Letters for Jan. 30, 2022
Council members should mask
Council member Jonathan Bingle may be better suited to the “City of Fools” council than to the ever-growing city of Spokane. To choose, during a public health crisis, to not protect others from the droplets that exit his nose and mouth, potentially loaded with a virus that increase morbidity and mortality is a strange choice for a “hill to die on.”
He is “taking a stand” while our medical staff is exhausted both physically and emotionally. We have families struggling to make ends meet. We have misinformation filling every crack and crevice of the electronic airwaves BUT this is where Bingle chooses to STAND FIRM!
As a young member of our family fights for her very breath, I personally find his behavior abhorrent and unsound. I believe he would be better put to use in volunteer public service, perhaps at the Meals under the Bridge where masking will not be required.
As a health care professional, I wonder for which procedure he would not have me follow policies and procedures for best practice? I can tell you this: If I refused, not only would I not be allowed in the building but my licensure would be in jeopardy and I certainly would be looking for another job.
Elizabeth Cobbs
Spokane
Bingle refuses to wear mask
Councilman Jonathan Bingle’s refusal to mask up in City Hall is a breath of fresh air. In the article, council members Kinnear, Stratton and Beggs stated their concerns with council president Beggs suggesting that the Woodward administration should address this issue.
I agree, it’s time for Mayor Woodward to speak. She has a terrific opportunity to walk out of her closet of silence to not only voice her support for Councilman Bingle but to call for the governor’s mandates and state of emergency to end and for the Legislature to enact legislation to limit and redefine that gubernatorial authority. Eastern Washington is in desperate need of political leadership and Bingle has taken a step toward that position.
Go, Jonathan, Go!
Ed Walther
Moses Lake
No mask for Bingle
So Jonathan Bingle doesn’t want to wear a mask. What to do? You send him to his room, just as you would any little boy who doesn’t want to do something. In a half hour, if he complies, fine. If not, kick him out. This kind of juvenile behavior in an elected official whose job is to do what’s best for his fellow citizens is not only stupid, it’s dangerous. Give the job to his runner-up.
Consuelo Larrabee
Spokane
Unwarranted press coverage
When a private organization makes a rule, no one should get a three-page spread in the newspaper to explain why they won’t comply. No one.
PS, editorial remarks repeatedly stating that the person’s statements don’t align with current experts or science do not excuse the printing of that misinformation and should be an editorial red flag.
Lisa L. Lasswell
Spokane
Stockton and COVID
I attended Gonzaga in 1980 when John Stockton was there. While I was in chemistry, physics and calculus, he was in communications, business and athletic conditioning.
When I was in lectures, much of the season he was on the road or practicing basketball.
While I certainly acknowledge his ability to bounce an orange ball and throw it through a small hoop from quite a ways away, I don’t see how that translates to having any authority on medical issues. It is an embarrassment to the majority of people who possess the insight and humility to know the limitations of their knowledge of epidemiology and stick to the area of their own particular expertise.
It is unfortunate that his influence is out of proportion to his understanding of a global pandemic. I hope most can see his thoughts as just that – uninformed opinions. We have way too many as it is.
Glenn Kellogg, M.D.
Spokane
Stockton: Deliver the names
As a service to readers and to the many others who see John Stockton as a “public figure, as someone a little bit more visible,” I ask that he support his claim that “it’s highly recorded now, there’s 150 … professional athletes dead, professional athletes, the prime of their life, dropping dead that are vaccinated, right on the pitch, right on the field, right on the court.”
When any person dies unexpectedly in our country, an autopsy is required, followed by a coroner’s report. The coroner’s report lists the cause of death and any precipitating factors that may have led to the death. The coroner’s report is public record – available to anyone asking for it.
Sports fans and general readers would be very interested to see Stockton’s list of those 150 professional athletes he said have died as a result of receiving COVID vaccinations. Providing names would enable an independent review of the “cause of death” of each, using the coroners’ reports.
I urge Mr. Stockton to dish off the names, deliver the list and pass the evidence to us to support his numbers. A documented list of 150 pros dead from the vaccine would be big headlines indeed. Show us your research, John.
Sally Bulger Quirk
Spokane
Legacy of DeLaura/Stockton
Your big headline “Legacy” (Jan. 23) about young former WSU quarterback Jayden DeLaura was misplaced. It should instead have gone with the article about John Stockton and his difficulty in masking his ignorance.
The sophomore football player, no matter how flighty his leave-taking makes him appear, still has time to make a new mark at another institution, should his health and situation prove favorable. After two pandemic seasons in Pullman, I doubt that he’ll take up much space in Cougars fans’ memory or record books.
John Stockton, on the other hand, has everything to lose from his unfortunate actions and words about COVID-19, now that he’s just a gym owner and amateur immunologist. Once the consummate professional, he would do well to rest on his career stats as a ball player instead of inventing them as a slipshod researcher.
He might have the sense that his residency in the Hall of Fame and Spokane give him cover to make mistakes, but I think he’s wrong. His disrespect of his alma mater and their fans by failing to follow common sense masking rules, his unwholesome veiled insult to Pope Francis’ leadership, and his embarrassing claims of vaccine-caused deaths among pro athletes are all capable of being legacy-killers.
When an athlete’s physical talents are in the past, only their words and actions in the present are left to define what their legacy as a human will be.
Michael R. Riley
Potlatch, Idaho
What is important to us
We are, No. 1, the most powerful nation in the world with a strong military force. We are, No. 1, the richest country in the world with a GDP of about $20 trillion.
We need to strive to be No. 1 in child care; No. 1 in affordable health care; No. 1 in income equality; No. 1 in racial equality; No. 1 in caring for the environment; No. 1 safest country in the world; No. 1 in affordable college tuition; No. 1 in affordable workforce training; No. 1 in honest transparency for government and business. I believe we can improve in these areas if we vote for people who are willing to support these issues.
Renate John
Coeur d’Alene
Parking? Who needs parking?
I’ve been reading articles and letters about the fight over stadium options, and I’m tired of all the whines about parking in downtown. Modern cities don’t worry about that. What Spokane needs to do is beef up mass transit. It can also add extra buses on game days. There’s zero reason that important downtown space should be covered by asphalt for fools who define their existence by driving vehicle. Plenty of cities focus on mass transit to get people to their events. Spokane should do the same.
David Teich
Spokane Valley
Mandatory nurse staffing legislation
As a third-generation operator of Sunshine Health Facilities here in Spokane, I cannot help being deeply concerned about legislation that is currently under consideration in Olympia. HB 1868 and companion legislation SB 5751 would establish nurse staffing requirements for all Washington hospitals. This is in response to a two-year pandemic that is fueling long days, tough shifts, hours of overtime, and stresses we cannot imagine.
That goes for hospitals and for long-term care settings like my skilled nursing facility. This has been a grueling period for all who provide care and services to our most fragile citizens.
For skilled nursing facilities, I fear this well-intended legislation would have deeply challenging implications. We struggle to staff our facilities. We have five open positions with no applicants, and not for a lack of trying. Hiring has always been a challenge: Medicaid funding for Washington skilled nursing facilities falls short by over $100 million annually, according to DSHS. COVID made this worse. We are already unable to compete for nurses with hospitals, and this legislation will only exacerbate that problem.
At the policy level, our work must be to ensure recovery for all health care sectors, including acute, sub-acute and community-based care. I fear the nurse staffing proposal comes at the wrong time, and at the expense of other health care sectors.
I urge the Legislature to work on initiatives that will increase the number of available nurses for providing critically important care, regardless of health care setting.
Nathan Dikes
Spokane Valley
If Biden, why not Harvard?
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case which asks Harvard and the University of North Carolina to throw out their admissions policies which use race as one of their admissions criteria. At the same time, President Biden has announced he will soon follow through on a campaign commitment to nominate an African American woman to the court.
If the president can use affirmative action as a criterion to admission to the Supreme Court, why can’t universities do the same to their institutions?
Thomas Benemann
Spokane
Biden should nominate Obama
President Biden should nominate Barack Obama to replace Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court.
It would not be unprecedented, as William Howard Taft served on the Supreme Court after serving as president. Barack Obama was a constitutional professor, as well as being president of the United States for eight years.
Who else in this country carries such credentials?
Bruce Barnbaum
Granite Falls, Wash.