Letters for Feb. 13

Bill could do more harm

I’m a young Washingtonian. I’ve had chronic pain since I was 17 due to allodynia and fibromyalgia. The medical system has failed me, not only in terms of ineffective treatments, but with financial ruin as well. 7-OH products, which are made from the kratom plant, are what keep me out of bed, employed and able to maintain my relationships.

That progress is now in danger. SB 6287, currently being considered by the Washington state Legislature, would restrict 7-OH products so heavily that legal access would shrink sharply. The bill would also create criminal penalties, including a gross misdemeanor for certain sales.

Parts of this bill, like the 21-plus age limit on sales, are sound. But protecting the public can be done without prohibition. Other states have already done this, like New York. Please slow down and reconsider the 7-OH ban, because it is likely to harm a community that already suffers every single day.

Emilia Nye

Suquamish, Washington

More options for 5th District

A recent letter to the editor writer insisted that Carmela Conroy is the only choice in the upcoming District 5 congressional representative race. As we enter this year’s campaign season, we will be wise to find reasons to expand upon whatever voting habits we might have fallen into before.

Those who reflexively chose anyone promoting themselves as conservative Republicans, for instance, should have ample evidence how reliable their promises became. Though the incumbent insists “you voted for this,” had we had any idea he would betray every one of his constituents the way he has, not even his family would have supported his candidacy.

Last election’s choices have expanded to include one additional. Prior candidates gave their best, but they all seemed to hit a hard wall when they failed to organize a campaign to challenge the inveterate liar, Baumgartner.

Those discouraged by the last election might consider the new face in this year’s race, a fresh name, but from a familiar place, with deep District 5 roots. David Womack went on from serving as Fairchild Air Force Base’s medical group commander and later ran rural hospitals, including as CEO of Colfax’s hospital and as a senior vice president at Kaiser Permanente. Now serving his Walla Walla community, he enters this race to elevate our district upward from where it’s fallen.

With “community” as his campaign’s organizing strategy, he’s empowering our Eastern Washington community, including each of us, to defeat our unworthy incumbent! Lucky us!

David A. Schmaltz

Walla Walla

Baumgartner backstopping Trump, really?

I have read that Michael Baumgartner has assured representatives of a radical right anti-immigration lobby organization that he’s committed to “backstopping” their efforts as a private organization to amend the current definition of birthright citizenship to support Trump’s efforts to remove this right from infants not born of legal U.S. citizens. I didn’t realize that was a role congressional representatives are required to play. Is that what Baumgartner’s constituents want, really?

Not this constituent. I thought we sent Baumgartner to Washington to advocate for our farmers, our working families and the thousands of hard-working, sometimes undocumented, or not-yet-documented workers in Eastern Washington. Is this his idea of how to do that? Maybe it’s time for a change.

I don’t want my representative serving Stephen Miller’s ethnic cleansing agenda. I would prefer he start using his Article 1 constitutional powers to finally exercise some control of Trump’s out-of-control private army that is busy terrorizing and killing U.S. citizens.

Jim Wavada

Spokane