Letters to the editor for Sept. 12

The Texas Theocracy

This male cannot stay silent. I am afraid for my female family and friends. Having taught history, including the women’s struggle for rights, I am outraged that our nation has regressed to Puritan days.

The Texas abortion law heartlessly includes no exception for rape or incest. So Uncle Bob impregnates your daughter and she’s forced to bear the shame and pain of an unwanted child? Really?

It deputizes citizens to sue both anyone who performs the procedure and anyone who assists after six weeks: friends, nurses, insurance companies, donors, taxi drivers — anyone with even a minor role in enabling an abortion are potentially liable. A huge bounty comes if moral militia prevail in court! Public tax money to suppress women! Really?

At six weeks, many women don’t know they’re pregnant; cells that will eventually form a heart have begun to emit mere electrical signals. There’s no “heartbeat” as the law prescribes, but the law is a moral code, not science; it’s the “Scarlet Letter” anew.

So, it’s come to this: for-profit vigilantes to block women’s equal rights because the theocratic GOP is a nefarious sexist coward that fears their day in court? What’s next? Bounty hunters to stop interracial or LGBTQ weddings? Or men’s vasectomies — doesn’t that stop “life” too? Laws to stop public critics of the law itself?

To paraphrase Martin Niemöller: First they came for “them,” but I didn’t speak out because it wasn’t me. Then they came for me. Oops.

Write, call in opposition while you can!

Gery Gerst, Olympia

Do the smart thing and get vaccinated

We are dealing with a virus that spreads in the moisture from people’s breath. Vaccines have been created. A person infected with COVID will not have as bad an experience if they are already vaccinated. The virus interacts with people in different ways; some just have the sniffles, others die.

How do they test the vaccine? Give a controlled group the vaccine and observe. If you believe the numbers, 95% of the people in the hospitals with the virus have not been vaccinated.

Intelligence tells you that your health concerns should be discussed with your doctor. Not all of us have the same make up.

One more requirement to stop this virus is to wear a mask to stop the spread, because when you get the virus, you don’t know you have received it. It takes a few days to mature in your body. During this time you can infect others, so wear a mask so you don’t pass the virus on to other people. Then we can all quit passing the virus around.

Get vaccinated and wear you mask so we can get through this pandemic.

Dan Batman, Lacey

Protect school children from anti-vaxxers

I see by the picture of the protesters at the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction that Michelle Darnell, president and founder of RiseUPwa, does not have much of a following. The 16 people that refuse masks are the losers and I hope they do not infect their children or a loved one in their family.

My three children all attended and graduated from Thurston County schools. If it were today, they would stay home unless all staff and students wear masks. To you anti-vaxxer parents, shame on you. If you do not want to play by the safety standards set by the medical experts, keep your children home and home school.

I am a very senior citizen and want to live a little longer so I wear my mask to protect myself from you anti-vaxxers. Do you have to infect a loved one to see the reason for prevention? I am also eligible for the booster soon, and I will get it.

Let the children who want to attend school and obey the rules get their education. Please do not use the flag in your un-American fruitless cause.

John Wasierski, Lacey