Vancouver resident Bob Runnells shares his thoughts on this week’s Gubernatorial debate featuring Gov. Jay Inslee and Loren Culp
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and do not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com
I watched the most important debate tonight: Culp vs. Inslee. I just don’t understand how Washington Governor Jay Inslee can say with a straight face that he didn’t know that he said he hadn’t heard about CHAZ/CHOP — when it’s on record he said so early on. (To refresh your memory, the autonomous zone finally ended after 24 days, two gun deaths and four other gun injuries).
And not acknowledging the involvement of McKinsey Group in the no-bid contract during the state-of-emergency (which explains the minutiae of the pumpkin patch and wedding rules).
And how he brushed off losing $650 million of unemployment funds to a “sophisticated’’ crime ring as only 2 percent of something. (His ESD opened the backdoor to speed through claims.) I definitely think he hasn’t earned the right to say he “understands the science behind math.” Whatever that means. Is he talking about the Pythagorean theorem?
Or maybe the way he must be tilting the page when he reads a rising curve of flattened cases — even with a tripling of tests. (@0:56:15 https://www.tvw.org/) If only we could see that Inslee is using the pandemic to appear as the hero. Note his little alms-for-the-poor move a day before the debate by raising the magic virus-resistant number of diners to six.
The pandemic has basically followed the viral infection curve (Gompertz) as all other respiratory disease outbreaks, only this one will have a longer finish since we’ve cut out so much of our personal interactions. (P.S. The mask mandate came in after the peak, and with nearly everyone masked up, cases are going up. So how effective are masks?)
And as we’ve seen with all emergencies, politicians take advantage of this parable: One of the neighbors found Nasreddin scattering crumbs all around his house. “Why are you doing that?” he asked. “I’m keeping the tigers away,” replied Nasreddin. “But there aren’t any tigers around here,” said the neighbor. “That’s right,” said Nasreddin. “You see how well it works?”
I only hope that enough voters see through the unnecessary pain he’s causing and vote for Loren Culp: as a way to embrace the future in the form of meaningful change back to what’s worked for our constitutional republic. Bless us all in the coming month.
Bob Runnells
Vancouver
