Letters to the editor for April 22
Who should we honor in our town square?
This question has been posed about a statue of Washington’s third governor, John Rankin Rogers, who served 1897-1901.
“Reparative justice” requires that any civic recognition of an individual be obliterated on basis of specific negatives in the honoree’s life. We judge people of the past based on today’s norms. The totality of the person’s lifetime contributions must be cleansed through the filter of the person’s flaws. The good cannot outweigh the bad, and all memory of them must be removed from societal consciousness.
On that basis, who can we honor in our town square? Are there any among us who has perfect, unblemished character? Any who has never conveyed an opinion offensive to another? The totality of the individual cannot be considered. Any expression contrary to current-day political correctness categorically disqualifies.
The former governor no longer has the opportunity to amend his views as expressed in 1892, nor make reparations of any kind. He was voted into office by citizens of his generation, yet this generation declares him unfit for recognition — his total person considered anathema. Who among us will pass the litmus test of a future generation?
Who CAN we honor in our town square?
Jann Coffman, Olympia
Workers Memorial Week honors those we have lost
Each year thousands of workers’ lives are cut short by industrial accidents or toxic exposures. The COVID pandemic has increased the risks of sickness or death, impacting hundreds of thousands of workers, including those deemed “essential.”
On April 13, the Olympia City Council issued a proclamation designating April 26-30 as Workers Memorial Week. They join the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health and workers throughout the U.S. in a Memorial Week of Action to remember the lives of those who died from injury or illness that occurred on the job.
All workers deserve health and safety protections. These fundamental rights safeguard workers from getting sick, getting hurt, becoming disabled, or dying. They were won through struggle and organizing over many years as workers united to assert their human worth.
Yet the struggle continues. Last spring in Yakima County, COVID rates soared, and for several months the county had the highest rate of COVID infections on the West Coast. A large percentage of those infected were agricultural workers laboring without protection in the fields and packinghouses. Workers testified that they were forced to choose between risking infection to support their families and losing their jobs. After a 3-week strike by over 400 packinghouse workers, our state issued COVID-protective requirements for agriculture, including providing masks, washing stations, and disinfecting work facilities for those essential workers who grow and process our food.
Please join this struggle for justice by honoring Workers Memorial Week and the workers we have lost.
Anne Fischel, Olympia
Hate and conspiracy on I-5
Somewhere between Bellingham and Olympia a person is convinced that a Democratic Party pedophile ring exists, and that it seeks to undermine the Constitution. That person believes so strongly in the election voter fraud lie promulgated by former President Trump that they have painted their car hood with the QAnon symbol. I’ve seen this car twice, once in Skagit County a month ago, once in Thurston County last week.
Perhaps there are two cars. I don’t know.
What I do know is that people around me believe these lies and proudly display them. Naked hatred and ignorance has become a fashion statement at the least, and a creed marking those who believe extraordinary lies at worst.
If this automobile represents anything at all, it marks an ideology thousands if not millions across the country espouse.
How do educators teach history to the children of QAnon? How can adults work together anywhere when their place of work is filled with a few sporting hats, T-shirts, buttons that support hate and crazy conspiracies?
How can we trust that our laws, juries, and electoral structures will function well when so many have been poisoned by lies and hate?
I don’t know the answer to these questions. I do know that media and social media can either foment or inform. As citizens, it’s our duty to become well informed.
There’s a car driving up and down I-5 advertising our well-informed populace is being replaced by a hate-filled fantasy.
Liza Rognas, Olympia
This story was originally published April 22, 2021 at 5:45 AM.