The editorial regarding anti-vax falsehoods (“Anti-vax falsehoods fuel outbreaks of disease,” In Our View, June 18) makes it abundantly clear that there’s “indisputable evidence for the importance and effectiveness of vaccines. That is, if we allow common sense to prevail.”
The problem is that we live in a country where the relationship between indisputable evidence and common sense is sorely lacking.
Millions of voting-age Americans who listened to then-President Donald Trump asking Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensberger, to find 11,780 votes and who watched the Jan. 6 insurrection live on television will not use common sense when they cast their votes this November. My guess is that many of them are anti-vaxers.
Norm Krasne
VANCOUVER
Caring Closet is community asset
After an injury or hospital stay, here’s what can happen. You suddenly need medical equipment that you can’t afford and insurance — if you have it — might not cover it. A Caring Closet, a local nonprofit, to the rescue! You walk in and immediately a helpful volunteer directs you to the supplies you need.
All goods are donated, so you never know what you might find. Browse through crutches, walkers, and shower benches, but also all versions of wheelchairs and even Hoyer lifts and hospital beds — and much more.
A Caring Closet is like a thrift store for durable medical equipment except it’s free. Donations (money and goods) keep their doors open, so please call them to donate your leftover supplies (360-258-0039). Current hours are 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday at 7500 N.E. 16th Avenue.
Donate and let them help you keep your loved one safely at home.
Jan Verrinder
VANCOUVER
Bridge is futile exercise
The editorial on the languishing inaction of a new bridge/bypass for Interstate 5 (“It’s too soon to answer this I-5 Bridge question,” In Our View, June 14), had great comments. The truth hurts and the delays are unbelievable. So many intelligent people running in circles unable to effectively accomplish much at all and definitely not in my lifetime.
We can go to the moon and back, and create AI algorithms to solve a multitude of complex problems but not a bistate transportation project many decades in the making. No wonder Forbes and others rank the area “poor” in transportation solutions to existing problems. Why do things always have to be done in a crisis mode versus thought out and executed efficiently? It is as stated/implied — a pathetic exercise in futility. We never learn.
Henry Epstein
MILWAUKIE, ORE.
Pharmaceutical companies lacking
Currently my 13-year-old son has been out of his much-needed medication for one week. We cannot find any pharmacy that has dexmethylphenidate in stock. My wife has called numerous pharmacies and has been told this medication has been out of stock currently and may be out for months.
The medication helps people that have anger control issues and other mental issues such as autism, ADHD, ODD and so on. Without this medication families suffer as well as neighbors from the said noise caused by anger blowups from those needing said medication.
I have read that pharmaceutical companies have laid off workers and thus slowed production of medications to cause price increases. This needs to be reversed ASAP.
Please call your congressional representatives and push for Congress to investigate this problem.
Raymond Smith
VANCOUVER
Hold Trump accountable
It’s official: After making secret hush money payments to an adult film star 11 days before the 2016 election and falsifying official filings to hide the truth from the public, Donald Trump has been found guilty by a New York jury.
Trump’s conviction in New York should remind us all that no one — including a former president — is above the law. It should also remind us of the danger that Trump still poses to our democracy.
In the final weeks of the 2016 election, Trump covered up his affair with Stormy Daniels to dupe voters and improve his chances of winning the election. As it turns out, this would only be his first foray into undermining our elections. The New York trial may be over, but Donald Trump still faces three additional indictments and 54 criminal charges for a litany of crimes, including federal charges for his efforts to incite violence and overturn the will of voters after he knew he’d lost the 2020 election.
This is a pattern. The jury has done their job to hold Trump accountable. Now, it’s time for the American people to do our part and hold him accountable at the ballot box.
Bob Gush
VANCOUVER
Trump is a true leader
President Joe Biden says the world was dark under President Donald Trump and if elected it will get darker. His party and their controlled media claim Trump will be vengeful and start World War III.
Open your eyes, sleepy Joe. We exist in your dark world. Through your weakness the world has two new wars and China is ready to take out our ally Taiwan. Corrupt Democrats tried to destroy Trump with hate-fueled impeachments, sham investigations and now with political trials. They are guilty of the very lies they accuse Republicans of.
But Trump continues to fight with the strength and tenacity of a true leader, no matter what their hate conjures up. As president he secured our borders. We had affordable food, dreams of homeownership, jobs, less debt, no new wars and hope.
Come back to the light, moderates. Our nation needs you. Your socialist cohorts are too far gone to care. God, family and country have always driven our republic. Submit to God, not Marxism. Only in unity will we survive with his grace. In divisive Marxism we will surely die.
Roy Schimelpfenig
WOODLAND
