March 16, 2022, R-C Letters to the Editor

Lots of ways to help someone with cancer

Editor:

Do you have a friend going through active treatment for cancer and you don’t know how to help or what to do because you are the type of person that doesn’t “do” hospitals?  There are plenty of little things that can be helpful, as well and make a difference for someone going through treatment beyond the “can I drive you to your appointments?”  

Do you cook?  Make a few simple dishes of ingredients your friend likes and can currently eat.  Freeze into single servings to make it easy.   Remember, what sounds good one day does not sound good the next, but might next week if your friend is undergoing chemo.  Here is one I recommend:  www.cookforyourlife.org/recipes/tarragon-lemon-chicken-soup-with-orzo  

Do you knit or sew?  Active cancer treatment can increase the sensitivity to cold; make your friend a hat, scarf, or throw blanket.  Check online for best yarns and fabrics to use, my recommendation is silk, cotton, and other soft fibers.  

Cooking, knitting, or sewing not one of your superpowers?  Check in and see if the dog needs to be walked (if they have one).  Offer to go to the grocery store for them.  Create a music play list for listening to during chemotherapy infusions.  Send a text letting them know you are thinking about them, especially the day of chemo.  Drop a card in the mail that you found and made you think of them.  

Going through cancer treatment is isolating on a good day and now we have the pandemic increasing the isolation.  Be creative and know your support is appreciated.  With even the smallest of gestures, you can make a difference for someone going through cancer treatment and brighten their day.

Colleen Reid

Gardnerville

Onerous background checks 

Editor:

I have no issue with fingerprinting, or a background check every year. It makes sense to consolidate across all volunteer situations    Although has anyone calculated the financial impact to Douglas County?

My concern is verbiage within the documents we are required to sign through NeoGov, specifically the two paragraphs below?  Would you sign this?   

Verbiage from NeoGov :

I hereby release you, as the custodian of such records, and any school, college, university, law enforcement agency, other educational institution, credit bureau, lending institution, consumer reporting agency or retail business establishment or other entity, including its officers, employees or related personnel, both individually and collectively, from any and all liability for damages of whatever kind which may at any time result to me, my heirs, family or associates because of compliance or any attempt to comply with this authorization and release. 

I hereby acknowledge the information obtained during this background investigation is confidential and will not be released to me, the applicant.  I hereby waive, without any reservation, any right I may have now or in the future to examine, review, or otherwise discover the contents of this background investigation and all related documents  

First concern:   Why would our credit and financial records need to be reviewed?  How does that impact our volunteering?  How many people with nothing give everything?  We all work hard to protect our identities.  The less people who have access, the better. 

Second concern:   We are living in crazy times where people make false accusations, or issue erroneous opinions. I would want the ability to know what was said and the opportunity to rebut or rectify it.  Look at your article for example.  It presents volunteers as a combative group when all we want is to explain our concerns and hopefully have the verbiage changed.  We needed to see this opinion and respond with the facts to be understood. 

If this situation cannot be corrected, Douglas County organizations will lose many volunteers and incur additional expense hiring employees to handle the work volunteers do. Volunteers work hard to serve our community. We need to be protected, too. 

Dianne Ford

Minden

Biden’s the worst

Editor:

Elizabeth Mancl’s letter on March 2 mentioned a litany of items Biden has accomplished during his brief tenure in office, including your contention that he is not too old. After reading the glowing list, I have a question: Are you serious?

The points you conveniently left off the list, include the following:

Decisions made by Biden in an effort to erase the accomplishments of his predecessor, without any thought to the consequences, including:

• Shutting down the “Keystone” pipeline and most other necessary oil production in the U.S., forcing us to rely on Russian import oil, once again. Have you been to a gas station lately, and noticed the price of a gallon of gas?

• Border Wall. Millions of dollars were approved by the prior administration and Congress and allocated for the materials to complete it. Biden subsequently stopped construction, leaving our Southern border vulnerable to illegal crossings and a massive security threat. His actions have been directly responsible for the current border crisis.   

•  Covid 19. What you failed to mention was that more people have died on Biden’s watch, than on the previous President’s, due to Biden’s reliance on Fauchi’s bad and erratic decisions, among others.

• The Economy”.  Biden’s tax and spend economy, has seen inflation rise to the highest level in 40 years, and has imposed a huge financial burden on the lower

and middle-class citizens. Gas prices alone are poised to set record high prices.

• Foreign Policy   You must have been too busy to notice when our fearless President decided to cut and run from Afghanistan, leaving our citizens, our troops and hundreds of millions of dollars in military equipment, behind.  His cowardly, thoughtless decision has turned the United States into a worldwide embarrassment and a laughing stock that no country believes anymore.

• Race Issues. Biden has continued to expand the racial divide, by deciding to only consider a Black female judge for the Supreme Court, thereby ensuring the best candidate, who very likely could have been a Black female. would be appointed.

• You were impressed by Joe’s ability to stand for two hours and answer questions from the press. That’s his job, but you seem to consider it a stellar achievement.

Have you given any thought as to why Putin decided to invade the Ukraine at this moment in time?  It is because he considers Biden (and his ilk) to be feckless, clueless, and absolutely no threat to Russia.    

My advice to is to stop getting your news from CNN, and the major networks, who provide 24/7 misleading or omitted reports and start taking a serious look at your old President” His thoughtless decisions (if they are truly his) are having a profoundly negative effects on our national security, and our daily lives. 

Loyalty to our country when it is in trouble, should always take precedence over Party loyalty, especially when it is destroying our way of life, and putting our once great country in harm’s way.

D.A. Darrough

Minden