Letters to the editor | Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022: ‘Withrow unmasked’ opinion touches nerve

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Leaders set the example

Re “Withrow, unmasked – why Stanislaus chairman defies state COVID mandate” (Page 1C, Jan. 16): You can’t imagine the number of health care professionals who never get a platform to ask people to wear their masks. Withrow is endangering the county by not complying. It’s no wonder people in this country don’t mask up.

Mr. Withrow: We don’t need to see your face. We need you to lead.

Linda Vermeulen, Ripon

Editorial missed the mark

Re “Withrow, unmasked – why Stanislaus chairman defies state COVID mandate” (Page 1C, Jan. 16): The distinction between liberals and woke continues to emerge despite risks of cancellation. Liberal authors from The Coddling of the American Mind (helicopter parenting and safetyism) and Unsettled (climate change truth by Obama undersecretary), to Irreversible Damage (teenage girl transgender craze) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s The Real Anthony Fauci demonstrate courage that would make muckrakers Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens proud.

It’s disheartening that The Bee toed the woke party line in its recent attacks on Supervisor Terry Withrow. If even just a portion of RFK Jr’s Fauci book is true, then Withrow’s points are completely meritorious, and The Bee’s editorial utterly misguided.

Who defines “responsible public health officials?” When has quarantining healthy people ever been a good idea? Why aren’t COVID treatments and vaccines both promoted as important in saving lives?

Fortunes are being made in manipulating the public to fall in line with big tech, big pharma, and government control. In two pandemic years, the rich have gotten richer, and the poor have become poorer. Journalists should question these robber barons, not why a county supervisor doesn’t wear a mask.

Ross Lee, Modesto

To each his own

Re “Withrow, unmasked – why Stanislaus chairman defies state COVID mandate” (Page 1C, Jan. 16): Mr. Stapley, slow down, buddy. Don’t disclaim the other means of fighting this horrible virus. Let each of us fight this horrible battle in our own way.

Willy Burns, Modesto

Consider those around you

Re “Withrow, unmasked – why Stanislaus chairman defies state COVID mandate” (Page 1C, Jan. 16): But guess what? That trick didn’t work in Turlock.

Chair Withrow is nothing but a selfish person. If he actually has a health issue with a mask then grow up and put on a shield.

I am sick and tired of seeing people go everywhere without a mask and exposing me and others to COVID. I am compromised, as an almost-85-year-old woman with lung cancer. And please do not tell me to stay home. Even with friends and neighbors there are times I must go out — to a doctor’s office or to pick up medications, or heaven forbid to get some food in the house. So mask up and stop being a bunch of babies having a tantrum.

Myrna Wachs, Turlock

Mask up, people

Face masks are required here in California due to COVID and its mutations on the rise. However, keeping with Stanislaus County’s inability to follow rules or mandates set forth by the state, we are seeing more and more cases break out here in Modesto as well many of the smaller cities and towns. What is wrong with people? Why isn’t the mandatory face covering requirement not being adhered to? We all know or should know wearing a mask does keep COVID at bay, yet so few people actually wear a mask, not to mention businesses allowing people to enter their establishment with no face covering of any kind.

Heather D. Nemanic, Modesto

Helping Afghan refugees

Although I have moved from the Modesto area, I visit my parents regularly on their almond farm south of Ceres — it will always be my home. I will carry the warmth of our Central Valley community with me wherever I go, and I hope to pass that same warmth and connection to my children.

I want to make our community aware of the opportunity to welcome new members who are in desperate need of support. There are multiple Afghan refugee families here who have left everything behind because of the help they offered to our country. They have been placed in small apartments or motels by the International Refugee Committee in the Modesto and Turlock areas. Often, they have no laundry facilities, no internet, no car, no job, not even a way to get groceries. They are completely dependent on our community for support.

I am writing on their behalf to encourage anyone who is hiring in settings like janitorial services, laundry for hospitals or nursing homes, and restaurants to consider them. A donated car would be life changing. ESL instruction is needed.

Please reach out to Maryam Mojadidi, maryammojadid@gmail.com, coordinator at Afghans Building Alliances for Humanitarian Development.

Amy Cecilia Mogal, Los Altos

Preserve Modesto landmark

Re “Plans advance for new Seventh Street Bridge in Modesto” (Front Page, Jan.17): How can we save the Lion Bridge from the wrecking ball?

First, the new bridge needs to be downsized. Remove the bike lanes and sidewalks and use the new bridge for motor vehicles only. The new bridge would be much narrower than originally planned and will cost considerably less.

Once the new bridge has been opened for use, the Lion bridge can be closed and fixed up to be used for pedestrian and bicycle traffic only. It wouldn’t be necessary to do extensive retrofitting or bringing it up to code for use by motor vehicles.

I see this as a win-win situation; we get a new bridge for a lot less money than originally planned, we get to continue using our beautiful Lion Bridge and we don’t have to pay demolition fees to destroy our 106-year-old bridge.

Denise L. Ford, Modesto

Insurance tangles affect lives

I have lived with bipolar disease for 49 of my 73 years. My psychiatrist in St. Louis saved me during my first depression. I had two in San Francisco. Since 1982 in Modesto I have had three wonderful psychiatrists but they have all retired. The last retired at the end of the year. In about the last 10 years psychiatrists do not see standard PPOs or Medicare patients unless associated with a HMO plan. Is there a blank spot in their brains about WWII and Vietnam?

I have Medicare with Blue Shield. The last saw me as a favor because I was a retired MD. Now I cannot find one who will see me. I thought I’d check the affluent Highway 24 corridor and called the office of one in Lafayette. The office manager and I had quite a pleasant talk. Her doctor does not take my insurance and is not associated with an HMO so he takes no Medicare. Admittedly embarrassed, she told me the reason was low reimbursement. I asked her if she could recommend a doctor anywhere from Walnut Creek to Orinda. Honestly, no, she said. Meanwhile, suicide rates go up.

Paul Golden, Modesto

Require tax transparency

For over half a century U.S. presidential candidates have voluntarily submitted their tax records for public scrutiny — the two exceptions being in 2016 and 2020. The single candidate not doing so cited an ongoing audit as the reason even though this argument is flawed. After being elected this same person argued that citizens did not need or care for this information. This same person once claimed to be “the most transparent president ever.” Interestingly, this “most transparent” president has used a vast array of attorneys and nondisclosure agreements to hide nearly every aspect of his business and personal practices.

Since an informed electorate can select the best candidate to represent them, should not the voluntary sharing of business and tax information instead be mandatory? It is time for Congress to enact binding legislation for candidates for national office, and most particularly POTUS, to release 10 years of business and tax returns.

What reason would cause any upstanding and law-abiding candidate to oppose such legislation?

Jim Hoagland, Ripon