Letters: Sept. 14, 2017

Bewildered

I was very much bewildered when, on Sept. 6, I attended the Regular Meeting of the Board of Commissioners of the Public Hospital District No. A-1 of Whitman County (Pullman Regional Hospital) regarding gender reassignment surgery.

It seemed obvious that the board went through the necessary process to appear as if they had debated and studied this issue, but really they only went through the process because it was required.

It appeared to me that collectively they already had their decision made before they started the process.

The process was just window dressing.

The public was not allowed to participate in the discussion at this meeting (there was a separate public comment meeting and process) but it didn't appear the board cared much about that.

To tell the truth, it was bewildering to me that any hospital would even consider doing gender reassignment surgery. Let me say right now that my heart breaks for anyone who would want a sex reassignment surgery. Just like my heart broke for the woman in North Carolina I read about that wanted to be blind. According to what I read, she persuaded a psychologist to put Drano into her eyes and blind her-because she believed she should have been born blind.

Would the hospital board also vote to "help" people who believed they should be blind destroy their eyes? Would they vote to chop off arms or feet for folks who believed God or nature or genes or circumstances were wrong and they should have been born without an arm or both feet? After attending the meeting I think they would ...

if the insurance or the taxpayer was willing to pay the bill.

Without any debate and little discussion, the Board voted unanimously to do gender reassignment surgeries.

Not a single Board member voted no. None of them objected.

It didn't appear that there was any moral struggle or dilemma to discuss at all.

If someone would pay to have it done-then they were happy to be the place to do it.

When I walked out of the meeting and got into my car, I noticed from my instrument panel that it was 7 p.m. and the outside temperature was still 90 degrees, but it felt to me like it was two minutes until midnight and I was chilled to the bone.

Travis Brock,

Colfax

Really?

Frank Watson in his recent article, "Racial Supremacy," said "Lee is a national hero.”

Really? Many Americans past and present would beg to differ, and rightly so.

Equating Lee with Dr. Martin Luther King, who would have been a slave if Lee's side had won the war? Come on, Watson.

Mark Olson,

Seattle