Wearing mask doesn’t make me weak or ‘controlled.’ It makes me considerate | Letters
I don’t go out often but if I do I wear a mask in public, not for me, but for you.
I want you to know that I am educated enough to know that I could be asymptomatic and still give you the virus.
I don’t “live in fear” of the virus, I just want to be a part of the solution, not the problem.
I don’t feel like the “government is controlling me,” I feel like I’m being a contributing adult to society and I want to teach children the same.
I want them to grow up as I did knowing that the world doesn’t revolve around me. That it’s not all about me and my comfort. That if we all could live with other people’s consideration in mind, this whole world would be a much better place.
Wearing a mask doesn’t make me weak, scared, stupid or even “controlled.” It makes me considerate.
How long have we read the statement, “No shirt, No shoes, No service” on a storefront sign?
Extending that sign to add “NO MASK, NO ENTRY, NO SERVICE,” will protect lives. That certainly is not asking too much.
Bonnie White
Hilton Head Island
Open Hilton Head beach to other locals
I was hopeful about the Hilton Head Island public beach access areas being opened on Friday; however, I live off the island a few miles. I am dismayed that the only people who can park at the beach and go there must have a Hilton Head beach parking pass.
This seems discriminating against our locals who live off-island.
If we had a way to buy a pass, I would buy one. Why not open this up to Beaufort and Jasper County residents?
The beach was closed on the first beach day I was planning to go. I retired on April 1 anticipating many spring beach days, but they haven’t happened due to the social isolation.
Friends who live at Garden City (south of Myrtle Beach) were able to go to the beach with their beach chairs last weekend, but they are being very careful to not have more than two together. Why can’t Hilton Head find a way to make more area residents happy with beach access, following strict guidelines to avoid social gatherings?
Nancy Leslie
Hardeeville
Hilton Head’s beach plan creates crowding
It seems to me opening beach parking to Town of Hilton Head Island beach pass holders at just two beach access locations will have the effect of funneling most beachgoers to those two spots, concentrating the crowds and negating social distancing.
This idea was not well thought out, but pretty much what I would expect from this Town Council.
Rolland Welch
Hilton Head Island
Now’s the time for this new tax to protect the environment
Life has not been the same since March. Schools have closed, many companies are laying people off, and even something as simple as going to the grocery store is discouraged during this COVID-19 pandemic. People of all ages and means are enduring minor and major hardships that were unimaginable only months ago.
However, there are positive silver linings as well.
As is widely reported, the decline of economic activity has had many benefits.
The water quality of Venice’s long-polluted canals are cleaner and dolphins are returning. In some California cities, NO2 pollution is 50 percent lower during commuting hours. In the UK, such pollution is down 60 percent. Normally timid to traffic, coyotes are wandering down Chicago’s Magnificent Mile and on San Francisco’s Gold Gate Bridge.
Economists and policy advocates have long advocated using incentives to manage the unintended consequences of pollution and congestion. With gas prices so low, now is the time to institute a national transportation tax on gasoline and diesel fuels.
Such taxes are common in other parts of the world but have been politically “inconvenient” in America.
Putting a national $2 per gallon tax on transportation fuels would result in permanent benefits: lower pollution, less driving, fewer highway deaths and roadkill, and more time spent outside of a car.
With millions of people finding ways to work from home, there will no doubt be a significant shift, post-COVID, to more work from home as both businesses and their associates are seeing clear benefits.
Matthew Morette
Bluffton
A day to honor first responders
Born out of the tragic loss of five firefighters in a wildfire in Victoria, Australia, International Firefighters’ Day is a way to honor the lives and the sacrifice that firefighters are willing to make for all of us every day.
Now, as evermore, firefighters and emergency medical services workers are “at the tip of the spear” locally, statewide, nationally and internationally, as we fight this COVID-19 pandemic.
This day of recognition is at the core of what the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation does. Our mission is to honor and remember America’s fallen firefighters, to assist their families in rebuilding their lives and to prevent firefighter injuries and deaths.
This year, International Firefighters Day is celebrated May 4-5. In commemoration, the foundation is asking the public to join us by changing out your porch light(s) and illuminating your home in red.
You can also share your #ShineYourLight4Firefighters story on social media as a thank you to all the fire and EMS personnel who keep us safe every day.
Additionally, you may want to consider having children create thank-you letters and posters for your local responders (please check first about “drop off” policy).
Lastly, can donate to your local fire and EMS agencies, as COVID-19 is ravaging operating budgets with expenses for personal protective clothing (gloves, masks, gowns and disinfecting supplies).
Thank you for your attention to this important event. You can learn more by visiting firehero.org/international-firefighters-day.
W. Keith Brower Jr.
Beaufort
Do not buy the major-media bias
Probably we are tired of our current day-to-day activity resulting from the coronavirus. Too bad we did not have leadership in the past to be better prepared for the virus’ impact on our country and our well-being.
Perhaps we did have leadership, but it was just overlooked or ignored.
A former president in a speech (several years ago) pointed out this very issue and requested $1.2 billion to purchase enough antiviral doses for manufacturers to produce vaccines for 20 million citizens. His three-point plan was: “… detect outbreaks … anywhere in the world … Protect the American people by stockpiling vaccines and antiviral drugs and rapidly produce new vaccines against a pandemic strain.
“We must be ready to respond at the federal, state and local levels in the event a pandemic reaches our shores.”
Was that President Barack Obama? Wrong. Nothing significant about this happened in his eight years.
It was President George W. Bush. Yes, that President Bush, the one his opponents and the media implied had a low IQ and was just plain dumb. The video can be found on CNN and took place on Nov. 1, 2005 at the National Institutes of Health.
In the video you can spot a familiar face, our current hero, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
I hope you were not expecting the mainstream media or the Packet to make you aware of this.
Think for yourself. Do not buy the major-media bias.
Richard Geraghty
Bluffton
No second term for Donald Trump
In 2000 and 2016 the country elected Republican presidents who did not win the popular vote. How did that work out?
The George W. Bush administration got off to a bad start by being caught unaware by the terrorist attacks on 9/11. It only got worse after that. Two endless wars, a botched Hurricane Katrina response, and an economy on the brink of collapse when his second term finally ended.
The Donald Trump administration is not doing much better. His large corporate and individual tax cuts fueled massive federal deficits, corporate share buybacks and even more excessive executive compensation.
Then came the pandemic. If Trump exercised better judgment and more steady leadership we probably would not be No. 1 in the world in infections and deaths. And we would not have to bail out the very same corporations that squandered their tax cut windfalls on share buybacks.
Americans gave Bush a second term and things only got worse, domestically and internationally. We can not make the same mistake in 2020. Trump does not deserve a second term.
James Foley
Sun City
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