Letters to the editor on blood donations, Derek Schmidt, COVID and abortion
Donate blood
The American Red Cross is currently experiencing its worst blood shortage in more than a decade. The national shortage is so bad that some hospitals are postponing surgeries, including organ transplants.
The good news is this shortage is solvable. Only about 3% of age-eligible people donate blood yearly, so increasing the number of donors can have a big impact.
Donating blood doesn’t take much time. Go to redcrossblood.org and enter your ZIP code to find a donation drive near you and schedule an appointment.
Few gifts this holiday season are more needed or important.
Praise for Schmidt
Many Kansans owe thanks to Attorney General Derek Schmidt. Last week, he received a court order to block Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for any companies that receive federal contracts. This will save hundreds, perhaps thousands, of jobs in Wichita and many more across our state.
In fact, this is the third vaccine mandate Schmidt has blocked over the last few weeks. He also prevented President Biden from enforcing his mandate for health care providers, which made no consideration for rural hospitals and nursing homes that wouldn’t have survived if they had to fire people from their already short-staffed facilities. Perhaps the most egregious of the mandates that AG Schmidt blocked was the mandate for private employers, which would have put millions of Americans on the unemployment lines for refusing a vaccine.
Derek Schmidt has been on the front lines fighting Joe Biden every step of the way of this federal overreach. He’s shown no hesitation in defending Kansans and their livelihoods against this cruel administration making them choose between a job and a jab.
I look forward to the day when Derek Schmidt will be fighting for us as the Governor of Kansas.
Republicans and COVID
The upcoming 2022 and 2024 elections results for Kansas Republicans should reflect on their party’s recent history of decisions, actions or nonactions taken during the pandemic.
These include the party’s consistent failure to heed guidance from the scientific and medical communities by fighting efforts to actively promote vaccinations, social distancing and the use of masks, all of which have been proven to stop the spread of the virus.
They then passed legislation which placates and even rewards nonvaxxers by allowing them to invoke anti-inoculation objections in the name of religion, with little or no merit, thus preventing businesses and industries control over who occupies their workspaces.
They then also provided unemployment benefits for anyone fired for failure to comply with a company’s vaccination policies. As a result, all Kansans have been put into harm’s way.
None of these actions by the professional Republicans in Topeka are reflective of the opinions of the majority of Kansans, whether Democrats or Republicans, who have tired of the lemming attitude so commonly found in the State capitol.
Abortion and vaccines
How can one compare abortion to getting a COVID vaccine (Dec. 19 Letters to the Editor)? That’s crazy, and certainly not apples to apples. I understand granting an abortion for dire medical conditions, but too many disregarded the safeguards that prevent pregnancy and visit abortion clinics without any consideration for the unborn.
And how interesting that we are seeing folks that have been vaccinated, social distance and wear masks now test positive. Honestly, one has nothing to do with the other.