Letters to the Editor: July 5, 2024

An awakening

After the debate, there should not be any remaining doubt that we as a nation are in serious trouble.

Joe Biden was a bumbling, stumbling incoherent, senile old man not fit to be president. He looked tired, worn out, unable to speak in a firm clear voice.
After the debate, Jill Biden led Joe down the three steps in front of the podiums, and he could hardly make it. See the video yourself at www.politico.com/video/2024/06/28/jill-biden-escorts-joe-biden-off-stage-after-first-presidential-debate-1346575.

What else should be troubling for Democrats is the post-debate interviews of Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom. Both of these possible replacements for Joe Biden have no clue to what just happened, or of the great harm that Democrats have done to our country.

Watching the talking heads on MSNBC, CNN, Politico, NBC and ABC critique the debate was pure delight. I especially enjoyed the reactions of Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid.

And that wasn’t the only example of the awakening of America. Loud, foul-mouth Jamaal Bowman was sent packing in New York. Meanwhile, Cori Bush, a loud-mouth progressive from Missouri, is facing a strong challenge for re-election.

Robert Long

McMinnville

Unnecessary suffering

These days, both doctors and dentists are extremely reluctant to prescribe opioid pain medications for conditions they have been traditionally used to treat. That’s because the federal government pressures them to keep opioid prescriptions to an absolute minimum.

The statistic commonly used to defend this policy is that up to 80 percent of people who become addicted were first introduced to opioids through a medical or dental prescription. That’s a frightening number, which is exactly why it gets bandied about so much.

Looking at various government websites, I was able to get data for 2022. In that year, 131 million opioid prescriptions were written in the US.

From further research, I found that somewhere around 250,000 people become addicted to opioids in any given year. So at worst, 131 million prescriptions led to 250, 000 cases of addition, which is the real statistic we should be using.

Even if 100% of the new addictions stemmed from legal prescriptions, and we know that greatly overstates the case, the rate would amount to only 0.19% — less than one-fifth of 1%.

Patients receiving the other 99.81% of opioid prescriptions did just fine. They didn’t end up on a street corner smoking fentanyl off of tin foil.

That means lots of people are doing lots of unnecessary suffering because a misleading picture is being presented. The federal government should concern itself with the drug abuse on the streets and butt its nose out of the doctor’s office.

Fred Fawcett

Lafayette

Wonderful service

I would like to give special kudos to the folks at Yamhill County Dial-A-Ride for the kind service they provide to us for free.

I am elderly. I rely on them to get around Newberg, as I don’t drive.

They are kind from beginning (dispatch) to the end (pickup and return home safely).

So kind those drivers have been! And it comes from the heart, for money can’t buy that type of caring.
Thank you for helping others know about this wonderful service.

Beverly Montgomery

Newberg

Vote for democracy

People should be asking themselves how they would fare under Donald Trump’s promised dictatorship:

- Would life be better with our Constitution in place or with a willful strong-man and his edicts instead? Are people who prefer the Constitution ready to go to jail over that?

- Would government employees rather sign loyalty oaths to the dictator to save their jobs? Check out Project 2025 to see if you would be loyal enough for the new regime.

- Are folks on Social Security ready to see it “sunset?” Do they want that fund handed over to the wizards of Wall Street? G.W. Bush tried that and failed, just before the crash of 2008.

- Do folks on Medicare want to see their premiums rise due to pre-existing conditions? With no ACA to stand in the way, the insurance companies will take what they want. Pharmaceutical companies will do the same.

- Are women ready to relinquish control of their bodies or to die, bleeding out, in hospital parking lots? Where are the fans of less regulation and smaller, less-intrusive government when they are needed?

- Are folks sick of all the climate-change worries, or do they want to hand a sustainable planet over to their children?

- Are people tired of cleaner air and cleaner water? In April, our would-be dictator offered a Mar-a-Lago crowd of oil executives a “deal” to roll back dozens of environmental regulations in exchange for a $1 billion campaign contribution. Do these guys also need tax cuts?

- Is anyone ready to join a military whose commander in chief refers to the fallen and captured as “suckers and losers?” Recruiters are cringing.

- Are we ready for an American Taliban to enforce approved versions of politics, religion and morality?

America was not designed to be a dictatorship. Vote for democracy. We owe it to each other.

Bill Johnson

McMinnville