TNT letters to the editor, 7/17/2021
Governor’s emergency powers
Re: “Inslee loudly, proudly reopened Washington. Why is he quietly extending emergency order?” ( TNT, 7/9).
Gov. Jay Inslee made hard, fast decisions last year to control the spread of COVID-19 and because of that we stand as one of the states with fewer deaths and much lower infection rates.
From day one the Republican Party and their twice impeached president ignored science while more than 600,000 Americans eventually died.
Now state Rep. J.T. Wilcox and his GOP leadership counterpart in the Senate want majority Democrats to team up with minority Republicans to make “thoughtful improvements to the state’s emergency-powers law.”
After watching Republicans for the last year, “thoughtful” and “improvements” is a contradiction in terms.
They protest that half of states have ended emergencies. But research shows that during much of the pandemic, states with GOP governors suffered far more virus cases and deaths than Washington.
The Republican Party runs every election on a platform that the government doesn’t work. Then when elected, they prove it.
William F. Johnston, Tacoma
Climate change
“Heat wave is pounding our mountain,” (TNT editorial, 6/29).
Remember Juneuary? Those days when the month of June would feel more like winter than summer are over.
Now the word “Juneuary” is out and “heat dome” is in. As the editorial pointed out, Mount Rainier’s glaciers are melting at unprecedented rates, and all living beings on the mountain and downstream will pay the price.
I suggest that price should be placed on carbon emissions.
Record heat waves, forest fires, hurricanes, flooding – this is our new reality. In a New York Times guest essay, Dr. Michael Mann and Susan Joy Hassol wrote that heat waves now happen at the triple the frequency as in the 1960s, and record-breaking heat impacts 25 percent more Northern Hemisphere land mass than in 1980.
As old records are shattered, tragically, so are people’s lives.
A federal carbon fee on emissions is one fair, effective way to address this threat. We must be up to the task.
Otherwise, how will we explain to our grandchildren that we knew climate change was upon us yet we did too little too late?
Donna Green, Steilacoom
Critical race theory
Critical race theory is being demonized by conservatives as divisive. If it’s divisive to teach the truth, then so be it.
How many of us learned about Thomas Jefferson, one of our founding fathers, in this light:
He wrote that “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence and yet enslaved more than 600 people over the course of his life.
Although he made some legislative attempts against slavery and at times bemoaned its existence, he also profited directly from the institution and wrote in his “Notes on the State of Virginia” that that he suspected Black people to be inferior to white people.
This is critical race history that was glossed over in the past. I don’t see how teaching it now is divisive. It’s merely history that is not being whitewashed.
Frank Messina, Tacoma
Capitol riot
It’s been six months since the insurrection at the US Capitol and my fury has not lessened one bit.
I know the process takes longer than what the public typically wants, but the investigations must be seen through to the end.
Who gave the zip-tie wielding paramilitary invaders the locations of lawmakers’ offices? Why were the panic buttons not working in at least one lawmaker’s office? Why are the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the election on the evening of the attack still in office?
These are things we need to know. And we don’t have the answers yet.
Tony Leonhardt,, Tacoma
This story was originally published July 17, 2021 at 11:48 AM with the headline "TNT letters to the editor, 7/17/2021."