Dems ask county be separate from 'region'

PULLMAN — For two weeks in February, members of the Whitman County Democrats worked on a letter to send to Governor Inslee requesting that Whitman County be separated from Region East if and when we met the metrics.

We wrote the letter in a data-driven way, speaking logically to the uniqueness of our county. We shared that letter with experts in the county, asking for feedback and making sure our data was correct.

We sent our letter to Gov. Inslee on March 1. You can see that letter on our website at whitman.wa-democrats.net/wp/.

After approval at a general meeting on Wednesday, we prepared everything needed to be sent in a press release Friday morning. As you all may know, Governor Inslee sent out a notice on Thursday to move us into Phase 3 and passing metrics would move to counties instead of regions.

We were hours away from sending our press release. Our timing was off, but our mission remains the same. Whitman County Democrats support our county hospitals, services, schools, and businesses because we know our residents will continue to mask up, social distance, and get vaccinations as needed so we can get the pandemic under control.

I want to publicly thank our passionate writers of the letter and the work they embraced in making sure the data was true and our message was clear. We would like to believe that our letter was heard in the process of making final decisions by the Governor’s office.

We may never know, but we do know that all citizens should be writing to their representatives in data-driven and logical forms or personal stories of how an issue has personally affected them.

We cannot rightly complain without letting our representatives know our true feelings. Future votes come from letter writers and our representatives know that. Please, write an email to a representative of your choice.

You might be surprised what happens when you get all your friends to write them as well. Citizenship is about making sure your voice is heard.

— Debbie McNeil is the chairperson for the Whitman County Democrats