You can’t legislate COVID
The editoral on Nov. 18 was political and silly (“GOP leaders just watch as state is overrun by coronavirus”). What can government really do? The medical community suggests, and it’s up to the person to decide. Follow what your mother told you when you were growing up: Stay home if you’re sick, wash your hands and stay home if you are scared of being exposed.
In a free society, you can’t legislate masks or mandate staying home or force people to have no gatherings. Who would police it or enforce it? We can’t stop murder, rape and robbery now, so how can we stop this?
This will play out, a vaccine will be developed, and life will move on.
I’m so sick of everything being the Republicans’ fault.
I have a mind to cancel my subscription as my little protest to the slanted, biased coverage you have everyday.
Richard Piagentini
Wales
Do the right thing, Mr. Speaker
When the mask mandate was put into place, Robin Vos fought Gov. Tony Evers every step of the way, claiming it was infringing on people’s rights.
What about the rights of the people who continue to get infected with COVID-19, or the doctors, nurses and EMTs who are tirelessly working to save lives. People are dying on Vos’ watch, yet he continues to play political games.
It is time for Vos to get back to work, help put a stop to this pandemic and fight for all his constituents. He has the power to make a difference. Now he needs to do the right thing.
Susie Bauer
Hartland
Vos, Fitzgerald ignore pandemic
As a life-long resident of Wisconsin, I am disappointed and outraged at the actions — or inaction — of our Legislature.
I have no party affiliation but have voted Republican for most of my adult
Inventing fraud
Steven Shea
Cudahy
I am deeply troubled by the assertion of Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Dean Knudson that all absentee ballots requested through the state’s online portal were invalid because of the way the system logs those requests.
Mine was among the absentee ballots requested using the online portal. I chose to vote absentee to keep myself and my family safe because of rising COVID-19 cases.
Knudson’s assertion — presented with no corroborating evidence — represents a threat to fair and free elections in the State of Wisconsin. What Knudson failed to acknowledge is there are processes in place, such as signature verification, to ensure the legitimacy of such ballots.
I believe as a member of the WEC, Knudson has an obligation to make factual statement — and refrain from making patently false claims intended to cast doubt on a democratic election. If he is unwilling or unable to do so, he should resign.
I’m not going to allow my legally cast ballot to be invalidated by a clearly partisan commissioner trying to invent fraud where none exists.
Edwin Thaves
Taxpayers deserve a refund
I would like to see state legislators give back their salaries, stipends and per diems to the people of Wisconsin for all of 2020. That goes for all legislators regardless of party affiliation.
The bulk of the responsibility for not providing Wisconsinites with necessary protective medical equipment, adequate personnel, business and agricultural economic assistance, accurate and truthful guidance for combating the pandemic, and the political cooperation the electorate expects to see during a
Republicans an embarrassment
I loudly applaud the Journal Sentinel’s incisive and honest appraisal of the Republicans in the state Legislature (“GOP leaders just watch as state is overrun by coronavirus,” Nov. 18).
It was a remarkable tale of the donothing Republicans in the face of outof-work and laid-off citizens who are not getting much-needed unemployment benefits.
And more than that, there is the GOP’s heartless and ignorant indifference to the unfortunate citizens who contract COVID-19 and are not getting the medical care they deserve.
The Republicans are an embarrassment to the State of Wisconsin. I know of no others who would sit on their hands for all these months collecting their paychecks for doing nothing. It would be nice if these adolescents would wake up to the real world.
It is time to act
West Allis
One of Wisconsin’s newest claims to fame is that we now have a Legislature that has not convened in more than seven months.
Our state has been devastated by an economic crisis, overwhelmed by a pandemic and torn apart by racial strife, yet none of this is important enough for our legislative leaders to call lawmakers into session to address these issues, and they have ignored the governor’s calls to action.
These legislators are paid a full-time salary for part-time work. In addition, some of them have received tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars from the federal pandemic stimulus bill for their small businesses yet don’t address the serious issues facing the people of Wisconsin.
Perhaps, these 132 legislators could donate seven months of their salary to a pandemic relief fund to help people. This would generate millions of dollars to help the Wisconsinites whose lives
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SOLOMON JUNEAU