The right to worship
Holli Cooper submitted a letter to the editor complaining about a gathering over the weekend at the Nazarene Church in Moscow. Was she there? Does she know what precautions may have been taken? Does Cooper get angry when she drives by the Walmart parking lot, which is generally overflowing with cars? Does she think that the few hundred people jostling together at any one time while shopping for food and school supplies do not have a care and are endangering the lives of Moscow residents? And if not, why is she more upset with a church gathering? Whether Cooper likes it or not, people have the right to practice their First Amendment, and doing so is not literally endangering people’s lives.
We have a right to peaceably assemble and to practice our religion. No one, not local, state or federal government should infringe on that right (or any other), not even during a pandemic. Take precautions, especially if you are one of the vulnerable populations, but do not give up your rights and liberty for a little safety and security.
Kat Yager
Moscow
Young lives matter
Dean B. Edwards brings information to the table in his letter to the editor of Aug. 18. I believe his request is that we leave the police alone. And he informs us that the people who were killed in the Seattle autonomous zone were young and Black, including an 8-year-old. I agree with him that these Black lives matter.
There are no suspects, right? But we can make an educated surmise. Killing is a standard form of communication between competing merchants in the black market of prohibition. Because the black market is unregulated, it operates everywhere, including any temporary autonomous zone. Apparently, the volunteer peacekeepers in the autonomous zone are not better at preventing black market activity than the professional police are. Look at the murder rates in cities where the market is big enough to be worth killing for.
Further, the 8-year-old is called a mushroom, because the collateral damage of prohibition pops up randomly, like mushrooms. Talk to the surviving family members of all the mushrooms. My ask is that we end the government policy which created and maintains monopoly-powered drug pushing, crime and violence. Stop the bloody prohibition. Because young lives matter.
Wiley Hollingsworth
Pullman
