To the Editor:
Second Opinion.
Covid Precautions.
Anxious as I am to address Dave Johnson’s manifesto, what’s going on in the country with regard to Covid will have to take precedence this week. For all the people who find Fauci and others inconsistent in their evaluation and recommendations concerning the virus, think back to your biology class and the nature of a virus. It mutates, and mutates, and…well, you get the idea. A world-wide malignant virus with inconsistent handling in different countries creates variants, so the response and protections will change, too. Unfortunately, it's far from over.
I find so many things stunning about people’s refusal to wear a mask, not to mention to take the Covid vaccine. There is precedent for people refusing vaccination for smallpox (which only came under complete control when cities required people to take them in the 1930’s), primarily because of the misinformation that abounded even back then. People who will ingest tobacco, liquor, Cheetos, Fritos, pork rinds, sausages, various substances medicinal and otherwise, frequent barbecue, etc., rail against ”tainting” their bodies with a life-saving drug. My Life! My Freedom! Your Whatever! How about we have an “assumption of the risk” card, or hat, so that when the unvaccinated end up in the hospital fighting for their lives from Covid, they fall to the back of the line for care. It’s only fair. They got the freedom they wanted; unfortunately they also took the risk. They failed to take responsibility for themselves and were indifferent to others when the remedy was so simple and available.
Parents who have resisted giving their infants vaccination or injections of up to 17 different drugs at one time and who, instead, require that the medications be given in periodic doses, I agree. One little, tiny liver or kidney should not have to process all that stuff at once.
A couple of things are strikingly strange about the refusal. It is the radical right news outlets, Repo elected officials, and Trump, who make this an issue. All of them have had the vaccine, both doses. Trump took it, even though he had (barely) survived the virus in 2020. He still won’t recommend it. Making sure for himself. You, not so much. Hannatee, Tucky, Angerham; they’ve all been vaccinated. Sean was indignant on the radio last week because restaurants in NYC are requiring proof of vaccination for service. Unbelievable infringement of personal rights!! The “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service” sign? No problem.
Governor Ron DePsycho (R-FL) is barring school districts in the state from enacting mask mandates required by local school districts, proving that he does not trust the judgment of locally elected officials to do what they believe best for their communities. He calls that "freedom." He is fighting to sink lower than Trump and a lot of people, though concerned about the vast amount of oxygen necessary for such an undertaking, have money on the kid. Meanwhile, Governor Asa Hutchinson (R-MO) is begging his legislators to return to session and reverse the “no mask” laws, as his state is awash in the Delta variant. He sees dead people everywhere.
Governor Abbott (R-TX), having sold the State’s energy services to the ministrations of a private company which resulted in freezing constituents last winter (Ted “Daddy” Cruz was saved by a kidnapping to Cancun), signed new TX legislation in which businesses that require customers to be vaccinated against Covid-19 will be denied state contracts and could lose their licenses or operating permits (where is the freedom there?). And today, the reports from TX are staggering in new cases and lack of hospital beds. This, after a busy month making voting far more difficult for minorities in particular, though no widespread fraud was found during the election in November. We all know it's not about "voter fraud."
The thing I find additionally and incredibly offensive is that these people who will not wear a mask or take a vaccine as a gross violation of their rights and privacy, demand the right to insist that a woman carry a fetus within her body when she chooses not to. She has no privilege over her body, but they do over theirs and they are willing to die (until they are found "with virus" and want medical intervention) or let others do so. Also, do they understand that most of the naysayers are Republicans? Likely Repo voters? Apparently not.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore

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To the Editor:
What has become of this great nation, the United States of America? I expressed my concerns in a previous letter to the Gazette warning that the election of Biden was disastrous for our country.
Where are the current leaders of our federal government, the Democrats, or of we’re going to be calling groups or individuals names like one other letter contributor does, let’s call them “Demolitioncrats”.
I haven’t written a letter to the Gazette in a while. Not that I haven’t cared or have not had something I wanted to say. It’s mostly been that the paper is only printed once a week and by the time Tuesday comes around there has been much too much to say! So I’ll start with “The Boarder Crisis”.
And it is just that. And don’t point to Trump, because the numbers crossing our boarder are the highest seen in nearly 20 years. If you’re not aware, not all come from the triangle countries in South America. Some are taking planes and come from Eastern Europe and Asia as noted by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). That in itself shows that they are not fleeing out of fear of violence but want a better, job, income, and life. It does show that the consequences now involve national security.
Over 210,000 migrants were let into our country in the month of July alone. In the Texas Rio Grande Valley agents encountered 78,000 in July, 59,000 in June and 51,000 in May. In July that area saw a 900% increase in COVID cases and 30% of the migrants are refusing to be vaccinated.
Keep in mind those numbers do not include crossers who are detected by surveillance technology but are not apprehended, or the “got-aways,” as the CBP calls them. In fact, some officers of the CBP call Biden “Let ‘Em Go Joe”. I’d laugh, but it’s not funny.
And where are they going? There are so many that the government has flown or bused them throughout the US, to Florida, Arizona, Virginia, California, New Mexico, and Oklahoma to name a few. Most are unaware they’ve come as they are turned over to nonprofits, like Catholic Charities, who house them in hotels without supervision, allowing them to flow freely through those communities.
So where does that leave the honest, tax paying US citizen? How can one remain loyal to our way of life, our laws, our government, when our government isn’t loyal to us?
Patti Walker,
Fillmore