Letters for May 9, 2023

Border crisis stupidity

The only long-term solution to the border crisis is to open both borders. Most of their relatives are already here. They are coming here with their kids to escape the roving gangs and violence. By opening the border, you are able to solve two problems at once. Once the borders are open, then businesses can set up chip manufacturing operations to replace those from Taiwan. This will create jobs and bring people back.

Max Tuggle

Spokane

Student mental health

In the recent legislative session, the Washington state Senate killed Senate Bill 5710, which would have provided access to behavioral health services to youths in rural and underserved areas. The bill would have provided funding to schools to gain access to a mental health professional using telemedicine.

Providing students with proper mental health services seems like a no brainer, right? So, why would our Washington senators kill SB 5710?

Leslie Robison, a clinical psychologist in Pullman, reflected on her experience with Washington legislators. Regarding the killing of SB 5710, she suggested that the utilization of telemedicine could be a barrier that they allowed to dictate the outcome.

It goes without saying that COVID-19 dismantled life as we knew it, as students, as educators and as lawmakers. As social beings, we were forced to the confines of our homes, interacting only through the cameras on our computers. However, today’s students grew up in the new age of technology: learning, socializing and connecting through a screen.

Today’s students are experts at flawlessly utilizing technology. Telemedicine would provide students in rural school districts with access to quality mental health care that they are in desperate need of.

It is essential that our legislators represent the true needs of their constituents instead of allowing individualized issues dictate the survival of legislation. For students in rural school districts, no access to mental health resources is the debilitating barrier, not telemedicine.

Lindsey Kwate

Spokane

Limit, Save, Grow Act

Our representative, Cathy McMorris Rodgers recently voted for the Limit, Save, Grow Act. McMorris Rodgers claims to be an advocate for veterans, but this bill will cut medical care for veterans. It cuts funding by 22%, which would mean 30 million fewer veteran outpatient visits and 81,000 jobs lost across the VHA. Veterans will be unable to get appointments for care, including cancer screenings, mental health services and substance use disorder treatments. It will also jeopardize the implementation of last year’s toxic exposure bill.

This bill slashes funding for schools with low-income and disabled students. It takes away nutrition services like Meals on Wheels from seniors. It raises housing costs for seniors and veterans. After the recent train derailments, it scales back rail safety inspections.

A 22% cut to the NIH and Department of Homeland Security would delay cancer and Alzheimer’s research, and would undermine border management and drug enforcement. It would increase energy bills for families, while also increasing pollution.

It also cuts most of the funding to modernize the Internal Revenue Service which would add to the deficit by $120 billion over the next decade. While all of these things are bad, the worst in my estimation, is that Cathy McMorris Rodgers voted for a bill that is a betrayal of the obligation this country has to everyone who has served in the armed forces. This just shows whose side she is truly on. And it’s not the veterans or her constituents.

Carrie Cadenas

Spokane

Trees’ benefits come at a cost

I love trees too but when they are someone else’s financial burden on their own property. They can be a serious burden financially when they are grown up.

For 15 years I had to pay someone to take care of an existing sugar maple tree in my yard when I moved into the home. It was average sized for a full grown one at around 45 feet. It cost me over $5,000 in 15 years for trimming it every other year, leaf disposal every fall and ground injection treatments so it wouldn’t drip sticky dew all summer.

When I had enough of that, it cost me a permit and another $750 to have it removed. In the city of Spokane, who is going to help the financially strapped population with those costs? Trees are all well and good but be aware of the financial burden.

Keep in mind also the urban forestry rules and regulations the city has in place. They are not mentioned in the article and they are lengthy and in some cases, costly. Go to my.spokanecity.org/urbanforestry/ for more informed decision making.

Jim Darby

Spokane Valley