Letters: New approach needed for avian influenza; SAVE Act would make voting harder for all
New approach needed for avian influenza
It is time to stop the mass depopulation of poultry as a mitigation effort to control avian influenza and move to a management strategy. Beyond the massive loss of life, the mass euthanasia of millions of poultry has not controlled outbreaks. The borderline inhumane methods of mass depopulation should outrage the public which must demand that we move from an ineffective and inefficient strategy to a strategy of management and vaccination. Biosecurity practices work to control outbreaks; however, lapses in biosecurity continue to occur resulting in devastating outbreaks. Biosecurity with other management strategies need to occur to stabilize the poultry industry and drive costs back down while saving the lives of millions of birds.
SAVE Act would make voting harder for all
Under U.S. law, it’s illegal for non-citizens to register and vote in federal or state elections. States have processes to ensure only eligible voters cast ballots. However, Congress will vote on a bill requiring every single American citizen to show citizenship documentation (passports, original birth certificates) in person at a government office to register, or update their registration.
You may be like millions of eligible voters who don’t have the documentation required by the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.
We have about 120,000 citizens of voting age in Centre County; all would likely be impacted by this law sometime. Military members would have to present documents to re-register every time they move, as would you, every time you change addresses. Married women who have changed their last name would need updated documents.
The SAVE Act (H.B. 22) would end motor-voter registration, voter registration drives and online voter registration.
Similar laws passed in Arizona, Alabama, Kansas and Georgia. Requiring documentary proof of citizenship was struck down there because it prevented eligible voters from registering.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, 84 Republicans (including Centre County’s G.T. Thompson) have co-sponsored H.B. 22. No Democrats have, making this a partisan bill.
To protect our right to vote, please call Rep. Thompson today, 202-225-5121, and ask him to vote ni on the SAVE Act.
Embarrassing Oval Office meeting
It was extremely embarrassing to see President Trump and VP Vance trying to threaten a foreign leader on national television while in the Oval Office of The White House. You must respect President Zelensky for standing strong. It was evident that Zelensky has a clear understanding of the threat from Putin, while Trump believes that Putin is someone who can be trusted.
It was equally embarrassing to see Vance state that Zelensky should be thanking Trump for the working to create a cease-fire in the war. It seems apparent that Trump caved to all of Putin’s demands and was looking for Zelensky to cave to Trump’s demands. President Zelensky, however, acknowledges the truth about Putin and needed stronger guarantees from the United States before caving to Trump’s demands. I sure wish that our representatives in Congress had the same strength and courage as Zelensky to stand up for what is right.
Rather than trying to collect “protection money” from a country being invaded by a much larger country run by a dictator with expansionary goals, we should be doing whatever we can to support Ukraine protect democracy.
The chilling truth
Leave it to a Canadian to perfectly sum up what’s happening here in the US.
This is what Andrew Coyne, columnist from the Toronto Globe and Mail, wrote about Trump.
“Nothing mattered, in the end. Not the probable dementia, the unfathomable ignorance, the emotional incontinence; not, certainly, the shambling, hate-filled campaign, or the ludicrously unworkable anti-policies. The candidate out on bail in four jurisdictions, the convicted fraud artist, the adjudicated rapist and serial sexual predator, the habitual bankrupt, the stooge of Vladimir Putin, the man who tried to overturn the last election and all of his creepy retinue of crooks, ideologues and lunatics: Americans took a long look at all this and said, yes please. “
“There is no sense in understating the depth of the disaster. This is a crisis like no other in our lifetimes. The government of the United States has been delivered into the hands of a gangster, whose sole purpose in running, besides staying out of jail, is to seek revenge on his enemies.”
“The damage Donald Trump and his nihilist cronies can do — to America, but also to its democratic allies, and to the peace and security of the world — is incalculable.”
Coyne concludes by saying: “All my life I have been an admirer of the United States and its people. But I am frightened of it now.”
Andrew Coyne speaks the chilling truth. Too bad we don’t have more American writers, politicians, and everyday citizens brave enough to do the same.