Inflammatory language not helpful in fighting COVID

Roger Harnack’s Jan. 7, 2021 Cheney Free Press article, “Pushing back against bureaucratic harassment,” is troubling. Within the article, the governor and state workers are accused of “illegally” and “unconstitutionally” “extorting,” “blackmailing,” “harassing,” “threatening” and “violating the rights of” business owners.

In fact, our duly elected (and re-elected) governor has taken legal, medically and scientifically defensible measures to protect the health and lives of Washington citizens. Our legislature, elected by the citizens of the state of Washington, has given this authority to our governor since at least 1969 (RCW 43.06.220).

State workers at the Liquor and Cannabis Board are only trying to enforce the laws that are being broken by those quoted in this article. And it’s working — Washington ranks 44th in the nation for per capita COVID deaths. This is being accomplished in the face of a nationwide daily average of over 3,000 COVID deaths — more Americans than were killed in the 9/11 attacks — over the past seven days (data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, 1/10/21).

Nobody is happy to see our local businesses struggling. And nobody is happy that 3,000 families, PER DAY, are losing loved ones to COVID.

There are no easy, pain-free solutions for managing this pandemic. Everyone is suffering and making sacrifices to some degree. But compared to states that have much higher COVID death rates and running out of ICU capacity and places to store bodies of the deceased, we should feel pretty good about the success of Washington’s response to date.

It is not helpful for Mr. Harnack and the various quoted “protestors” to demonize and threaten the governor and state employees who are doing their best to keep our communities safe. The events that transpired in our nation’s capital last week showed us where this kind of irresponsible and dangerous rhetoric can lead.

Kristin Mansfield, DVM

Cheney