Readers’ views

Can we have more discussion, less shouting?

There is so much misunderstanding in the world today. If everyone understood the definitions of today’s key words, our conversations would work toward better understanding, compromises and some agreements.

“Pre-Symptomatic” means someone has the virus, is contagious, but at the time shows no signs of having COVID-19. “Asymptomatic” means one has the virus and shows no symptoms at all and may be able to spread the virus.

“Defunding the Police” means using some of the heavily-funded police budget currently used to buy weapons to catch and kill suspects of crime, to augment preventive programs. Funds would be used to increase the services that keep people away from crime — such as motivating kids to finish high school, explaining birth control, drug prevention, mental health services and preventive healthcare.

Maybe we could all talk to each other instead of shouting.

—Gretchen S. Lea,

Boyertown

A few questions for lockdown supporters

I have some questions in response to people who support continue lockdowns. Are people who hold such views OK with families of business owners suffering, going hungry, seeing their family businesses dry up? How many lives are they willing to give up due to deprivation, suicide and substance abuse caused by the lockdown they so adore?

How many lives in impoverished nations should be given up due to starvation caused by this lockdown, which by some estimates could be up to 100 million or more? Would lockdown supporters call being OK with 50 million dying from starvation a selfish motive? I surely would.

There’s more to this than wearing a mask and stepping away from others in order to save lives. Our economy provides a vital service to humanity the world over, as we’re about to find out with the above mentioned famine.

It’s easy to be cavalier when you’re dealing in emotions, like a child, and not facts, like an adult.

—Jerry Geleff, Exeter Township

Mainstream media has lost public’s trust with bias

I was a Democrat and relied on mainstream media for news until 2016, at which point I didn’t like the direction America was being taken. It really started with Hillary Clinton getting away with destroying evidence (her emails) and then being exonerated by FBI Director James Comey, who also turned out to be crooked.

If you so much as disagreed with President Barack Obama, you were branded as a racist, a xenophobe, a homophobe or a misogynist or told you had some other kind of incurable ailment. People who oppose Trump are applauded for it.

Consider the hell Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and his family were put through. Will Joe Biden receive the same treatment in the media? Don’t hold your breath.

Now we’re finding evidence that Comey’s FBI set up former national security adviser Michael Flynn, but there’s not much information about that in the mainstream media, either. It’s totally disgusting.

—Keith Folk, Gilbertsville