Thoughts on vaccines, joyful events and inane protests

Religion, vaccines, and exemptions

Gov. Inslee was right to issue a vaccination mandate for state employees, child care providers, health care workers and school and college staff. And President Biden was right to issue a national mandate for federal employees, contractors and large businesses.

Both will be tough to implement, but the need for them could not be more obvious as the Delta variant surges, hospitals are overstretched and kids too young to be vaccinated return to classrooms.

The spread of the Delta variant is terrifying. We are now in a footrace between COVID and science, and the anti-vaxxers are like a ball and chain on science’s ankle.

A group called One Washington is making matters worse by leading workshops — attended by hundreds of unmasked people — to coach them on how to apply for a religious exemption to the mandate. One Washington is led by Thomas Jonez, a volunteer Washington State Patrol chaplain and the former owner of a bogus vocational school that left its students in debt and without skills.

Worse yet, his organization has attracted the support of a handful of Pierce County Republican legislators.

In an interview after one workshop, Jonez brushed off a question about the morality of endangering others by refusing the vaccine. “Everyone must make their own decisions on morality,” he said.

But it’s hard to fathom how anyone with a conscience could ignore the morality of protecting children, elders and everyone else from needless sickness and death. Getting vaccinated is not a “my body, my choice” proposition; it is a “my body and its effect on countless others” proposition.

We find it hard to fathom what religion would endorse refusing to take a vaccine that can save the lives of others. We find it even harder to fathom why a political party would promote this effort.

Love Oly: Good news for downtown Olympia

The Olympia Downtown Alliance orchestrated a series of eight “Love Oly” events on Saturday afternoons this summer that included live performances, a beer garden with local brews, children’s activities, art installations and tables for local nonprofits. According to Todd Cutts, ODA’s executive director, average attendance was about 1,000 people. Most people wore masks, and the crowds were never too big for sensible social distancing.

Even those precautions didn’t dampen the joy of these events, or the hope for more of them.

ODA deserves particular praise for orchestrating the efforts of so many local artists, organizations, and businesses to make these events so much fun. “The more layers we get involved, the more people come downtown,” says Cutts. “This is downtown at our best.”

We agree, and we’re grateful.

Childish behavior: Bad news for downtown Olympia

A week ago the Proud Boys and local anarchists reprised the summer of 2020 by chasing each other around downtown Olympia. Their ritual climaxed this time with one of the Proud Boys getting shot in the ankle, and the anarchist folk fleeing the scene.

Someone needs to hold up a super-sized mirror to these knuckleheads so they can see how utterly ridiculous they are. We wonder they think their lame (now literally, for the guy with the shot ankle) performances accomplish. They will achieve neither a white supremacist misogynists’ paradise nor an idyll of anarchism. It would be comic opera if it weren’t so dangerous and disruptive.

It’s also a miserable challenge for our beleaguered police. Unfortunately, overgrown boys chasing each other around isn’t quite a crime. Monitoring their dangerous games turned our police force into babysitters — until shots were fired. We hope the police find and arrest the shooter.

We have little hope that the Proud Boys will ever grow up and become Humble Men, or that the anarchists will outgrow their pre-adolescent phase of parading around in black Halloween costumes.

But we wish both groups would go play in their own yards.