Stipulate that Doug Wilson coordinated this parade of morons to rotate James B. Nance and Logos School off the front page.
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Candidates at the protest
Kudos to local journalists, particularly Daily News writer Scott Jackson and photographer Geoff Crimmins for their recent coverage about the large gathering of people in Moscow in the April 21st story, “Protesters don’t want to stay home.”This event seems to have been a campaign rally in the guise of protest. The event organizer, Gabriel Rench, is a candidate for Latah County Commissioner, and the Facebook event listed Caleb Bouma, Latah County GOP precinct 18 captain, as co-organizer.
Clearly visible in the Daily News’ online photo gallery is candidate Dan Foreman, running for Idaho 5th District senator, and Alex Brizee’s coverage in the University of Idaho Argonaut shows Hari Heath, candidate for state representative 5th District seat A, deep in the crowd.
As an active voter from Potlatch, I take these appearances seriously as they reflect the type of leadership one might expect from these candidates. Many of my friends and neighbors in and around Potlatch observe the stay-home orders to preserve the health and safety of our community; many of us have friends or family who work on the frontlines in healthcare or grocery stores; or we have friends who have family ill with COVID-19 in Lewiston.
Remember the disregard that Rench, Foreman, and Heath showed our communities when you cast your ballot in May and November.
Diane Kelly-Riley
Potlatch
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Stay steadfast in the trenches
On Monday, the Daily News printed a photograph of a Liberate Moscow protester holding a deeply troubling sign that misrepresents the herculean efforts of our medical/scientific community to mitigate the spread of COVID-19: “Nazis had a phrase which covered all abuses by the state: ‘It’s for your safety. ” Only ignorance can equate the protective orders of our scientists and medical professionals with the evils of the Nazis, who indulged in cruel medical experimentation and “perfected” scientific methods of genocide.Recently, “Liberate” protesters around the country have spread further disinformation, calling the COVID-19 pandemic “a hoax.” In spite of those who deny the undeniable, the COVID-19 pandemic is all too real, as was the Holocaust. Ask anyone who lost a loved one to either enemy.
Disinformation misrepresents but cannot diminish the real danger of our current crisis. There can be no comparison between our government’s safety lockdown and Nazi Germany’s nefarious “cleansing” policies against members of targeted groups. COVID-19 does not discriminate.
We are all affected by the current lockdown, though truthfully, some more than others. To those who are carrying the brunt of the economic pain, for the health and safety of our local, national, and global communities, we ask you, we beg you: We must stay the course.
Let us be wise, and wary of disinformation. We are in the trenches. Let us practice patience. The federal government is working, as I write, on bipartisan bills to help fund small businesses and retain employees. Let us stay informed and remain steadfast in the trenches until our medical experts say that it is safe to emerge.
Lisa Kliger
Moscow
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Protest short-sighted, crass
On Monday, there was a protest in front of Moscow City Hall to “open up the economy again.” It was attended by approximately 200 people. It was organized by Gabriel Rench, a deacon at Christ Church, and Caleb Bouma, committeeman for the Latah County Republicans.Douglas Wilson, pastor of Christ Church, has also started making noises on his blog. The article is titled “So Let’s Call It the No Legal Footing Lockdown.” Everyone knows what a large audience this man has.
While everyone wants to get back to normal, calling for the economy to “reopen” before it is deemed safe to do so is completely stupid. The insidious thing about this virus that makes it so elegantly efficient is its long incubation period and the fact that one can walk around while being asymptomatic and spreading it, Typhoid Mary style, to those with compromised immune systems. These are facts that doctors and virologists have repeatedly stressed. When people show up to rallies like this with their kids (!) holding signs like “The Curve Is Flattening” and “Don’t Tread On Me,” and the general message seems to be “I HEART MONEY” and “BUT THE CONSTITUTION,” it seems short-sighted and crass.
While it is not surprising that people associated with Christ Church were some of the first to hearken to the call of “THE CONSTITUTION AND OUR RIGHTS,” I cannot help but sarcastically think about how the second commandment was not “Love Thy Neighbor As Thyself,” but rather how Jesus said, “Some personal freedom is even better than loving your neighbor and would also be mighty white of you.”
I appreciate the rights afforded us by the Constitution; but thinking about how one’s actions affect someone else is more important than my right to assemble and eat chips and dip at Applebee’s.
Dana Banks
Moscow
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So Wilson has managed to convince the Beholden Toadies and the rest of his congregation that he is not only, as we’ve all been reminded, an expert in art, poetry, archaeology, theology (why, he develops doctrinal heresies better than any pastor I’ve ever seen!), music, chorale ensemble, building, law, history, politics, parenting, and Latin, but now, it appears, he has mastered epidemiology. It might fascinate some when he spews forth about the theological ramifications of ripped and faded jeans and bore the hell out of others when he expounds on the hagiography of some medieval Dutch merchant or another, but it can and likely will cost lives as he prattles on about the COVID-19 restrictions. He proposes that those who govern are exercising illegitimate, unbiblical, and medically foolish power by enacting stay-at-home restrictions, because, sayeth the Bloated One, quarantines are for sick or likely-to-be-sick people, not healthy people (men of chest, Trinitarians, cranks, etc.). Of course, with nearly 60,000 Americans dead in just two months from a virus that can exist in and on someone without their being sick, his observation is pointless. It’s entirely BECAUSE “healthy” people — those not obviously ill — can so easily spread the virus that restrictions must be adhered to by everyone. I suspect he knows this; I know he suspects no one in his church will prove him wrong by being “healthy” one day, meandering about town sickening other people, then collapsing in a pulmonarily desperate heap. I don’t expect the obtuse Gabe Rench to grasp the point, but I thought Wilson could see it. And see it he does: It’s a threat to the absolute control he has over his followers. He cannot possibly tell them to support the government; the risks for him are too great. But this time his pomposity and dickishness could kill someone, and he will be largely culpable. By the way, what does Rench do for a living? His campaign info refers to a lengthy and impressive bio, but it appears to be … not quite as he expresses it. So what does this tool of the master DO?