Letters To the Editor | Opinion – westvalleyview.com

Whats wrong

with society?

Editor:

Everybody, take a good look around and carefully commit your current situation to memory. Because for the rest of your life, when someone asks you, What is the stupidest thing youve ever seen? the present state of affairs today will be the correct response.

Our society has declared war on the common cold variant COVID-19. Maybe its a bad cold, but still, like most colds, its no big deal for 99% of the people, and most of the remaining 1% are susceptible to just about any medical issue due to their advanced age and pre-existing conditions. Each year this is dealt with as a normal, routine situation during cold and flu season. However, now, for whatever reason, weve pulled out all the stops, spared no expense, and thrown caution to the wind for COVID-19.

Im not against taking reasonable precautions to deal with any illness. We should quarantine ourselves when sick, wash our bodies and clean our spaces regularly and avoid interactions with minimal benefit. However, we always need to consider differentiating between reasonable precautions and unreasonable measures. Canceling all large gatherings and closing meeting places of healthy people does very little to fight the virus, but greatly reduces real benefits to the participants, especially if it is workplace or a school.

The hypothetical benefits of giving aged and sickly people a slight life extension has to be considered against the actual costs of the measures we are presently enforcing. Giving a couple thousand people their 87th Christmas is not much comfort to the tens of millions of breadwinners who are out of work for months and wont be able to afford holiday gifts for their families this year. Maybe these elderly survivors will read one or two more books before they pass on, but it would be much better for all of us if tens of millions of students were reading their books in the classroom right now instead of playing alone at home.

Economics is the dismal science, but we need to review our current policies to avoid sacrificing prosperity for the younger generations just to extend slightly the life of the oldest. If we are going to throw away our freedoms and liberties, we should at least demand something good in return. Right now, we are approaching martial law with nothing to show for it except a looming recession.

I choose to remain an optimist. Expanded testing is only going to continue boosting the rates of survival and recovery because, surprise, most of us only seek medical attention when we are really sick, not just a little under the weather with a cold. Indeed COVID-19 itself is not virulent enough to have a lasting physical impact on our society, so we cannot allow the government and media sensationalized fear of COVID-19 to drive our society to ruin. We shouldnt be needlessly prohibiting the important relationships and activities in our lives for no good reason. We should not allow ourselves to be driven apart by some common cold virus. Instead, we should come together for all that is good in our society and the best our civilization has to offer.

Charles Peabody

Goodyear

Give President Trump past due

credit for pandemic

Editor:

Im sure many of you are sick and tired of all of the critics who complain about every single move that President Trump makes.

Im talking about the never Trumpers. They have every right to not agree with the president, but during not only a national crisis, its a worldwide crisis, and they wont get off his back and let him do his job.

If anybody thinks they can do a better job, please step up and show all of us! But, I want you to step up and do it just like President Trump has done it for almost four years, with every single wrench thrown in his way and all of the obstructions, witch hunting and fake news; Russia hoaxes and Ukraine hoaxes that trail back to the Bidens corruption; a fake whistleblower who disappeared from the face of the earth after President Trump was acquitted; Pelosi, Schiff, Nadler and Schumer secret bunker meetings trying to overthrow the government; and every nasty Democrat-choreographed coup detat the Democrats dreamed up. I want to see anybody who thinks they can do better do it the same way President Trump has had to work daily.

While the Democrats worked to impeach President Trump, he was already working on the coronavirus. He has daily press briefings with the most intellectual people in the medical field guiding him on national TV, taking questions after they speak and still we have criticism.

If President Trump delivered the cure or a vaccination to stop the spread of coronavirus on a golden platter, that would not be good enough for his critics. Its time for America to stand behind its leader and give credit where credit is past due. Imagine for just a second where America would be without the quick action of President Trump stopping all flights from Wuhan, China, when this virus broke out. He had your back, and you wont give him the credit he deserves.

He got the $2 trillion aid package approved after Pelosi tried to sneak in $1.5 billion for abortions and several billion for New Green Deal, which have nothing to do with saving the lives of coronavirus patients. How killing unborn babies helps cure coronavirus when people forgot to use birth control is truly amazing.

This is the Democratic Party at work. How redecorating the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts cures a pandemic is mind boggling. How cutting down emissions from jet planes keeps coronavirus patients out of hospitals with the Green New Deal sneaked into the $2 trillion aid package for the American people who are out of work related to a pandemic is supposed to put food on the tables of Americans who lost their jobs, just how do Democrats thank Pelosi for such foolishness?

Ill tell you how. Republican President Trump to the rescue.

James Logan

Buckeye

History 101

Editor:

Every industrialized country on the planet has some form of single-payer health care except the United States. Germany has since the 1880s. Not only do they have better outcomes, but theyre also at about half the price. Not only is it morally the right thing to do, its also fiscally the responsible thing to do. To say its impossible is, to me, un-American. We should be doing it better than everybody else. There is no free-market solution. If youre in an ambulance dying, youre not going to ask which hospital is cheapest or best.

Damion Armstrong

Avondale

Troubling traffic

Editor:

I represent several homeowners who have concerns about child safety and property values with the city of Buckeye opening up Van Buren to Verrado. Speeding is out of control. The police did a test and gave out 40-some tickets in a two-day period. There are two bus stops in this area, and lately I had a pickup truck run the stop sign, drive through my backyard 8-foot-tall block wall, scrape the side of my house and take out my front block wall. We are getting nowhere with the police, city and city council.

Jim Harrison

Buckeye

Put isolation to good use

Editor:

Despite the vast tragedy and extreme upset surrounding the outbreak of COVID-19 here in Arizona, I imagine it is something of a clich in trying to always look at the bright side of things. So, let me put it this wayand I suppose I am looking for positivity because at least the season of spring is upon usenjoy the weather before triple-digit heat smacks you right across your face.

Everyone is walking or riding a bike! Or in some measure in looks like this. With gyms closed, I guess this was to be expected. But neighborhoods are full of chalk on sidewalks and plenty of room to navigate your feet or bike with plenty of distance to spare. There is such freedom of mind and body in getting out there and doing your thing. Can you fully adjust to not being able to open the door to your gym? Not really. And thats OK. And heres why.

Life is about adjustment and regrouping skills. If youre used to going to the gym every day but now you cant, you basically have two options: do nothing and wait for the green light to open the gym door again or accept the adjustment and regroup accordingly. I believe the latter option is the smartest, and also folks who do not go to the gym anyway should take this opportunity to throw on a pair of sneakers and start their own journey to fitness of mind and body.

You often hear, Were all in this together. While this is most certainly true, also consider that saying you dont have time to walk or ride a bike really doesnt make much sense. It kind of falls flat. The truth is you dont have time not to get your mind and body moving. Young or old. Overweight or underweight. And everyone else in between. Popular wisdom states it takes 21 days to form a habit that sticks. What are you waiting for? Start: This is the five-letter word you must take to heart.

Some of us exercise too much and some of us do not exercise enough. This is why there is merit in meeting in the middle. Again, the clock of your life and the clock of your loved ones and actually the clock of reality itself that always ticks no matter what you are thinking is the real deal. The world doesnt stop for anyone. Going back in time is completely impossible.

So, use this time in front of you to replace words with action. Get outside in your neighborhood and blaze your own trail no matter the speed in which you move your feet. The fact that you decided to turn off the news or put your cellphone on the table for 30 minutes is your best 30 minutes spent at this very moment. Its then your duty to do 30 minutes again tomorrow and the day after and go from there. The only one stopping you is you. Dont do that anymore. Its go time!

Tony Zizza

Avondale