Health and safety of US
citizens being undermined
Four important federal offices we should all care about are under attack.
The Food and Drug Administration, Department of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration make our lives safer. Clumsy, ham-handed efforts to stop them from doing their jobs are in no one’s best interest.
Protecting people at work is not “woke,” it’s a responsible thing for a government to do for its people. OSHA has been doing just that. It was created in 1971, and was signed into law by Richard Nixon, not exactly a bleeding heart liberal.
In the same way, protecting Americans from toxic chemicals in the environment is an important job for government. That’s what EPA does. It was created in 1970, when people had had enough of widespread air and water pollution. It was signed into law by, you guessed it, Richard Nixon. Not because he was a radical, but because ensuring a safer, healthier environment is the right thing to do.
Protecting us from harmful bacteria or cancer-causing chemicals in our food supply is also a sensible role for government. USDA and FDA aren’t perfect, but they’ve done a lot to make our food supply safer.
The current administration has attempted to fire 6,000 staffers at the Department of Agriculture, recently cut 3,500 workers at the FDA, is making moves to gut the EPA’s ability to regulate dangerous environmental exposures, and has ordered closure of multiple OSHA offices. This is bad news for you, for me, and for our children.
A safe place to work, food we can eat without getting sick, and freedom from toxic chemical exposures should be a right for all Americans. By gutting the agencies that help make these things possible, the current administration, and the government, is marching backward.
Richard Leman
Honokaa
Funding needed to
support public libraries
I am writing to you to plead for federal funding to be used to support Hawaii’s public libraries.
In addition to providing free books, movies and music for their communities to borrow and enjoy, they create safe places where anyone can access the internet, offer important paperwork needed to complete official business, participate in classes to learn new skills, communicate with fellow citizens to help support and improve their community, provide an accurate archive of important information for research, and even help people apply for jobs.
A public library is more than just a place that offers amazing things to read and listen to. It is an important part of a community that serves many purposes and improves the lives of so many people.
Losing even one of these essential places is like removing the heart from a living person: Every function just stops.
Please dedicate real effort to ensuring that we don’t lose these essential places in our communities.
Erica Wesselman
Captain Cook
