Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!

Letters to the Editor

Joy at last

Listening to the news every day is a downer for the most part. All the bad events that are happening in the nation and the world line up on your radio or television stations, and online feeds. What a breath of fresh air to hear Cory Booker’s impassioned speech at the U.S. Senate confirmation hearings of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Wednesday, March 23, 2022.

Instead of angry rhetoric that has been the usual discourse, here was a delightful description of the progress people have made in the country to right the wrongs of the past, and a prediction of a better future for our country. It really highlighted the great qualifications and experience of Judge Brown as well, while noting the great challenges black women encounter in their lives.

Honestly, when I heard his speech, it brought tears to my eyes – tears of joy. What a change from the usual news reports.

To top it off, the photograph of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s daughter smiling so proudly looking at her mother just added to a wonderful view of our feeling of love and compassion for mothers and daughters and all of humanity. If you missed either of these events, please search for them. They are well worth your time.

Nancy Street

– Cheney

Students should get a vote

Recently, Chris Cargill, Eastern Washington director of right-wing Washington Policy Center, advocated for a parents’ bill of rights to improve our educational system. But how would that help?

Shouldn’t students themselves, especially at high school level, have at least an equal voice to their parents since their education most strongly affects their own lives? Maybe Cargill thinks students and their parents agree on what would improve their education, but is there evidence of that?

Polls show considerable disagreement between high school-age students and those of their parents’ age on Trumpism, for example. Whereas disagreement between Democrats and Republicans 30 years ago was less severe and emotional, that is definitely not true today.

Parents disrupt school board meetings protesting vaccine and mask mandates for students and teachers, whereas students recently held nationwide protests to call for stronger COVID protocols. Angry parents demand the ban of books and the teaching of US racial history against students’ wishes. Few parents insist on more instruction on global warming which is uppermost in many students’ minds.

And most tragically, white parents opposing the accurate teaching of US racial history apparently don’t care at all about their negative impact on the social-emotional growth and academic achievements of students of color. Students of color undoubtedly agree with their parents on full coverage of such history.

Should we instead have a students’ bill of rights, at least at the high school level, promoting their measured input into final educational decisions made by their teachers and schools?

Norm Luther

– Spokane

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 
Rendered 02/02/2025 17:45