Letters to the editor | Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020: No one should have to suffer and die alone
No one should suffer and die alone
A cruel practice implemented during the coronavirus pandemic is the prohibition of family members visiting their relatives who are ill or dying of COVID-19. Initially, when little was known about the communicability of the virus and its dangers, this practice was understandable as a protective measure to control possible spread. While still a dangerous, contagious virus, much has been learned since the outbreak. If hospital caregivers can use PPE properly and go home at night, so can a visitor. Certainly, any visitor must understand the risks.
Thankfully, some hospitals have adopted humane visiting policies. For example, UCSF allows video visitations at all hours for COVID-infected adults but makes exceptions for visitation if that loved one is dying. For children, one healthy adult may visit at all hours.
Suffering alone among strangers, let alone dying, are terrifying experiences no one should have to endure. Medical caregivers have humanely and heroically provided supportive and terminal care to their isolated patients, often at great emotional and physical cost to themselves. Yet, achingly, they know family should be there.
I hope that all of our local hospitals and care institutions adopt visitation policies that reflect these realities.
James David Costello, Ceres
Where are The Bee’s priorites?
Re “Pastor’s mayor campaign videos show no virus safety protocols” (Front Page, Aug.4): How disappointing, Modesto Bee, for your bold headline about a campaign transgression as serious as video interviews by a candidate without a mask. Never mind using this space to air healthy debates and differing approaches to myriad troubles facing our communities. Because this might enable readers to decide how to vote based upon more than horse feathers?
Sandy Farinelli, Escalon
Power in the people
Re “Can Gov. Newsom reverse state’s coronavirus trends?” (Page 6A, July 28): Mr. Duran’s opinion piece asks whether Governor Newsom can reverse California’s coronavirus rising rates of infection and deaths. More critically, can the people living in California do what needs to be done to reverse the spread of coronavirus in the state?
Randy Little, Turlock
No confidence in mail voting
On July 1, I wrote two checks for bills that were due on the 14th and the 20th, and mailed both bills that day. One bill didn’t reach its destination until the 15th of the month; the other didn’t arrive until the 27th. Considering this personal experience, and the USPS’s recent acknowledgment of their issues with delivering mail in a timely fashion, how can anyone have confidence in the efficacy of all-mail voting? It seems to me that this is a recipe for a constitutional crisis. I vote “no” on this hare-brained scheme.
Carolyn Mann, Turlock
Enabling the president’s delusion
A medical doctor says that female gynecological problems are the result of having sex with demons in your dreams. She claims that alien DNA is used in medical treatments. She is certain that scientists are developing vaccines to prevent people from being religious. She knows that the government is being run in part by “reptilians” and other aliens. She advises us that masks are not needed to prevent the spread of infection. She tells us that COVID-19 infections can be cured by taking a drug that she thinks has magical curative properties.
Is she a character from a Stephen King horror story? Or someone in a scary science fiction movie? A mutant in a Netflix television series?
No, she is President Trump’s newest addition to his government team of sycophants, enablers, relatives, and assorted cronies. She has a special job: supporting Mr. Trump in his delusional support of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for coronavirus infections, a drug treatment that research has shown to be useless in treating the virus.
It’s time to replace President Trump with someone who tells the truth, relies on facts to make decisions, and who will restore America’s reputation as a nation that can be trusted.
Michael A. Clarke, Salida
Police corruption is widespread
The character assassination perpetuated by the Sacramento PD of the victim in order to rationalize the killing adds to their crime. As in all cases of a cop shooting, cops dig up every crime the victim committed and sensationalize it in order to create the illusion of them as a danger to society. Anyone who believes the Sacramento Police version of the shooting of Stephon Clark hasn’t studied cops.
The only rational conclusion is that all cops lie, all the time, and the ones that don’t cover it up by remaining silent. Cops are indoctrinated to toe the line and shut up. Those who break ranks are forced out or worse. Falsifying reports is encouraged by police chiefs unwilling to take on the police union or ruffle the feathers of administrators. We must acknowledge that no Black police chief placed there via white union leadership in order to quell suspicion of racism can be effective.
These men and women are public relations mascots to appease the general population. Sadly, officers only speak up after retirement and are then disregarded as disgruntled former employees.
Jorge Martinez, Newman
Hear the people on dam project
The proposed Del Puerto Canyon reservoir project would place two massive dams, one football field in height each, on seven active landslides, just above the city of Patterson. The project is strictly for agricultural use (no water recreation, no trespassing), shipping the resource as far as 100 miles south.
Most locals understand the need for water storage, however, valid concerns exist regarding the location and safety of the project (additional air pollution, flood safety, home values). Due to these concerns, a letter was recently sent to all members of the City Council which made a plea for democratic values to be upheld to garner authentic public feedback regarding the project location. The letter proposed: 1) The city provide equal time for presentations during a public meeting, both for (project partners) and against (Save Del Puerto Canyon) the current location. 2) The city mail an FAQ sheet, and a poll, where residents may show their preference either for or against the current project location.
The letter was sent from Save Del Puerto Canyon on behalf of thousands of supporters. The community deserves our voice to be heard, a voice that the public water districts seemingly have stripped from us.
Shivaugn Alves, Patterson
How to decrease littering
Obviously a great number of drivers do not know how to use a trash container, but instead use our roadways to unload their garbage. Why not increase the penalty for littering to $10,000, and a suspension of their driver licenses? No more slap on the hands.
Let’s get these people off the road. We know all the local counties can use the money. With all the inmates being released from custody because of the coronavirus, add the requirement to pick up roadside trash for maybe 40 hours as part of their release, instead of paying state and county workers’ wages. Let’s save a few bucks, and make it a pleasure to drive locally again.
Gary Peterson, Groveland
This story was originally published August 9, 2020 at 5:00 AM.