COVID still bad
To the editor:
After five years of dodging COVID by wearing a mask, I slacked off and got infected. I read that COVID these days is just like the flu. Don’t believe that; it still kills.
I was hit hard and ended up at St. Michael locked down—no visitor COVID floor. I was carried in since I could not walk, was shaking like a leaf, and felt like vomiting, diarrhea and dying all at the same time.
I was lucky, I survived. I was surrounded 24 hours by an incredible supportive and reassuring staff feeding me pills and love. Half the staff, it seems, were first- or second-generation immigrants. Their cheerfulness and empathy was the best medicine for me. However, working with highly infectious patients, how do they do it? Day after day.
While being physically and emotionally stabilized by this staff, I heard several times “sorry for your wait; we are short staffed.”
The “short-staffed” comments brought back images in my COVID-19-infected mind of thousands of Republican Convention members waving “mass deportation” posters and Trump promising to get rid of millions of immigrants.
The healthcare industry, food, construction, agriculture and manufacturing industries, our ferries, need workers desperately, and the MAGA cult promotes mass deportation. How crazy is that?
Please, dear reader, spread the word: wear a mask. COVID can be a terrible experience. And, if you are a hospital patient, treat the hospital staff like saints— they deserve it; they represent the best in all of us.
Jim Behrend
Bainbridge
DNC inspiring
To the editor:
I was honored to be a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Prime-time TV captured the rebirth of hope in the Democratic Party and its newfound energy. Off camera, I witnessed four dizzying days of public meetings in McCormick Center, where I saw all factions of the party joyfully coming together with shared purpose – uplifting all Americans.
Labor wasn’t just pushing job safety, pay and pensions. It supports green energy and green jobs, teachers, public education (K-12, vocational, college and apprenticeships) and small businesses. The Black, Hispanic, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Native American, LGBTQIA+, Women, People with Disabilities, Youth, Rural, Military, Poverty, Interfaith and Senior caucuses celebrated their successes under the Biden-Harris Administration. Those constituencies are not competitors – they are allies united in mutual respect and shared hopes.
Not since John F. Kennedy has the generational torch been passed so deliberately. Youth showed up; youth culture was celebrated. Did you see Lil Jon with the Georgia delegation in the Roll Call? Boomers got treats, too. For me, it was Stevie Wonder.
This eruption of hope means nothing if Democrats lose the White House. Democrats are stoked to seize this historic opportunity to elect Kamala Harris the first woman president Nov. 6. Let’s finally be done with MAGA and its malevolent and criminal leader.
Ted Jones
Bainbridge
