Letters to the editor for Dec. 10
Support a countywide home fund
I appreciate the Thurston County Commissioners considering creating a countywide home fund. The business plan developed by county staff in partnership with other local agencies has been a strong show of cooperative inter-jurisdictional work. The proposal has a clear business plan for helping get housing to those that need it most and addressing related issues that come with homelessness. I support all three county commissioners voting to enact a countywide home fund.
Creating a countywide home fund will help address our regional shortage of affordable housing for people who have either a temporary or chronic loss of their home. Providing housing and services to our neighbors who need it most will improve their chance of recovery and is the compassionate thing to do.
Olympia’s Home Fund has already created housing and support service. Yet this issue truly is countywide. From Yelm to Rochester, Littlerock to Lacey, so many of our neighbors are without housing.
Recent school data show the highest levels of K-12 homelessness are in Rochester, North Thurston, Tumwater and Yelm. Olympia School District has one of the lowest rates of homeless students. This is just one indication of how widespread the homeless issue is in our county. Look around and one can see the blue tarps and tents of people without homes in wooded areas near the Bald Hills, along the Black River and Black Hills too. Please act to create a countywide home fund.
Thank you.
Gordon White, Olympia
No COVID-19 lockdowns, please
As COVID-19’s devastation of the world’s social, economic, and political life continues, a particular solution that has drawn the most scrutiny from everyone, including politicians and public health authorities, is the lockdown. While distance-keeping, mask-wearing, and vaccinations save lives, forcing people into their homes is, indeed, a mistake many countries are making in the name of “flattening the curve.”
One of the first things every country should not be doing is to embark on unprecedented abuses towards its citizens’ civil liberties. Peru, for instance, has been extending its controversial state of emergency from dawn to dusk and even to victims of domestic violence and residents with underlying health conditions. The irony of those actions is that curfews, rather than helping residents prevent COVID-19’s devastating effects, have exacerbated those, along with increased economic disparities and domestic violence against women and girls.
Instead of using dangerous and ineffective curfews solely to promote a false sense of public safety, governments, including our country’s, should embark on education-based approaches, as well as on increasing vaccinations. Education, not the uncontrol erosion of our civil liberties, is the driver to the end of the tunnel.
Erick Dietrich, Olympia
Putting values into action
Israel is set to host the Miss Universe beauty pageant on Dec. 12. The pageant will be a little different this year. Several contestants won’t be there in protest of Israel’s human rights abuses against Palestinians.
In recent years there’s been a brouhaha in Olympia over a boycott of Israeli goods being sold in a store here in town. The legal case concluded that the store board of directors had the right to initiate the boycott, and that members of the store couldn’t show how the boycott harmed them.
By protesting the abuses and crimes Israel commits against Palestinians, the Miss Universe entrants chosen to represent their countries are participating in boycott – and making a value statement. By boycotting goods in Olympia, the store was making a value statement. Boycott is not scary or dangerous. It is the act of putting values into action.
There’s a segment of people in Olympia who wrongly believe that a boycott of Israeli products made on occupied land is an assault on Israel.
As we head into the holiday season that includes Chanukah, it’s important to reflect on our values. Chanukah isn’t a story of miracles, but a story of action and of values. Putting values into action should be commended at any time of year. Free speech is a protected right, but more importantly it’s important to act on our values.
Bill Dole Jr., Olympia