Letters to the editor: March 20, 2020

Enjoy great outdoors

We are very fortunate to live in Oregon, and even more so now, in a time of quarantine.

While so much of the rest of the country is cramming into enclosed spaces, we can quarantine outdoors. With the coast, the mountains, the desert and thousands of miles of trails through the forests, we can avoid the coronavirus in the best location of all — nature.

We may have to stay away from each other for a while, but for those of us healthy enough to get outdoors, we should do it. It’s good for the body, good for the mind and good for the soul.

Don’t hunker down. Hunker out.

Scott Gibson

Amity

No one-sided deals

The president has stated a desire to save the airline industry. Since Mr. Trump claims to be such a great businessman and dealmaker, I have a suggestion.

The airlines were making record profits last year. So go ahead and backstop the airlines, but negotiate for something beneficial to consumers in return. Namely, insist on a permanent end to baggage and flight change fees, and insist on increasing leg room on any new planes ordered.

Mr. President, if you’re going to commit the people’s money to support the airlines, don’t just shower money on the industry without getting something of value for the flying public in return.

Stuart Jacobson

McMinnville

Help the kids

This is a scary situation for all. I have two children in high school. If you look at the McMinnville High School website, nothing has been updated.

My children are not enjoying the time off. Like most children, they are worried about grades and how this crisis will effect their future plans. In the meantime, they are missing their favorite elective classes.

We need our school district to come up with a plan to help all the kids. Google Classroom does not work with every phone, tablet or computer.

In this time, can we please try to get a little more information out to help the future of our children and ease their worries? All parents would like to be able to give answers, but this is new to us.

We want all the hard work the kids did to count.

Bettina Boggs

McMinnville 

Climate action long overdue

I could not disagree more with Jeb Bladine’s Whatchamacolumn of March 13.

Gov. Brown should not set aside her executive order on climate action due to the appearance of the coronovirus. This virus might just illustrate what awaits our planet if we don’t act immediately on climate change.

COVID-19 gave ample warnings of what was likely to come. Our president ignored the evidence — gee, what a surprise — and the warnings from our health professionals.

Worse, he trotted out his now-familiar litany of complaints and fictitious fingerpointing to blame others — anyone and anything other than himself and his “leadership.” So now we find ourselves in a mess of historic proportions.

Similarly, too many of us — and too many of our leaders — have ignored hard, incontrovertible evidence of climate change for decades. And similarly, we now find ourselves in deep trouble because of it.

We can no longer undo the impending disaster of climate change. All we can do is mitigate the worst of its effects — and that is only if we act immediately on an almost unprecedented scale.

Sound familiar?

So thank you, Gov. Brown, for taking this action on climate and for taking it now. It is not nearly enough, but it is at least a start — a start that should have happened years ago.

Rick Hammond

Amity

Murder in McMinnville

While on a dog walk here in McMinnville some weeks ago, before I moved down the valley, two larger dogs killed my mini-dachshund. They took him out in tandem.

Dog owners will recognize my series of losses: 1) warning barks at night; 2) the “Hoover function” when something tasty lands on the kitchen floor; 3) The tiny galloping footfalls welcoming me home; 4) companionable cuddles at the day’s end.

The slaughter of my pet was only worth a citation for “failure to control” and a fine of $250. Why? People knew the pair was trouble, having attacked a neighbor and other pets, but no formal complaints had been made. Thus, no paperwork had been submitted.

Although police learned of the death from multiple witnesses within minutes, they could not act to remove the dogs. I cringe to think of that vicious pair still behind that thin fence.

When you or your pets are attacked, please keep us all safer by filling out online forms to document the problem. That might help ensure vicious animals can no longer get away with murder.

Pat Angland

Springfield

Eat healthy and exercise

School closings, sports event cancellations and food hoarding.

We live in a new coronavirus-induced world. Yet some personal health facts remain unchanged.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers good advice for preventing community spread and personal infection: apply social distancing, sanitize surfaces, wash your hands, don’t touch your face. But there’s more.

Does anyone wonder why uncounted numbers of infected people develop no symptoms and only 20 percent of symptomatic people require hospitalization? It’s because they have an effective immune system able to fight off the virus.

But the CDC does not talk about that, perhaps for fear of offending powerful animal food industries.

Fortunately, good advice on boosting our immune system is readily available on the internet from trusted sources like WebMD and Healthline. And the advice is always the same:

Increase consumption of fruits and vegetables, including citrus fruits and leafy greens. Refrain from dairy, other fatty animal products and sugar-laden foods. Maintain daily exercise of 30 to 60 minutes. Minimize your stress level and get adequate sleep.

This advice works great for all other nasty bugs as well.

Milo Nakamura

McMinnville