EWU has responsibility

Reference Kenzie Loman’s letter (“Is the pandemic taking away our rights?” June 15): I know Kenzie as an intelligent young woman recently graduated from Ferris High School, with both her freshman/sophomore years at EWU behind her. I admire her greatly.

I respectfully submit there is another constitutional interpretation. Kenzie cites Amendment XIV, Section 1 [“… (no) state … deprive any person of life, liberty …”], as justification that EWU should not require student vaccinations. When I read this entire citation, I see this as the state (EWU) MUST protect the life and liberty of ALL citizens. EWU has an obligation to protect the life and liberty of its students, including protecting them from a pandemic that has infected over 177,786,000 persons. Hence, requiring vaccinations at public institutions — EWU — is consistent with the Constitution.

If I were to pose to the signers of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, among them Washington, Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, and Monroe (the author of much of the Constitution) the question “Should citizens be required to take all steps to protect the general citizenry from contagious and deadly diseases?” — I have little doubt about their answers.

Furthermore, Article I of the Constitution is preceded by a paragraph that sets the stage for all the following Articles and Amendments: “We the People … insure domestic Tranquility, … promote the general Welfare, … to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish … “ Look up the definitions of TRANQUIL, WELFARE and POSTERITY. The definitions leave no doubt how the framers would respond to my question.

Thomas Mosher

Spokane