Letters to the editor for Dec. 30
Open restaurants for the vaccinated
Restaurants should be immediately allowed to offer indoor dining to those who have been vaccinated for COVID-19. This will allow restaurants to start recovery and will motivate many to get vaccinated ASAP.
Jim Meier, Olympia
Inslee doesn’t protect private property owners
Gov. Jay Inslee has extended the eviction moratorium until March. He hasn’t stopped the bank from accruing more debt on those landowners’ shoulders! Why aren’t the landlords of Washington outside the Capitol every single day? You want your state back? Start fighting for it.
I love Washington and miss it terribly, but am sick of fighting by myself with so many people just complaining and not doing anything. You likely aren’t at work, so if you aren’t busy, make a sign, go to the Capitol and make some noise!
I’m not trying to sound harsh, because I know you guys are hurting and I truly feel for you, but the only chance you have right now is to fight back. I don’t mean violence, but do what the left has done: Protest loudly!
If that doesn’t work, then our constitution tells you your options. We must elect a state Legislature to offset and stop Inslee’s tyrannical and lop-sided rulings and decrees. Is he in the pockets of the banks? Something septic is going on at the Capitol and it isn’t just the smell of low tide.
Protest. Make phone calls. Gather at the Capitol and protest. Write to the newspaper, news outlets. Don’t just gripe at the television!
Matthew VanCamp, Olympia
Genocide of prisoners
Washington state prisoners are dying of COVID-19. On Dec. 23, there were 2,294 active cases of COVID-19 in the state prisons. We have all read how people of color and native communities are disproportionately getting COVID and dying. This is magnified under the racism of our prisons.
Due to racism, BIPOC are more frequently charged, tried, sentenced and imprisoned for longer than white people committing the same crimes. While white people are 72% of the population of Washington, they are only 60% of the prison population. Black people while being 5% of our state population are 18% of the incarcerated, the 11% of Latinos are 13% of those imprisoned, and Native Americans are incarcerated at 2.5 times their rate in the population.
Initially, state prisoners had no access to masks, ate in crowded cafeterias — in short they were sitting ducks. Most of the prisons are crowded and they can be housed in rooms with six prisoners in bunk beds in one room or at least have cell mates. Masks arrived after infections had already arrived. Transfers between prisons have further spread it.
There is little and inadequate access to health care under the best of circumstances. At this point, all visitation has been canceled and prisoners are confined to their cells round the clock and yet still it spreads.
This is genocide. Please write to Gov. Inslee that prisoners and guards should receive priority for the vaccine after frontline workers.
Lynn Fitz-Hugh, Olympia
About the West Bay Drive development
To the Olympia City Council:
Please take a breath. You are our employees, charged with upholding the highest values, not only for the humans of our area, but for the greater good of the water, trees, soils and creatures who are interdependent with us; and to the Stet Chas “Squaxin” and “Nisqually” families, who have come before us.
Now consider your responsibility to the future. I request that you carefully consider the Olympia Coalition for Ecosystems Protection’s appeal regarding massive development at the old Hardel land on West Bay Drive, north of Rotary Park. Please do not authorize any development agreement until a full environmental impact statement has been thoughtfully conducted. Our shoreline is its lifeblood.
I am a 43-year resident and homeowner on Thomas Street Northwest on Olympia’s west side. I walk, kayak and have contributed to art and culture in Olympia. (Artist/collaborator on Seven Oars and Bigelow Park public art installations.) I have raised two children in Olympia public schools; I am a chaplain, having served at a local hospital for more than a decade. I love Olympia.
Karen Lohmann, Olympia