’s current interim health care person supposedly managing the pandemic.

Janet C. Smith

Spokane

Spreading more hate

Kudos to Roger M. Long on his sharing “A hate-filled era” (Dec. 1) calling out Karen Dorn Steele’s letter calling President Trump and his staff every name in the book. Kudos also to The Spokesman-Review for sharing it.

That being said, right in the middle of it all, Clay Bennett’s hate continues to be published with the Christmas card from Melania Trump indicating profanities toward Americans. Every Monday we have to endure the hate-filled articles from Leonard Pitts Jr.

Will the MSM ever get back to reporting fair and honest stories, instead of promoting hatred and discontent? If not, we will continue to see a nation divided.

Denny Soller

Spokane Valley

Fraud unlikely

Elections are very secure now. Action had to be taken to combat two recent threats: the Russians in the 2016 election and currently our president, Donald Trump.

After the 2016 presidential election, security was reviewed, and new measures adopted. The 2020 election had to be absolutely bullet-proof because when asked months ago if he would challenge the vote, Trump said it would depend on the outcome. (His words, not “the media.”) So, he would not question the integrity of our elections if he won.

Now after recounts he has yet to concede. He tried to get Republican officials to toss the state election results and instead appoint electors that would vote for him! Does this alarm anyone that voted for him or just those of us who recognized his moral bankruptcy a long time ago? What kind of person tries to undermine our democracy to keep himself in power?

Trump appointed Christopher Krebs as election cybersecurity chief and then fired him for proving the election can be trusted. Mark Esper and many others are examples of his rash, self-serving actions that continue the chaos. A Republican commissioner who defended the vote count in Philadelphia was branded by Trump as not being a true Republican. These behaviors are more like a mob boss than a U.S. president!

It is reassuring that secretaries of state, other election officials, lawyers and judges, across the country, regardless of political persuasion, have said there is no evidence of widespread election fraud.

Julie Bohman

Spokane

Vote them all out!

After reading Tuesday’s edition (Dec. 1), I have a suggestion to EVERYONE in Spokane County. Get out of your chair, go to the window, open it up, and using a line from the motion picture “Network,” yell as loud as you can: “I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”

If we can, vote ’em all out!! Spokane City Council and Spokane County commissioners. Three stories in one day about increases in taxes: 1) sales tax heading north; 2) utility rates going up; 3) property taxes going up 1%.

Enough is enough. If we can, vote ’em all out!

Michael and Felicidad Groves

Spokane

One world coming

Mankind has longed to return to the tower of Babel, unified under one system of everything, one world, government, economy. No single factor has achieved as much to that end as COVID-19. The virus exposes social and economic weaknesses. The aroma of nationalism’s death is in the air. Ever heard anything sweeter, from a one-world perspective than “we’re all in this together?” The ages-long dream seems near.

The Bible has a different message. Various New Testament passages detail characteristics of the times right before, and at, the reappearance of Jesus. In Matthew 24:7, Christ lists some that are global in scope, somewhat concurrent, overwhelmingly in force, and disturbingly familiar: Kingdon (political) against kingdom nation (ethnicity) against nation, famines, pestilences … Sound contemporary? “These things have always been, this is just religious doomsday bunk.” Not so.

These are unique, never before so global, intense and irreversible. Matthew 24:21 says that following these particular events is “…great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” The world accepting and participating in a unifying totalitarian regime fulfills Bible prophecies and heralds not the Age of Aquarius and a new Babel but rather the devastating return of Jesus (2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8).

Have COVID-19 and the 2020 ethnic-based riots urged you to a new direction? Make it receiving Jesus as Savior.

Rod Foss

Spokane

A new low

I am absolutely appalled by the new low Donald Trump achieved in his response to the post from Dr. Jacob Keeperman, medical director and ICU physician at the Renown Medical Center’s alternate care site in Reno, Nev.

The picture shows Keeperman and in the background are empty hospital beds covered in plastic, standing in a vacant parking lot. Keeperman explained the photo was taken on Nov. 12, the day the site opened, so as not to violate HIPAA laws or show any patients. Keeperman said the photo was posted because he just wanted to recognize and thank his staff.

My father was a doctor, a general surgeon; I saw firsthand what a conscientious and compassionate physician he was, so Keeperman’s post really resonated with me. But what does Trump do? He retweets the post stating that it’s a “hoax” just like the “fake election results in Nevada.” Trump trashes a doctor who poignantly recalled holding a patient’s hand who’s taking his last dying breath, then the anguish of having to inform the family the patient wouldn’t be coming home.

In conclusion I’ll quote attorney Joseph Welch during the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in 1954 when Welch confronted the junior senator from Wisconsin (Joe McCarthy) with these words:

“You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”

Dan Keenan

Spokane

Leave the lights on

I saw “The Cloudiest Time of the Year” as a heading in today’s paper. Yes, from now on through about the end of March we have mostly clouds and we truly give thanks when the sun is seen shining brightly such as we’ve had over the last few days.

Tradition demands that public Christmas lights be largely removed right after January 1. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all could break tradition this year when times are so gloomy for so many people and leave the holiday lights glowing brightly until even the end of February? When I’m out after dark it is SO wonderful to see bright lights everywhere.

I string colored lights in my apartment in the fall when the cloudy season starts and don’t take them down until the days start getting longer and there is more sunshine. When just about everything I once enjoyed doing is shut down, colored lights are indeed a lifesaver. I hope many will give this careful consideration and keep the holiday cheer going long after the season ends.

Thomas E. Durst

Spokane

Chick-fil-A’s service

The coverage regarding the opening of Chick-fil-A restaurant in Spokane was done very well. I do have one problem with it, however.

At least twice in the article it was stated they are anti-gay marriage and anti-gay. You failed to share the other story from Orlando in 2016 after the shooting at the gay nightclub. The Chick-fil-A opened that Sunday night and fed workers, first responders and people donating blood all night and into the next day.

I don’t know why the gay thing had to be in the article at all but at least show another side. Thank you.

Karen J. Stemm

Liberty Lake

Reckless with ‘freedom’

I offer a koan, a paradoxical anecdote: picture these two experiences in a month’s time and try to find a way to bridge the rift.

I’m at Macy’s in Spokane, making a purchase. A couple comes up to the counter not wearing masks as was requested and posted on Macy’s doors. I say, “Sir, would you please put a mask on. My brother-in-law has severe COVID and may not make it. It’s real.”

“Lady, I just heard on Fox News that masks don’t work,” says the man. “It’s my freedom not to wear a mask and I got a gun.”

A week later a social worker in full PPE at Deaconess is holding a phone 18 inches from Jerry’s ear who is heavily sedated and intubated. We hope he hears our words at some level of brain function. Ten of us are saying tearful goodbyes because we can’t be with him when he dies. We will end his life support when the call is over.

Three days have passed since Jerry’s death and I’m angry, not just grieving. “It has to stop,” says Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s voting system manager, about President Trump’s falsehoods. “Someone is going to get killed.” Whether it’s elections or COVID safety, someone has been killed by Trump’s lies. As of today, 247,000 Americans have died of COVID. Is the metric of freedom recklessness with other’s lives?

Sarah Conover

Spokane

The most famous salesman

The people that deserve the most suspicion are the ones who lie the most. The people who lie the most are salespeople. Not all salespeople lie but the honest ones are hard to find. Who is the most famous salesman in the United States today?

When a salesman makes some kind of claim, the first thing you should ask him is “Can you show me some evidence that your claim is true?” If he does not show you evidence and just says things like “Everybody knows this is true,” the smart thing to do is to keep your money and walk away.

But anyone can be forgiven, even the worst salesman, but first he must confess his life of lies and repent. And God only knows what will happen to him if he doesn’t.

Jeremy Street

Cheney

The dam facts

It is not a “fact” that the dam prevents fish from going up the (Similkameen River) 348 miles (“A dam blocking 348 miles of salmon streams hasn’t generated electricity since 1958,” Nov. 9). The river is 144 miles long and is the size of a large creek at its headwaters. Below the dam is “Coyote Falls” which historically, according to Indigenous legend, has prevented fish from going any further up the river. Having been raised at the dam, I have watched the salmon trying to jump the dam. I would be interested in knowing if the Indigenous people ever fished for salmon in the river.

The dam itself offers little environmental problems as its backwaters only extend about one and a half miles behind it, then the river flows freely from thereon. Below the dam, the river once again flows free. Above the dam, a sandbar protrudes about halfway across the river and in it is a bed of fresh water clams. If the dam were breached it would decimate this colony.

In 1945 Okanogan county purchased the dam from Washington Water Power (Avista) and formed a public utility district. It invested a great deal of money in renovating the generators in the early ’50s and in the employee housing. Not soon after a local politician got his finger in the deal and convinced then the dam was not economical.

Diane Brommer

Reardan

Relentless vs. feckless

A core tenet for a sitting member of Congress is to represent the people of their district. Locally, our own 5th district’s Cathy McMorris-Rodgers is failing to represent the people of Whitman County and specifically the residents of Malden and Pine City who are desperate for FEMA relief.

On Sept. 7, those communities were devastated by the Babb Fire. On Sept. 10, McMorris-Rodgers visited the area and pledged in a Twitter post to work with the White House and President Trump on disaster assistance once Governor Inslee made the official request. This request was submitted by the Governor on Sept. 16. The FEMA disaster declaration is necessary to help these communities obtain federal funds to aid in rebuilding their homes and infrastructure.

It appears this pledge was all but forgotten in her rush for re-election. It has been 77 days and there is still no declaration from the White house for Whitman County. The worthless platitudes from her office about “continuing to urge the administration to support this disaster declaration request” are not enough. She should be relentless in her pursuit of this declaration and focused on taking care of the citizens who helped elect her. Instead, our feckless representative has not succeeded in obtaining this necessary disaster declaration and is failing to represent the people who need her in their most desperate hour.

Once again, I’m left wondering how these people continue to be re-elected.

D.J. Bolling

Spokane

Lock him up?

Several readers took umbrage at Leonard Pitt’s passionate column urging investigation of Donald Trump for various offenses when he leaves office. I wonder if these correspondents were similarly upset when a Republican Congress initiated one investigation after another of Hillary Clinton’s possible role in the Benghazi incident?

And were they incensed when candidate Trump led chants of “lock her up” at his campaign rallies? How about when President Trump repeatedly attempted to repurpose the Department of Justice to investigate any and all who opposed him? I am guessing not a discouraging word was uttered. Trump’s former chief of staff Marine Gen. John Kelly described him as “the most flawed person I have ever met in my life.”

It is not unthinkable that some of those flaws have led to criminal activity. So I hope various elements of law enforcement look into credible allegations. If nothing results we can all move on. If not, he should be held accountable.

Now let me leave you with a frightening thought. There may be thousands or even millions of Trump supporters who hope their children grow up to be like him.

Mike Perrin

Spokane Valley