Cries of fake freedom
For more than a month, I’ve only been able to see my 90-year-old mother through a window at her nursing home. I miss being able to hug her and hold her hand. But I am very thankful that the facility where she lives has been able to keep its residents safe from contracting the deadly coronavirus. So far.
We know from facts that the virus is still spreading and killing. The numbers of COVID-19-affected Idahoans today is 1,766 confirmed cases, with more than 50 deaths. So far. Moscow has four cases confirmed. So far.
Yet on Monday, a group of misguided county residents endangered themselves, their children, and all the rest of us by crowding themselves outside Moscow City Hall to complain about the protective measures our city (and state) implemented a month ago to try to keep this lethal virus at bay. Based on nonfacts and even invoking Nazi scare tactics, they “protested” that the city shutdown should end so that they can get back to life as usual. They claimed they wanted to “Liberate Moscow.”
Horse-pucky. Their irresponsible, maskless mugging (and Gabe Rench campaign photo-op) at city hall was more like a blatant slap in the faces of all who’ve been working so hard to keep this virus at bay.
These “liberators” couldn’t care less about the lives of vulnerable people like my mother. I just hope to God none of them works where she lives — where many defenseless folks are barely a breath away from their caregivers’ health practices.
Our city, mayor, councilors and others who are working so hard to keep everyone safe during this difficult time should be commended, not vilified. Our community’s health depends on the cooperation of all of us — not on the fake freedom cries of the careless few.
Rebecca R. Rod
Moscow
Origin of slogan questionable
I never knew my great-great-aunt, Eleonora Lewith (Levit) Schreier. She was murdered in the Theresienstadt Ghetto on Sept. 17, 1942. I have only vague memories, reinforced by snapshots, of her brother, my great-great-grandfather, Moritz Lewith. Moritz left Eastern Europe in the late 19th century, escaping a similar fate.
A sign exhibited by a woman attending a protest meeting in the photo accompanying the April 21 article, “Protesters don’t want to stay home,” implies that our elected leaders are the equivalent of the murderous thugs of the Third Reich. Making that assertion is as offensive to me as it should be to any thinking person. One questions whether the woman has any knowledge of the horrors of the Holocaust to make this claim.
The Third Reich origin of the slogan on the woman’s sign is questionable. I was unable to find its source in a brief online search.
Gene E. Bobeck
Moscow
Finding what is important
One of the few silver linings of these past weeks is that they’ve served as a crucible for what is important — and the answer to that question is each other. We’ve seen a celebration of humanity as people have sought new ways to come together through the arts, culture and nature as we’ve been forced to isolate from each other. We’ve witnessed multiple efforts to support our neighbors with the vital basics of family, employment, health, food and shelter.
Among these critical needs, Habitat for Humanity offers shelter — affordable, safe shelter to individuals and families who might not otherwise be able to afford it. The irony under these “stay home, stay safe” orders is that many of us don’t have a home that is safe. The 2019 Partnership for Economic Prosperity Housing Assessment found that access to safe, secure housing is a challenge for over one-third of our neighbors around the Palouse. Many of those are the “frontline heroes” working through this pandemic to keep our stores open, our community safe, finding ways to teach our children, and provide medical care. Hiding in plain sight around the region are homes which might be “affordable” but are often structurally dangerous or overcrowded.
This is an amazingly generous community, and I’m challenging us to do more. Please consider supporting the local organizations that make a difference in our community. One way to do that is through Idaho Gives — the online giving event running now through May 7 at Idahogives.org. If giving financially is a hardship right now, know that you are not alone. You can reach out to these organizations for support, and you can let others know of this opportunity to give.
Jennifer Wallace
Moscow
No care for human life
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that national parks and public lands will be reopening following coronavirus-related closures, but it’s not clear when the administration will implement the reopenings across states with varying levels of public health restrictions.
And what about the government employees who will be forced to go back to work? Will they be threatened with losing their jobs if they feel it is unsafe for them to go back to work? Trump cares nothing about human life.
Kathy Graham
Moscow
A lack of understanding
Columnist Larry Kirkland (Daily News, April 21) does not understand how carbon dioxide affects our planet’s temperature.
Earth maintains a constant average temperature by absorbing energy from the sun and radiating an equal amount of energy into space. Most of the solar energy arrives as visible light, which passes unimpeded through our transparent atmosphere. Being much cooler than the sun, our planet radiates infrared light. Infrared is just light that has too long a wavelength to be visible. Strong infrared radiation can be felt as heat. Carbon dioxide absorbs some of the infrared energy on its way out, and keeps the heat from escaping. Then the planet gets warmer until enough heat escapes to balance the energy input.
The amount of heat that carbon dioxide absorbs over a range of infrared wavelengths is precisely known from laboratory measurements. This is not an appropriate topic for political arguments.
Don Matteson
Pullman
‘This is not sustainable’
“This is not sustainable,” said one Moscow protester’s sign. Whoever that man was, I call him a prophet of the obvious. The only response to such a statement is something like “duh.” What we’re trying to do is not kill too many people all at once, and we’re trying to do that by not making too many people sick all at once and thus overwhelming a medical system that has no way to treat the illness. You’re either cooperating or you’re not, and if you’re not, you’re not doing right by your community, your state, or your country.
The real question is, what is not sustainable? The answer is the nation’s ongoing pathetic, disorganized, utterly un-American response. We used to be the country the world could count on to get out front of a calamity like this, but we’re not anymore. The disassembly of the very apparatuses the republic built to protect itself, its citizens, and the world have been profoundly debased in the last three years, by design. Don’t like big government? Think there’s such a thing as the deep state? Who’s supposed to fight this disease? We could have not long ago.
Robert Wrigley
Moscow
