Letter to the editor for Nov. 21

A vote of support for Plum St. mitigation site

I attended the Monday, Nov. 8 city meeting regarding the move of the Mitigation Site to Plum Street.

I have lived in the Eastside Neighborhood for 20 years. I live one block east of St. Michael Catholic Church, with my husband and two young children. I love my neighborhood, and it has its challenges. Ultimately, I appreciate its texture and am grateful for its reminders that my privileged life as an affluent, home-owning white person is but one perspective.

Great concern has been expressed about moving the site — worries of a “highway” developing to the camps on Wheeler Street, upset about the presence of sex offenders and drug paraphernalia, the proximity of the site to schools.

Let me be clear: These things are already here.

An unmanaged situation already exists. As a residential neighbor, I welcome a managed site. I welcome tools and resources, and someone to call if I have concerns.

I implore the city to keep their eyes on the prize — developing more permanent housing and more social supports. In the meantime, we have to do our best to manage an unmanageable situation, relying on the best practices and the best information we have at the time, acknowledging that this may shift and change, and we will adapt.

We are all struggling to hold the suffering we see around us. This manifests as fear, anger, compassion, grief. But a community in which everyone has a safe place to be is safer and healthier for all.

Whitney Bowerman, Olympia

Germs, not bullets and bombs?

I wish to respond to Mark Fleming’s Letter to the Editor of Nov. 12. His last sentence says, “The threats facing our nation and the world will not be solved with bullets and bombs.” I completely agree with him, and look at the lives our country has lost since World War I to present day because of bullets and bombs. Our country is still looking for thousands of GIs lost in Vietnam as well as previous wars. Why must we always get involved to create solutions for countries who cannot find their own?

Back to bullet and bombs. Our present-day lives were affected nearly two years ago with a COVID pandemic has claimed thousands of lives worldwide. Our government has sent people to China trying to find the source of COVID with little or no cooperation from the Chinese. Could you imagine the Chinese may have found a way to create a war without the use of bullets and bombs? Has anyone in Washington, D.C., ever given thought that China may be guilty of war without bullets and bombs?

We now are in our fifth wave of COVID. Why? The first reason is because many of our fellow Americans are stubborn and selfish about getting a vaccine injection. The second reason could be that the COVID virus is continuing to be spread throughout the world.

Give some thought to what I have written. I believe we are in the middle of a one-sided war.

James Bishop, Olympia

The issue is personhood

Recently The Olympian ran an article entitled: “After Roe, the federal courts will go back to proper role.” The gist was that Roe v. Wade is a state issue, not a federal issue.

A pregnant woman is carrying human life based upon the heartbeat; that’s science. If the mother is an American then the baby is an American; thus has the right of life and liberty. Killing this baby would be murder except under extreme circumstances. Life exists based upon the science; the baby is American and has Constitutional protections.

Illegal aliens are given Constitutional protections, why not the unborn once a heartbeat is detected? Also, choice is no longer valid because of the political mandate that says everyone must be vaccinated or face the consequences. The right of control over your body is gone.

Chief Justice Roberts has stated he doesn’t want to change Roe because he wants to avoid changing Settled Law. If Justice Roberts was on the bench in 1954, Plessy v. Ferguson (1894), Separate but Equal Education, would still be the law and we would have segregated education.

The Supreme Court said in its original Roe v. Wade abortion case: “If personhood for the unborn is established, the appellant’s case collapses, for the fetus’ right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the 14th Amendment.” The Supreme Court must give the unborn American, human baby in Mom’s belly a Constitutional Right to Life.

Ardean Anvik, Shelton