Readers views: Opening up the state + smoking at the casinos

Stop the smoking

I live on the Coast, am retired with my also-retired educator wife and see the casinos will be opening next week. We love to frequent them, but cannot stand the incessant lethal smoke.

With all the concerns of a clean, healthy environment for all involved, now is the time to make all of them non-smoking and rid the air of all its carcinogens. With 80 to 90% of the country now non-smokers, it only makes sense. Science also tells us that second-hand smoke for workers forced to breathe in someone else’s smoke can be fatal. I am a non-smoker and have COPD because of second-hand smoke I was exposed to for years.

The argument that non-smoking would be deleterious to the industry is a non-issue as our country’s biggest party town, New Orleans, went no-smoking in 2018 and they did it also to all bars and saloons. Mississippi needs to do the same--right now--to ensure the physical health of all and the economic health of all the jobs casinos and bars provide.

Joey Cain

Gulfport

Open things up

This is an open letter to Gov. Tate Reeves.

Open up the state.

The original goal of “lockdown” or “safe at home” was to flatten the curve and not overwhelm the hospital system. That goal has been achieved. Now I ask, why are we locked down? Hospital systems have not been overwhelmed, the curve has flattened and we are still locked down.

Enough is enough.

You, governor, have played into the hands of the Democratic elites. These people propagandized “proven false” models to deprive ‘”we the people” of our rights and freedoms, all in the name of flattening the curve. As you can see, very few of the restrictions you have imposed are helpful. If you wish to protect the most vulnerable, do so. But open everything else up.

Let we the people use our personal responsibility. To do anything less is to deny us our God-given rights, our rights as citizens.

Jon B. Rivera

Ocean Springs

Stimulus checks

Given the unparalleled scope of the financial and health disaster ravaging millions of Americans as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government chose to quickly allocate a financial stimulus, indiscriminately, to Americans falling within designated income parameters in the $1.8 trillion Cares Act.

For millions of American families, justifiably terrified and floundering during this pandemic, it is gratefully received as a temporary, fragile lifeline of assistance. And every dollar cushioning that freefall is well spent. But, there are those of us for whom $1,200 is a much appreciated windfall.

So, to fulfill the intent of the government and redirect this money to the truly deserving, I’ve donated this unsolicited gift to the Hancock County Food Pantry, where its expenditure will benefit a large number of families, who have been struck low by circumstances well beyond their control.

This decision is expressed in an open letter to encourage others to donate their government check to a philanthropy, if the money doesn’t benefit a personal COVID-19 induced need. Then, many Americans, in desperate straits, could be served from each check; the purpose, after all, of the federal government’s “bailout.”

Also, the federal government has relegated $1.2 billion dollars to Mississippi solely to address the suffering from COVID-19 deprivations. I urge Gov. Tate Reeves and the state Legislature to use salaried employees to distribute this largesse rather than deplete it with fees to private entities to manage it.

P. Chris Christofferson

Waveland

Protect the horses

I write today about the barbaric practice of horse soring, the intentional infliction of pain to the legs and hooves of Tennessee walking horses and related breeds to force them to perform an exaggerated gait, AKA the “Big Lick,” that wins horse show ribbons.

This abuse began in the 1950s and continues today despite passage of the Horse Protection Act in 1970, thanks to some federal legislators who have enabled decades of defiance by a belligerent walking horse industry that has helped fund their political campaigns and lobbied them to keep the law from being strictly enforced.

Fortunately there is pending federal legislation that would amend the law – the Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act, S. 1007/H.R. 693. By eliminating a failed system of industry self-policing, banning the use of soring devices and strengthening penalties, PAST is the remedy to bring this horror to an end. The House passed the bill by an overwhelming bipartisan majority last summer.

Despite overwhelming support from thousands of walking horse owners and millions of animal lovers opposed to this cruelty, my U.S. senator, Cindy Hyde-Smith, has chosen to aid the violators by supporting opposing legislation – a sham bill, S. 1455 that protects the abusers but does nothing to protect the horses.

It’s long overdue to protect horses from further suffering. As Senator Hyde-Smith’s constituent, I ask that she foster a humane walking horse industry by cosponsoring and securing passage of the PAST Act and urging fellow legislators to do the same.

Erica Hoban

Gulfport