Letters to the editor for Nov. 8
Port is right to support Ready Reserve
I am a working U.S. merchant mariner. I don’t work for the U.S. Maritime Administration. My father and my brother both worked on the Maritime Administration’s active ships. I work for a private-sector company. I don’t have a personal economic stake in this.
The lay-berth payments will be significant revenue for the Port at a time when state governments and agencies and authorities will be struggling with the effects of the pandemic, including greater debt and reduced revenue. A reserve ship in a lay berth will make few demands on the Port, with only a skeleton crew, maybe some security, and the necessary maintenance to keep the ships ready if needed. While not in operation, they would produce next to nothing by way of environmental impacts.
These are civilian-crewed ships intended primarily to carry supplies and equipment needed to fight a war. I oppose militarism, imperialism and adventurism, and there are far better ways to stimulate an economy than military spending. But it is necessary to have military power sufficient for a credible deterrent and an effective defense, to support allies overseas, and to have effective military options other than a nuclear attack.
The success of the unquestionably necessary war against Naziism, fascism and imperialism in 1939-45 depended largely upon ships loaded with supplies and equipment. My father was at the receiving end of their supply line in North Africa, Italy and the Pacific.
Ready reserve ships incur minimum expense until time of actual need, but are available when needed.
Capt. James Michael Forsyth, Lacey
Are we teaching kids to fear living?
This summer, the Thurston County Health Department denied kids the option of returning to school in a hybrid model, despite an exceedingly low case rate at the time. A planned protest by local parents quickly changed their tune. Now, with case rates increasing again, the Health Officer claims kids remain safer at home than at school, and that schools should delay a return to in-person learning. Sports teams were forced to regress to practicing in small groups.
Yet there have been zero deaths due to COVID-19 in the entire state in kids under 19, and the consensus is to send kids back to school when at all possible.
Meanwhile, 42 kids under the age of 20 were killed last year in car crashes in Washington. Why is the Health Department not keeping kids out of cars? Because most people realize that life involves cars. It also involves going to school. On average, 720 kids under 18 die in our state yearly. This year, those kids will not have had the opportunity to eat lunch with their friends at school or play sports on a school team.
In Thurston County, kids are not going back to school or sports due to the fears of the Health Department. Just because something has the potential for harm doesn’t mean it should be avoided at all costs. People might think that keeping kids in a protective bubble will keep them from dying, but it also keeps them from living.
Melanie Golob, Olympia
COVID-19 is ‘deadly stuff’
After a conversation with President XI of China in January regarding the coronavirus, President Trump said on Feb. 7, in a taped interview with author Bob Woodward or his book, “It goes through air, Bob, not from touch, but you just breathe the air. That is how it is passed, and so that is a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It also more deadly than your strenuous flu. This is deadly stuff.”
Three days later, he told Fox News that “We’re in very good shape, we have 11 cases.” Two weeks later he told reporters on the White House lawn that “we have it very much under control in this country.”
On Feb. 26: “It’s a little like the regular flu that we have flu shots for.”
On Feb. 28, at a rally in South Carolina, Mr. Trump denounced Democrats for their concerns about the virus as their “new hoax.”
On March 19, “I wanted to play it down, I still like playing it down because I don’t want to create a panic. This is deadly stuff.”
The American people do not panic. Given the truth and a plan to follow, they will do that. If on Feb. 7 the President had consulted with virologists and then advised the people, our country would be a different place today.
Instead, as Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said, Woodward’s book offers “damning proof that Donald Trump lied and people died.” And they still are.
Diana Williams, Lacey