Letters for Feb. 15, 2023

Health care provider burnout

If anyone out there has had difficulty recently getting in to see, or even being able to contact your primary physician, you should read the recent editorial in the NY Times: nyti.ms/3XbqmzG.

It makes the point that doctors and other health care providers are “burning out.” What is alarming is that the burnout is not due to the work of seeing and treating patients, but the stress of dealing with our abusive and inefficient for-profit health care “system.” One study in 2021 estimated that 117,000 physicians quit practice, while only 40,000 were added.

What is ironic is that physicians are now rejecting the very system that the AMA spent decades creating so that doctors would be protected from “socialized medicine” and be able to get rich providing medical care. They didn’t foresee that the system they longed for would be monopolized by mega corporations and while they might still get rich, they lost control of patient care.

I am convinced that this trend will continue until there is universal, publicly funded health care.

Daniel Schaffer, M.D.

Spokane

Evaluating our systems

While I was working for an organization that represented children of abuse and neglect, the Office of Performance Evaluation was able to bring the issue of lack of representation for children to light. A little known bill, HB 68, introduced in Idaho Legislature recently, proposes to end the unbiased evaluation of our government systems.

The Office of Performance Evaluation, a commission that includes both Republicans and Democrats, researches and then advises lawmakers on important issues like foster care, the death penalty and other public safety measures. This commission delivers vital, accurate reports that help Idaho lawmakers prioritize state programs and spending, something that we all can agree needs prioritizing.

If HB 68 passes, it would remove objectivity and unbiased research, an approach that is essential to this commission’s work. This has real consequences for all of us. For example, without OPE, Idaho lawmakers would not have seen the barriers to access and justice for children in the foster care system. They wouldn’t understand the trauma children endure to find safety.

Accountability in state government requires that the OPE stay neutral and independent. Join me in building confidence and accountability in state government by telling your state senator (Fulcher or Simpson) and your state assembly person to vote no on House Bill 68.

Jaime Hansen

Boise

Peace and justice in the Middle East

It’s almost impossible to keep up with news from the Middle East. While writing this letter, a new development was announced: Israel bans Palestinian flags in public places. The newly installed, extreme right-wing government of Netanyahu has created even more oppression of the Palestinian people. Already in 2023, more than 35 Palestinians were killed, while seven Israelis were killed.

Human rights groups, Palestinian officials and the U.N. report Israeli violence against Palestinians in 2022 was worse since the Second Intifada in 2000. Estimates of 220 to 231 Palestinians were killed in Jerusalem and the West Bank, including 34 to 54 children under 17. The vast majority were bystanders or civilians killed by Israeli forces. Most were unarmed or throwing stones and posed no real danger to Israeli soldiers. Palestinian-American journalist Shireem Abu-Akleh was killed by Israeli forces in 2022 and IDF demolished 950 Palestinian homes, while Israeli settlers carried out over 900 attacks on nearby Palestinian villages and 9,000 Palestinians were wounded. Isn’t that apartheid?

Much violence and destruction has American backing, supported by taxpayer dollars. In fact, the U.S. voted recently against the U.N.’s majority request to have the World Court weigh in on Israel’s “occupation” and “annexation” of Palestinian territories. Surprisingly, the U.S. has refused to sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Rights of the Child.

Let’s support the call from Jewish Voices for Peace to stop the oppression of Palestinians and restore justice, freedom, dignity and human rights for all people.

Nancy Street

Cheney

Merging of church and state

Last month, Cathy McMorris Rodgers handed out Christian biblical reading material at a meeting where she was the chairperson. This meeting was an official government function. She is being paid a salary with tax dollars to govern, not preach. If she would like a job preaching, then she should consider resigning from her present job and applying for a job at a church.

Anna Chisholm

Spokane

The VA system

It’s 1964, I’m in boot camp and this Marine drill sergeant is telling us to be wary of the Veterans Administration system. I’m dead tired, staring at the possibility of Vietnam and light years from needing the VA! Fast forward and I see on the news where these rejects from F troop at the VA have cleaned out a grieving vet’s life savings, mistakenly of course!

His wife had died but they decided he had and since they had kept paying this dead veteran, needed to get that money back now! When he presented himself to the local VA they acknowledged their error but there was nothing they could do immediately, it might take three months! There are food banks and shelters for you.

You have to remember that these are the folks that wrote the book on SNAFU: Situation Normal All Fouled Up. You have to wonder how many of the veteran suicides you hear about are not due to egregious errors like this. It’s a miracle one of them hasn’t taken a flame thrower to the place, you could hardly blame them.

Robert Cannata

Spokane

Vote integrity

Another election and ballot brings about the doubts and charges as to who should vote and will my vote be counted?

Will it be discarded?

Will ballot harvesting tilt the election outcome?

Are mail in ballots subject to more fraud than in-person voting?

Without photo ID, is that the really the rightful voter?

All of these issues could be resolved by the adoption of the blockchain technology used for the accounting in the cryptocurrency exchanges. It would assure each rightful voter could audit his personal secret vote in perpetuity. Any attempt at usurping, ballot box stuffing, ballot dumping and other crimes would be readily be detected as invalid by the blockchain algorithm.

Dave Barker

Spokane

Property taxes

When you start to receive your property tax and open that envelope I do hope you will be sitting down. Say hello to sticker shock … thanks to Olympia, the fire department levies and the school levies. If some are worried about the homeless now, you have not seen anything yet. The rate we are going, some folks will be taxed right out of their home that they worked their butts off for.

So I ask when you start to get these taxes, please do not blame the city of Spokane Valley or the county, because please trust me when I say this, they are not the ones that did this. Please put the blame where it belongs, the West Side of this once great state. The Evergreen State. How many more Camp Dopes will we have?

Barbara Howard

Spokane Valley

Congressional Republicans

Unbelievable! Some Republicans in Congress are fired up about China’s balloon flying over the United States. They claim it should have been shot down sooner over populated areas.

Had Biden and the military shot it down sooner, people could have been killed, injured and/or suffered property damage. Republicans would really be screaming then!

And the childish actions of some Republicans at the State of the Union was appalling. They couldn’t behave just for 90 minutes. Idaho, hope you enjoyed MTG’s visit.

Unbelievable.

Beverly Gibb

Spokane

Being truly human

I have an MA in history and taught high school American history in Missouri, the school year of 1968-1969. At that time the standard textbook being used said very little about the contributions of people of color, Native Americans and women to the history of our country. I don’t have access to current history textbooks but am sure things would be much more inclusive and accurate today than they were in the 1960s.

My experience as a student of history and human behavior over the past 70 years or so, is that human consciousness is slowly evolving in an upward direction with the recognition that being truly human involves varieties beyond what we even began to imagine in past years. Yes, there are still many walls of tribalism that we have built that are setting people against one another but there are more people than ever before that are seeing that in essence we are all spiritual beings created in God’s image and likeness. We find our true self and see it in others as we focus on that identity which we all share.

I avoid political activism of any kind but am committed in my personal day to day life to doing everything I can to bring people together in peace and to see the dignity and worth of each person regardless of all outward appearances and human labels.

Thomas Durst

Spokane