To the editor,

In the mid-80s I had great health care for my young family. I worked in construction and as long as there was work, I had wonderful health care because I was in a strong union. During a slow period when work dried up, I used COBRA to buy health care by the month but it seemed very expensive and I eventually had to stop making payments and lost our insurance. Luckily, we had no major health needs during this period but I was worried.

Now with lots of people losing their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic I imagine lots of people have trouble paying for health insurance. This is a perfect time to think about the benefits of Universal health care in which everyone is always covered. Lots of countries have it and their citizens are healthier than ours and they spend less money on healthcare.

If I were a business owner, I would love to know that my employees were covered under a universal system and that I would not have to spend time and energy understanding and explaining various plans to anyone, all the while knowing that insurance companies care more about profit than about health.

Jeremy Street

Cheney, Wash.

To the editor,

I’m a quiet law-abiding person. The highest law in this land is the U.S. Constitution and the Washington State Constitution. They have laws for me and laws for my government. A flu bug flies in and all of a sudden, we have a governor that is dictating our smallest actions. Ordinary people are spies.

Two things Governor Inslee said sunk in. He said we couldn’t have done this without the news media. He also said we vote by complying. Is anyone else wondering when this is going to stop? Fear, compliance with consequences, 30 plus million on unemployment, and how many trillion in debt?

Part of my DNA is Swedish. That country did not kill their economy. Their numbers concerning Covid19 are like other countries.Videos of doctors telling us this flu does not have pandemic numbers are disappearing off the internet.

The real pandemic is fear, and loss of jobs, and food being destroyed. What of the loss of personal freedoms, religious freedoms, freedom of association, even freedom of speech? Does this disturb anyone?

Then there is Bill Gates. He funds WHO where they are damaging folks in other countries with his vaccines. He decides when we go back to “Normal” when we take his vaccine that has what in it? He is getting his authority from where? I didn’t know he owned me to vaccinate me at will. My advice to people involved with population reduction is to start with themselves.

Or perhaps folks can live and let live. Value life, morality, and respect the right of the individual to choose their destiny. I heard an interview where someone said we need to do what we know to be right without fear of perceived consequences. Do we really want to go where this is heading?

Kathryn Tapio

Dayton, Wash.