Letters to the editor for May 8

Teachers working hard to reach students

I am lucky enough to live in a multi-generational household. I take issue with Maria Chavez’s column contending that schools are not doing enough for students at home.

For weeks, I have watched my daughter, who is a teacher, spend 10 to 12 hours a day meeting with parents, students and administrators using Zoom, email or phone. She has been working tirelessly to get educational plans in place for her students — not baking banana bread or watching hours of Netflix. I know teachers are working hard for students.

In this time of an unprecedented pandemic, it is so easy to criticize and so important to be positive. Perhaps Ms. Chavez can volunteer her expertise to aid the schools, which would be so much more valuable than criticizing from the sidelines.

Treat climate change as a crisis

Here in Washington, COVID-19 has completely disrupted our usual way of life. After Gov. Inslee issued the stay-at-home order, many people have had to spring into action to do essential jobs. At the same time, simultaneously, 7.5 million Washington state residents were urged to quarantine themselves in their homes.

If one thing has become apparent during this time, it is that our state leaders can act decisively to protect Washingtonians by creating policy. With COVID-19, our lawmakers and state leaders have been able to respond quickly to the emergency and make the social changes needed to flatten the curve.

When you look at the climate legislation that is considered, there is absolutely no sense of urgency. We need our leaders to recognize that there is a climate crisis that needs to be addressed with the same force as COVID-19.

After self-isolating for weeks now, it is easy to see how, as a community, we can collectively make social changes to protect each other from COVID-19. Every news source now has a ton of coronavirus-related content too. When it comes to protecting our environment and our collective health as a community, we need to see these same changes.

It is time to treat the climate crisis for what it is and make the changes necessary and stop producing greenhouse gases. As a community, we need to band together to make the necessary changes and not only rely on a small number of people to do these actions.