Re: 'The right to question policies' [Village News, Jones letter, 10/5/23]

Lindsay tries to make the case that she’s open minded and capable of making reasonable decisions – then demolishes her case, thusly. She says: “it made zero sense for me to take the [Covid-19] vaccine.”

Apparently she gave no weight to the recommendations of Dr. Fauci, a respected immunologist, and the CDC, and instead, went with then President Trump’s frequently (and falsely) repeated “it will go away.” To Lindsay: If you think you challenge everything, have you tried challenging your own logic?

Regarding Covid vaccines and excess mortality: there is little or no connection. There is definitely a connection between anti-vaxing and excess mortality. In Florida and Ohio, "the excess death rate among Republican voters was 43% higher than the excess death rate among Democratic voters after vaccine eligibility was opened” (NPR, KPBS 7/25/23). This could reasonably apply to all states.

Then she got to Part one of her real message. Blame the Dems for letting Big Pharma profit obscenely from the vaccine. Actually, the Republican Party is the one associated with corporations. When Republicans gain majority, the first thing they do is cut taxes for corporations and wealthy individuals.

The most recent example is Trump’s “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.” It threw a few crumbs to the middle and lower economic citizens, but 80% of actual cash went to the wealthy elite.

Further, regarding Democrats and Big Pharma: ”In July 2021, Attorney General Bonta [California Democrat] announced a $26 billion settlement, which was finalized in Spring 2022, with Johnson & Johnson, which manufactured and marketed opioids, and Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen, the nation’s three major pharmaceutical distributors. It was the second largest multi state agreement in U.S. history...” (Rob Bonta newsletter, 6/09/23) That’s the kind of thing Democrats do.

Then there’s Part Two. Republican dog-whistle time. Lindsay uses the term hyper sexualize, in one form or another, three times. The objective is to convince you that Democrats are trying to use public school books to indoctrinate and “groom” children as homosexual or prey for pedophiles.

People who have no science background are quite likely to buy into this lie. The fact is children as young as four know if they are different. A book is not going to change that either way.

I don’t have any school children, but if I did I would prefer an accredited teacher or librarian to choose their books, rather than a school board. As a teacher, Lindsey should know they've spent many hours studying child development and child psychology.

Conversely, I have no idea of who might be on a school board. But did you know California has the least literate population of any state? And that’s where school boards come from.

John H. Terrell