TNT letters to the editor, 8/14/2021
Olympics patriotism
“Celebrate US Olympians who love America; ignore the rest,” (TNT, 8/8.)
Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen stoops to impart his vast body of charitable wisdom upon those unappreciative Americans who equate their country to something less than President Reagan’s “shining city upon a hill.”
Like Big Pharma, which understands that there is no profit to be made in a cure, Thiessen and like-minded regressive thinkers know that conservative power cannot be retained in a society of well educated, strongly empathetic, actively participating citizens.
The former wants you to be sick, addictive and needy. The latter want you to be close-minded, distracted and unconcerned with facts.
People like Thiessen enjoy being distracted by Hollywood actors, rock stars, NASCAR drivers and lionized athletes, whose contributions to the national conversation typically bear as much resemblance to authentic patriotism as a sofa does to a water buffalo.
If titillation, glitz, dazzle and fast action provide relief from the fatigue of confronting innumerable social, economic, health and environmental problems, then maybe Thiessen should take a walk around the block whenever an athlete expresses an opinion not to his liking.
Then he could return refreshed and wolfishly relish that awe-inspiring badminton tournament.
J. Michael Wall, Puyallup
Tacoma mural
Re: “Tacoma just pledged $10K for a Black Lives Matter mural downtown. It’s money well spent,” (TNT, 7/29).
The Matt Driscoll column praising plans for a BLM mural at Tacoma’s Tollefson Plaza may be politically correct but it is also a condemnation of our police, who over the ages have protected all Americans and given their lives and health to do so.
The Black Lives Matter founders never protected or gave their lives to protect Americans of any ethnic group and certainly haven’t faced the horrors that police officers face every night and day.
The woke News Tribune columnist supports a woke government to praise BLM while denigrating the police.
I’m sure I am not alone in wanting to see a police mural in place of a BLM mural.
Donald W. Wilbur, University Place
Climate crisis
Re: Code red: Global warming getting worse, UN scientists warn,” ( TNT, 8/10).
I am writing this on a day when the forecast calls for 95 degrees in Tacoma and the sky is brown with forest fire smoke.
We shouldn’t need this new UN report to know that our climate has gone awry.
The report states that there is no doubt that humanity’s reckless spewing of fossil fuel emissions into our beautiful planet’s atmosphere is the main cause.
The report also makes clear our only hope to avoid shockingly worse effects than we have seen across the globe this summer is to make deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions over the next 10 to 20 years.
This requires action on the part of national and international governmental bodies, and it’s why members of Congress need to hear from you now.
Effective legislation has been introduced and can start cutting emissions as early as 2022. Tell them pricing carbon works and we are out of time.
Linda Cohan, Tacoma
Frontline workers
I feel great empathy and appreciation for the first responders and healthcare workers in Pierce County who have been professionally caring for COVID-19 patients for almost 1 1/2 years.
They have been saturated with the virus, inundated by death, criticized by families, ignored more every day by the public and their employers, suffered deaths of coworkers, family members and friends, and are physically and emotionally exhausted.
I admire every one of you. Thank you for staying with us and and caring for us. I am grateful to live here and be graced by you.
Linda Tieman, University Place
This story was originally published August 14, 2021 at 12:32 PM with the headline "TNT letters to the editor, 8/14/2021."