Oct. 20 Letters Part 6: Our Readers’ Opinions

Learn how to help

Suicide has rocked my family. In memory of my child, Katie Thew, who battled chronic pain and died by suicide on Oct. 6, 2022, I offer this article to help other families avoid this grief.

Rampant mental health challenges including depression, with more and more communities recognizing they lack adequate resources to help, inspired the creation of a month (September) devoted to suicide prevention, which recently passed. Now our family is mourning another milestone, the two-year anniversary of Katie’s death.

Each of us can learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental illness and a crisis. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) helps individuals and families learn how to address the challenges of mental illnesses. Please consider visiting the state of Washington NAMI website at namiwa.org to learn more. There are also courses like QPR that help laypeople learn how to recognize and respond to a mental health crisis. Information on QPR courses can be found online at qprinstitute.com. One thing taught in QPR is that we can call 988 for help 24/7.

Even with solid organizations like NAMI, and helpful courses like QPR, suicide prevention remains challenging in our community. What can each of us do to help? We can become trained on how to help prevent suicides. We can push school boards to prioritize mental health education. We can demand health care systems improve access to mental health services. In short, we can learn how to help support those who may not be able to help themselves.

Pam Kohlmeier

Spokane

Vote yes on Prop 1

Don’t fall for misinformation. Vote yes on Proposition 1.

Myth: Open primaries and ranked choice voting will be difficult or confusing for voters.

Fact: Voting in a ranked choice election will be as simple as counting to four. In general elections, voters will simply be allowed to rank up to four candidates by order of preference. A voter can rank just one candidate if they choose.

Myth: Ranked choice voting violates the principle of “one person, one vote.”

Fact: Ranked choice elections give every voter a single vote and each vote counts equally.

Myth: It will take 15 days to get election results.

Fact: Ranked choice results can be ready and released just as quickly as other election results.

Myth: With ranked choice voting, it’s impossible to hand-count ballots.

Fact: RCV does not require electronic voting machines or computers; it can be counted or verified via hand count. RCV has been around since long before voting machines or computers.

Myth: With ranked choice voting your ballot can be thrown out.

Fact: Ranked choice voting counts the ballot of every voter. Just because none of a voter’s chosen candidates win or make it to the final round, it is false and deceptive to claim that their ballot is “thrown out.”

A yes vote on Prop 1 will make sure the votes of all Idahoans’ votes are counted in every election.

Marcia Banta

Lewiston

Civil discourse

Regarding the unfortunate incident involving Sen. Dan Foreman: It’s important to remember that you cannot have free speech without the danger of being offensive. While the words of Sen. Foreman, as well as the context and manner they were delivered, most certainly were offensive, that is his right.

The senator’s words and actions have violated lines 1, 6, 10, 13, and 14 of the Idaho GOP platform’s preamble, as well as Article 1, section 5, E and Article 2, section 2, the very platform that Sen. Foreman stated that he agreed with and supports. Perhaps Sen. Foreman, like many salad bar conservatives, conveniently forgot about those sections of the platform. Obviously, those sections were of no use or were simply too inconvenient to uphold at the time.

This sheds light on something that is just as important if not more important than if a candidate agrees with and supports the party platform. That’s a person’s character. Do you really want a person in the Idaho Legislature who will allow his emotions to get the better of him and then storm off? Or do the citizens of Idaho deserve leaders who will engage in civil discourse with respect and dignity?

James R. Spencer

Lapwai