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LETTERS TO EDITOR
Myths about
Donald Trump
Editor, the
Myth No. 1: He is a great
businessman.
Due to Trump’s failure to
repay loans and honor con-
tracts, Trump Enterprise,
which comprises the majority
of Trump’s business dealings,
has a credit rating of less
than 20%.
Myth No. 2: He honors the
American Flag.
The American flag is con~
sidered a living entity above
all other living entities in
the U.S., including Trump.
Only God is higher than the
American flag. Therefore for
Trump to hug the flag shows
deep disrespect. Yes, the ma-
jority of Americans really do
not know the correct code of
ethics in treating the Ameri-
can flag. However, as presi—
dent of the United States of
America, Trump should know
or has been advised by other
White House members and he
should not be so happy about
his hugging the flag. I bet he
doesn’t have the guts to hug
the pope.
Myth No. 3: The cur-
rent U.S. economy is due to
Trump.
Trump continuously
brags about the increased
employment as an indica-
tor of a strong and growing
economy, promoting the im-
age he caused it. Again, not
so. The American economy
began improving in 2008 and
has continued to improve
at a steady rate up through
2019. And, during the first
three years of Trump’s term
in office, the rate of increase
in employment was less
than the last three years of \
Obama’s presidency. So, if
employment rate increase
‘was less under Trump than
Obama and the economy
has been improving at a
steady rate since 2008, just
what has Trump to do with
' An open letterto library staff, patrons and communities
health and well-being of
our communities,
staff, and library pa-
trons, Timberland Re-
gional Library (TRL) is ‘
following the man-
dated stay-at-home
order issued by Gov.
Jay Inslee to help slow
In an effort to ensure the
improving the current econ-
omy?
Russell Fraser
Shelton
Vote like the
Constitution
depends on it
Editor, the Journal
The president’s response
. to COVID-19 is yet one more
reason why Trump should not
be re-elected president. His
lack of decisive leadership,
failure to adopt a science—
informed approach and
spreading of misinformation
have put the U.S. as the No.
1 country of all the countries
in the world with COVID-19
cases.
In 2017, Bill Gates told
Trump about the potential
for pandemics. Then again in
January, our intelligence and
defense agencies informed
him about the new pandemic
in China: In addition, many
virologists and epidemiolo-
gists warned him in Febru-
ary about the potential for
. spread in our country, yet
he saw no need to initiate
the Defense Supplies Initia-
tive, saying that broad-based
testing was unnecessary and
we had enough masks and
ventilators. So even after
hearing from a multitude of
experts, the “leader” of our
country (who thinks he knows
more than the scientists and
specialists) consequently has
put our families, friends and
senior citizens at risk as the
virus spreads around the
country.
He also refused to consider
what is working in other
countries. South Korea and
the United States had their
first COVID-19 cases within
a day or two of each other. As -
of last week, less than 300
South Koreans had died of
the virus, while the U.S. has
closed until it is safe for our
staff and patrons to return to
our buildings.
In order to contin-
ue to provide servic-
es to you, our staff
have been working
virtually over the
past few weeks and
have created numer-
the spread of the CO- ous virtual services
VID-19 virus. to continue serving
TRL serves the com- our communities the
munities of Grays
Harbor, Lewis, Mason,
Pacific and Thur-
ston counties. We move mil-
lions of items across these
counties and serve thousands
of patrons each year. As you
can imagine, this means lots
of touching and in-person
contact. In order to limit
these types of interactions,
we are keeping our libraries
best we can. Yes,
our physical build-
ings are closed,
howeVer there are many
wonderful online resources
you can access 24 hours a
day at TRL.org. Our staff
are teleworking and present-
ing virtual programs such
as Storytimes, issuing new
e-library cards, answering
questions with live chat, and
lost over 34,000 people (may-
be almost 40,000 people by
the time you read this letter).
The key to Korea’s success
is extensive testing country-
wide, but Trump doesn’t see
any need to initiate a broad—
based approach to testing,
even though the experts say
it is the only way to track
Where the virus is spreading
right now.
By the way, some writers
to the Journal have cherry-
picked numbers and tried
to cite yearly flu deaths to
compare them to two months
of the coronavirus fatalities
without realizing their egre-
gious mathematical error.
But right now, the daily CO-
VID-19 deaths are surpass-
ing the daily mortality.count
from both heart attacks and
cancer!
Last of all, Trump touts
two antimalarial and antibi-
otic drugs that haven’t even
passed field tests as safe and
effective treatments against
the coronavirus. Why? He has
invested in the companies or
his friends own the compa-
nies, so, once again, money
and personal interests are
more important than science
or the pain and suffering of
our friends and relatives.
Oh, and, to shift the blame;
he told the governors to open
their own states, so that he
can avoid responsibility and
transfer anyxblame to the
' governors.
Re-elect Trump? I think
not. The proof may be in the
gatherings at Easter. Watch
in 30 days for where the new
super spreader clusters form
like South Dakota. And
the rebound next fall could be
just like the 1918 flu when 50
million to 60 million people
died from the flu (in 1918 by
comparison there were less
than 2 billion people on the
planet and hardly anyone
flew on an airplane except the
military).
In November, vote like
you, your family, your friends,
and the U.S. Constitution’s
helping our communities con-
tinue to enjoy our online li-
brary services — ebooks, au-
diobooks, movies, and more.
Timberland Regional Li-
brary realizes the importance
our staff have in our com-
munities and know they play
a huge part in our service
to you. TRL is also work-
ing on our re-opening plan
and changes that we will
make to keep staff and pa-
. trons safe.
TRL’s administration
team and Board of Trust-
ees know our staff is impor-
tant to our communities, and
we are dedicated to keeping
them safe during this uncer-
tain and stressful time.
Our union leadership has
stated that, “AFSCME Local
3758 worked collaboratively
with TRL admin to find a safe
health depends on it!
William Busacca
Shelton
Keep Mason
County
beautiful
Editor, the Journal
The Shelton-Mason County
Journal will have gone to
press by the time Earth Day,
April 22, comes this year.
May we the residents, full-
time and part-time, and all
Visitors, keep our county
beautiful 365 days all year.
Keep Mason beautiful.
Please don’t litter and if
yOu don’t have residential
trash pick up, take your
garbage to the dump. Don’t
dump on the easements of the
roads where someone else has
to clean it up. .
Thank you to the Depart
ment of Community Develop-
ment of Mason County, the
state Department of Natural
Resources, the Mason County
Sheriff’s Office, Mason Gar-
bage and Recycling and
the private individuals and
groups who help keep this
county clean. Earth Day com-
memorates its. 50th anniver-
sary, and can be remembered
all year long. Please keep
Mason beautiful.
Jean Bray
Tahuya
Support North
Mason’s levy
Editor, the Journal
I am writing in support of
the North Mason school levy.
N ow more than ever do we
need to ensure our young are
prepared to work and live in
an ever-changing world. Let’s
face it -— our aging popula-
and beneficial way for some
staff to continue to Work from
home while ensuring that we
were following local, state,
and federal guidelines and
Orders on how to help flatten
the curve of COVID-19. We
are thankful TRL administra-
tion prioritized staff and com-
munity safety during this dif-
ficult time. We look forward
to returning to work when it
is safe and reconnecting with
our patrons and coworkers.”
To our staff, thank you for
being creative and dedicated
during this time.
You are valued and appre-
ciated.
To our communities, we '
can’t thank you enough for
your patience and support.
. We want to assure everyone
that TRL is working during
this time to deep-clean our
Thursday, April 23, 2020 - Shelton-Mason County Journal Page A—5
tion will need am educated
work force to support Social '
Security and Medicare.
There is a shortage of
skilled workers. North Mason
shop classes and West Sound
Tech have enabled many of
our young adults to enter the
trades.
I think of the levy as a
good investment for our
youths and community.
Phil Wolff
Allyn
A conundrum
about garbage
Editor, the Journal
. A few days ago my wife
and I made a trip to our
“dump” to recycle.
A nice person at the scale
shack window informed us
that we and our “recycle” was
closed due to our governor’s
order. Recycle is nonessen-
tial. .
But for $5.74 we can call
our recycle items as garbage
and dump the recycle into the
garbage. V
We dumped out plastics,
tin, aluminum and glass into
the dump container. Then my
brain kicked in and I’m say-
ing to my wife that we just
contributed to the destruction
of our planet.
Isn’t this a strange place
we are in?
Our governor, who ran
for the White House on an
environmental ticket with'
contributions from environ-
mentalists, has just sold out
for $5.74.
Oh well, it’s just another
conundrum we live with.
Suddenly I feel nonessen-
tial. .
George Skarich
Shelton
see LE1TERS, page A—6 ,
buildings, to create new social
distancing measures, and
continue to work on new ways
to serve you virtually or with
less contact until it is safe to
do so. We cherish the rela—
tionships built over the years
and look forward to seeing all
of our valued patrons and .
staff back at their libraries
very soon. We miss you!
We ask our communities
and patrons to continue to
support our libraries, your
communities, and our staff
who are eager to serve you in
any way that they can during
these uncertain times.
We look forward to seeing
you soon.
I Cheryl Heywood is execu-
tive director of Timberland
Regional Library. She can be
reached at 360-943-5001.