TNT letters to the editor, 4/14/2021
Vaccine passports
Re: “Why liberals (like me) should fear vax passports,” (TNT, 4/11).
The purpose of vaccination passports is not, as the op-ed writer asserts, “to provide an incentive for vaccination,” or in any way to penalize unvaccinated people.
The purpose is to protect unvaccinated people from contracting the virus and to limit continued spread.
People who have been vaccinated can safely congregate with other vaccinated people, in large numbers, at close quarters, in confined spaces, without masks.
Unvaccinated people cannot safely do these things with anyone else, vaccinated or unvaccinated; they risk becoming infected and transmitting it to others. This probably will remain true for many years to come.
Vaccination passports are not a dangerous new idea. In all 50 states, vaccination passports are required for children to attend school.
Has this led to the two-tiered society the writer says we should dread? Has it violated our sacred right to privacy regarding health conditions?
Lastly, he claims that a person’s vaccination status deserves the same privacy as a woman’s history of abortion. This, of course, is preposterous. Abortions are not contagious.
David Griggs, Puyallup
Climate change
I’ve read a few recent letters to the editor about climate change. What I don’t think people realize is the way that fear of climate change is consuming the younger generations.
I’m a student and have little experience in the realm of environmental science, but I have learned enough to know that the ice caps are melting, and the more they melt, the less time we have to make positive change.
Sea levels will rise and coastal communities like our own will be most affected. Temperatures will rise, and it will be harder to get water from the mountains. We already see massive losses in salmon population from rising ocean temperatures.
I’m scared because this won’t just happen here in the Pacific Northwest, but across the planet, leading to unprecedented human tragedies and decreasing quality of life for all.
Yet there are so many of us that sit and twiddle our thumbs rather than make positive change.
Wulf Alexander Jinkins, Tacoma
Ranked-choice voting
I was thrilled to see we had a state bill to bring ranked-choice voting (RCV) to Washington. Though we will have to wait until next year to see if it passes, the momentum is exciting.
RCV allows you to rank the candidates on your ballot. If your first choice can’t win, your vote still counts for your next choice.
It sounds so simple, but it means I will no longer feel pressured to vote for the “lesser of two evils.” I will be able to vote my heart and back it up with a safe bet.
In 2008, Pierce County adopted ranked-choice voting as a pilot. It ran into a few problems, some having to do with the technology of the time and some with just bad luck. These mishaps soured many people’s feelings about RCV and it was repealed.
But so much has changed since then. Election technology is better and there are evidence-based protocols now for RCV implementation.
Polls show that voters like RCV and there is bipartisan support for it across the country.
RCV improves elections by increasing diversity among candidates and improving voter turnout. Please support it for Washington.
Jomichele Seidl, Gig Harbor
This story was originally published April 14, 2021 at 9:35 AM with the headline "TNT letters to the editor, 4/14/2021."