We’re in it together

You’re right, it is “We the People” (Letters, Rob Leach, Aug. 2), and there’s no “I” in “We.” Every citizen — all of us — needs to pitch in during this pandemic by making sacrifices so that our lives and livelihoods are still intact once a vaccine is available.

Calling current restrictions a fiasco of Democrats’ making is misplaced. Republican claims that it would magically disappear caused delays in needed prevention actions and now it’s surging because of resistance on their part to simply wearing a mask or limiting group size.

Your point that it’s no big deal that only half of a percent of those contracting the disease die is callous at best. By your calculus, if only 10 percent of the nation’s population gets the disease, up to 1.6 million of your fellow citizens could die. And by asserting that it’s only those with “weak immune systems,” you throw seniors, cancer/heart disease/lung disease patients, and those with other compromising illnesses under bus.

And ranting that Democrats are taking away your freedoms because they spread fear, resentment and envy is perplexing. That is the Republican playbook repeated daily, as echoed by Fox and Rush, and tweeted by President Trump.

As to your recommendation to “vote red” this November as a way to get your freedom back, I provide this cautious prayer of blessing by President John Adams inscribed on the fireplace mantel in the White House state dining room: “May none but Honest and Wise men ever rule Under This Roof”.

Sterling Leibenguth

Spokane