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Cries of fake freedom

For more than a month, I’ve only been able to see my 90-year-old mother through a window at her nursing home. I miss being able to hug her and hold her hand. But I am very thankful that the facility where she lives has been able to keep its residents safe from contracting the deadly coronavirus. So far.

We know from facts that the virus is still spreading and killing. The numbers of COVID-19-affected Idahoans today is 1,766 confirmed cases, with more than 50 deaths. So far. Moscow has four cases confirmed. So far.

Yet on Monday, a group of misguided county residents endangered themselves, their children, and all the rest of us by crowding themselves outside Moscow City Hall to complain about the protective measures our city (and state) implemented a month ago to try to keep this lethal virus at bay. Based on nonfacts and even invoking Nazi scare tactics, they “protested” that the city shutdown should end so that they can get back to life as usual. They claimed they wanted to “Liberate Moscow.”

Horse-pucky. Their irresponsible, maskless mugging (and Gabe Rench campaign photo-op) at city hall was more like a blatant slap in the faces of all who’ve been working so hard to keep this virus at bay.

These “liberators” couldn’t care less about the lives of vulnerable people like my mother. I just hope to God none of them works where she lives — where many defenseless folks are barely a breath away from their caregivers’ health practices.

Our city, mayor, councilors and others who are working so hard to keep everyone safe during this difficult time should be commended, not vilified. Our community’s health depends on the cooperation of all of us — not on the fake freedom cries of the careless few.

Rebecca R. Rod
Moscow

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Origin of slogan questionable

I never knew my great-great-aunt, Eleonora Lewith (Levit) Schreier. She was murdered in the Theresienstadt Ghetto on Sept. 17, 1942. I have only vague memories, reinforced by snapshots, of her brother, my great-great-grandfather, Moritz Lewith. Moritz left Eastern Europe in the late 19th century, escaping a similar fate.

A sign exhibited by a woman attending a protest meeting in the photo accompanying the April 21 article, “Protesters don’t want to stay home,” implies that our elected leaders are the equivalent of the murderous thugs of the Third Reich. Making that assertion is as offensive to me as it should be to any thinking person. One questions whether the woman has any knowledge of the horrors of the Holocaust to make this claim.

The Third Reich origin of the slogan on the woman’s sign is questionable. I was unable to find its source in a brief online search.

Gene E. Bobeck
Moscow

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