Mailbox

Editor:

President Biden and every Democrat in Congress, this moment calls for boldness (Mailbox, Jan. 21). We don’t need another Obama or Clinton. We need an FDR and then some. It would be a monumental error in judgment to govern as centrists in hope that doing so will appease your most vocal and violent critics. It never does and never will. Those who subscribe to QAnonsense are too far gone in their sickness, and the relatively sane Republicans will call you a socialist no matter what.

Embrace the label. Help build and inspire a diverse working class alliance by advancing policies, which even Fox News surveys show have broad support. I’m talking about policies like Medicare for All, the Green New Deal and free college. Promote unionization and worker-owned businesses. Bring back the Fairness Doctrine, and make it mandatory that every student learns how to identify and verify sources.

These are the sorts of actions that will garner you enthusiastic, sustainable support. That’s the only way to marginalize the extremists, to ensure their demise. The pre-Trump status quo will not su ce; it will make matters worse. Then-candidate Biden’s promise to wealthy donors that “nothing will fundamentally change” must be abandoned. Neoliberalism must find its way into the dustbin of history. American exceptionalism has always been a myth, and there’s nothing that says the U.S. can’t become a failed state or that fascism can’t take root here. This is a trying time but I remain hopeful. Be bold.

Garrett Snedaker, Eureka

Editor:

I have an elderly brother with a serious underlying medical condition, who, despite living in Humboldt for four years, still cannot get assigned a primary care physician (PCP) due to a shortage of local docs. The county does not seem to be addressing this demographic regarding how they can get scheduled for vaccines (“Vaxed,” Jan. 21).

Although I don’t know for sure, I am guessing there are hundreds of such people throughout the county just based on recent banter on the McKinleyville Nextdoor app. I hope Public Health can place a priority on informing these folks how they can get scheduled, considering that the other existing clinic systems already have personnel in place to manage scheduling their patients. My brother and elders like him should not have to live in fear of getting passed over for this life-saving medication. Hilary Mosher, McKinleyville

Terry Torgerson

Editor:

When worried about something, my mom would often say, “Well, no news is good news”. One day I said, “I don’t understand?” and learned, “It means there is still hope.” Eureka’s rewrite of the camping ban