COVID deaths and wartime dead: Letters to the editor, Dec. 20, 2020

COVID deaths vs. wartime toll

On Dec. 25, 1961, I was at Fort Ord. I had been drafted into the U.S. Army, and was waiting for the start of basic training. So I could not be with my family on that Christmas. And there was no Zoom, Facebook, or Instagram. Nobody had cell phones. 

That was not fun, but I knew that others had given much more to our country. Some gave their lives.

Today a virus is the enemy of our country. It has taken the lives of more than 300,000 Americans. That is almost five times the deaths of Americans in the war in Vietnam. If the toll of deaths in our country reaches 405,000, as seems very likely, that will equal the number of the deaths of Americans in uniform in the Second World War.

Wearing a mask is a patriotic duty, and it is not a great sacrifice.

And you might want to think about the men and women in America’s military services who are far away from their homes before you have a large gathering of your family on a holiday in the near future.

Goodbye to her spending in Clovis

Regarding Clovis Mayor Drew Bessinger’s Trump Rally rant: Because he has made it abundantly clear I am persona non grata, I want to assure Mayor Bessinger that I will never spend even one untrustworthy dime at any Clovis establishment as long as he remains in office.

Being an anti- is not American

Let us be blunt; anti-maskers and anti-vaxers are anti-American.

To preserve U.S. democracy

 What does it mean to be a good citizen? In America it means believing in the Constitution and upholding the rule of law. What we are seeing now from disgruntled Trump voters, Republican House members and attorneys general proves they are the opposite of good citizens. They have pledged their allegiance not to the United States and to its Constitutional framework, but to a man who has deep psychological issues and ignores the rule of law. 

This would be just sad if it weren't so dangerous. Our checks and balances are under constant assault. The rule of law is under siege. Now that we see how fragile our democracy really is, never again should we take it for granted. Never again should a man or woman be placed above the Constitution. Good citizens are needed.

This is America and democracy must be faithfully preserved.

COVID-restaurants don’t mix

I would like to respond to the editorial from Dec. 10, “Are restaurants a threat? There’s no good data on it.” I would point the Bee Editorial Board, Sen. Andreas Borgeas, and Dr. Mark Ghaly to the CDC website: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6936a5.htm. The study conducted in July concluded, “Findings from a case-control investigation of symptomatic outpatients from 11 U.S. health care facilities found that close contact with persons with known COVID-19 or going to locations that offer on-site eating and drinking options were associated with COVID-19 positivity. Adults with positive SARS-CoV-2 test results were approximately twice as likely to have reported dining at a restaurant than were those with negative SARS-CoV-2 test results.”

My deepest sympathies go to the struggling restaurant businesses, but I totally understand why we are limiting those businesses during times of increased incidence of COVID-19. I have hope that our federal and state governments will do everything possible to help those businesses survive.

This story was originally published December 20, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "COVID deaths and wartime dead: Letters to the editor, Dec. 20, 2020."