Frustrated
Some hospitals report ICU beds are unavailable for emergency patients because of the unvaccinated. Won’t you join me for a collective scream of frustration?
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARHG!
Tiffany Midge
Moscow
Concerned about Slonaker
As a Slonaker Drive (Moscow) homeowner, I am concerned about the plan to use our street for construction access to the new Woodbury subdivision, which is proposed for the northern end of Slonaker. Having spent my career in the construction equipment space, I have seen firsthand how new development can negatively affect existing neighborhoods by creating higher traffic in general, but astoundingly high construction traffic during the initial phases.
At the developer’s neighborhood meeting in March, while Slonaker Drive homeowners objected to using their street as sole construction access for his project, homeowners on Trail Road, an unpaved road at the opposite end of the proposed development, also objected to the alternative of using Trail Road as the entrance. But only two homes on Trail would be affected, versus 15 homes on Slonaker, many with young children who play outside and ride bikes and skateboards. Because Woodbury is 100 percent new construction with no existing infrastructure, tons of equipment and materials would be traveling to the site for months, even years to come.
Clearly, there are more public safety risks using Slonaker Drive as sole construction access versus the less populated Trail Road.
At a recent Traffic Commission meeting, Deputy City Supervisor Bill Belknap admitted that old data had been used for Woodbury’s traffic impact study with a “growth factor” of 1 percent a year applied. The study included traffic patterns for “built-out” developments, not 100 percent new construction. Surely this requires more study.
I implore the city to take a closer look at the developer’s proposal and seek answers to the concerns I have raised. If Woodbury does go forward, I ask that the developers be required to use Trail Road instead of Slonaker Drive as the sole access until the initial construction phase is completed.
Paul Hendrix
Moscow
Virus cares little for rights
A few points regarding the use of masks. First, the masks work to help prevent the spread of disease from the wearer to the surrounding recipients. Surgeons have been wearing masks for this purpose since about the time when they decided that it wasn’t a good idea to wipe their tools on their aprons.
Second, there is some protection for the wearer even with the most rudimentary masks but, if you want medical level protection, you must wear a N95 and additional equipment.
So masks are less for personal protection than to help to slow the spread of the disease thus masking is an overall plus for all of us.
As for the anti-vaccine argument that “I have the right to decide what goes into my body!” True. Tell it to the virus. It has no obligation to recognize that right.
John Bolles
Moscow
A soldier prays for peace
As I read the news about the collapse in Afghanistan this morning, I got a terrible feeling in my gut that I had seen this movie before and it hit me almost as hard as the first time. On the 30th of April, 1975, I was an Army major sitting in a darkened auditorium during a lecture while attending the Army’s Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. There were about a thousand of us in that room, all of whom had already spent at least one year in Vietnam, most like myself, two, and a few with three years behind them. We had lost close friends on that battlefield and we all knew someone who survived while leaving a leg or an arm or their eyesight there. Many bore terrible physical scars and some were still carrying a small piece of shrapnel or two deep in their bodies. All of us, to a man, had deep scars on our hearts.
In the middle of the lecture, someone walked onto the stage, whispered something into the ear of the speaker, and took the microphone: “Gentlemen, I have just been informed that Saigon fell to the Communists at oh dark thirty this morning.” There was a silent pause of a few seconds and the instructor stepped back up to the microphone and said: “Class dismissed.”
The room remained dark. Everybody was in shock and no one was moving. Then I heard someone sobbing. Then another. And another and another. I tried not to, but I soon joined the chorus. Soldiers all. Wearing Purple Hearts and Silver Stars and Air Medals on their breasts, crying their hearts out over something they could not explain. It just hurt.
As I type this on Monday afternoon, somewhere near you is a combat veteran of the fight in Afghanistan who is very confused and hurt. If you listen carefully, you will hear him quietly crying someplace where he hopes no one is watching. I confess to joining him for a few minutes today.
A long time ago Gen. Douglas MacArthur made a very insightful statement when he said “The soldier, above all others, prays for peace for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds of war.”
Bill Tozer
Moscow
Washington’s vision
A couple of things that I would like to mention. First, Matthew 24: “For there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”
George Washington had a vision at Valley Forge. An angel told him that three great perils shall come upon the republic. The most feared is the third. But he said, “While the stars remain and the heavens send down the dew upon the earth, so shall the union last.” And taking from his bow the crown on which is emblazoned the word “Union,” he placed it upon the standard, while the people, kneeling down, said “Amen.”
Now, let’s look at Afghanistan. What I see next is that China will join with the Taliban and start a war with Pakistan. There are two reasons for this to occur. The first is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons which the Taliban want. Two, China has tried to fight India in the Himalayas and didn’t have much luck, but if they move into Pakistan, they will invade from that border with India and I believe they will overrun India very quickly.
Imagine now that the Taliban has nuclear weapons. They can very easily put a bomb on a freighter and sail from Pakistan to New York or any other port on the East coast. Let’s face it, there are hundreds of ships on the high seas, so who would be worried about a ship coming into New York harbor. If they activate either one or two bombs, then China will activate their troops in Canada, which at this point is about 75,000, and from Mexico, which is about 175,000, and George Washington’s vision will become a reality.
Mike Beirens
Pullman
