Oct. 2 Letters to the Editor: Our Readers’ Opinions

Retain city manager

We have a choice coming up and that is whether to revert to a strong mayor form of city government. A number of people are running for that job but the one making the most noise so far is Wilson Boots, which is a pity.

I tried looking Boots up on the internet and could not find much. Most importantly, I could not find anything showing Boots had ever run any entity of any kind or substance. ...

If we vote to have a strong mayor, the mayor will have the job of running the finances of the city involving millions of dollars. ...

I would be concerned about whether Boots is remotely capable of doing something like that. The thing about governing is that it looks easy from the outside but it is not. ...

Another concern is whether the people pushing the strong mayor proposition are doing it for the wrong reason. What I hear them saying publicly tells me their desire to have a strong mayor is really a matter of personalities. They don’t like Alan Nygaard and they don’t like it when the city council doesn’t do exactly what they wish. They evidently feel that if there is a strong mayor, they can tell that person what to do. Well, that wouldn’t be much of a strong mayor if he or she danced to the tune of the few people who showed up at meetings and yelled the loudest. ...

Stick with what we have. ...

Danny Radakovich

Lewiston

Six months and counting

By CNN’s definition, the most popular candidate to ever run for president who supposedly received 12 million more votes than Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Clinton has far exceeded my expectations. It took him six months to accomplish what I figured would require four years to do.

This rotting bag of oatmeal succeeded in destroying our oil producing dominance and secure borders, failed to secure the China virus and its variants, and left American citizens behind to face the wrath of the Taliban, who are now armed with $80 billion in American weaponry surrendered to them while promising to disarm America. And now millions more will be paid to free those hostages. Great decision, Joe.

Obama declared in 2008 that he would “fundamentally transform the USA” and this weak, cognitive-deficient former vice president pajama boy is getting the job done in record time while taking orders from his boss’ lackeys in the shadows, Ron Klain and Susan Rice.

When I first started wearing a red MAGA hat while visiting Lewiston, I would receive on average two thumbs up. After all that has happened recently, it has tripled in frequency. And many of those who now approve did not vote for Donald Trump. ...

The incessant ongoing push for socialism does not bode well with honest, hard-working citizens on both sides. ...

In 1953, Sen. Joe McCarthy gained national attention for his role in the search for communists in the federal government. That effort should commence again as soon as possible.

John Webb

Reubens

‘Just do it’

For the past 17 months Anita Sircar, an infectious disease physician at UCLA School of Medicine, and her colleagues have been working 24/7 with COVID-19 patients, too busy to be able to take sufficient time off to recover from their unending ordeal. ...

Most of the patients she sees, of course, are not vaccinated.

“I don’t have any more compassion for the unvaccinated,” she says. “They just need to get the shot. It’s the only proven lifesaver we’ve had in this pandemic.”

Sircar says it’s tragic we give so much vaccine to other countries because so many in this third-rate banana republic refuse to take it and supply overwhelms demand.

“The burden of the pandemic now rests on the shoulders of the unvaccinated,” Sircar says. ... “Never before has belief in personal freedom affected others as it does now. When so many people are seriously ill and dying because they have refused a simple vaccination, the luxury of choice ceases to exist.”

David Frum of the Atlantic writes: “The pandemic could have been over by now, even with delta. Life could be returning to near normal, if the petulant, selfish children of ‘pro-Trump America’ hadn’t decided to embrace vaccine refusal as their latest pathetic symbol of tribal membership.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger says personal freedom doesn’t give one the right to endanger others. “People who refuse vaccines and masks are arrogant, ignorant, selfish jerks,” he says. ...

Protect yourself and others: Vaccinate and mask up.

As Nike says: “ Just do it.”

Mike Epstein

Clarkston

Who could do worse?

KEEP Lewiston’s assertion in the Voters’ Pamphlet that having a professionally trained city manager is preferable to an elected mayor flies in the face of the facts. Let’s look at the record of the manager form of government during the past 10 years.

1. The city has less than 1 percent growth in the second fastest growing state in the union.

2. The airport lost its flights to Boise and Seattle.

3. The city library was almost destroyed due to mismanagement.

4. The city tried to ram through a $40 million revenue bond without a vote.

5. Macy’s, J.C. Penney, Sears, Kmart, Payless, and Tri-State Outfitters have left town.

6. The city budget has grown to $110 million.

7. Homeowners can’t afford to water their lawns.

8. Up to half of the city’s trees are dead or dying due to neglect.

9. Consultant fees were budgeted this year to redesign Community Park ($400,000), redesign the comprehensive plan ($300,000) and redesign an existing concrete staircase ($50,000).

10. The city manager is paid $228,000 a year to oversee the above.

The question isn’t whether an elected mayor could do better; the question is whether anyone could do worse.

John Bradbury

Lewiston