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Letters: Measure T is working; Voting in age of disinformation (Opinion)

Measure T is bringing back our neighborhoods which should all be Firewise certified

Since the passage of Measure T, our neighborhoods are starting to feel like places where people want to live and protect and raise their families. In another year, vacation rentals will be fully phased out and the term “residential neighborhood” will once again become synonymous with the word “community,” and not a place where investors buy houses to operate as motels. 

Rebuilding our neighborhoods, separate from tourists that have invaded our sense of residential compatibility, will take time of course. But, toward that end, a dedicated group of Al Tahoe volunteers, with the support of our South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue personnel (thank you Chief Clive Savacool, Sallie Ross, Dan Brown, Jay Manning, and Karl Koeppen to name a few) have been working on all aspects of getting Al Tahoe certified as a Firewise USA district. 



The threat of a wildfire in South Lake Tahoe is an ever present danger, and working together as a unified community will be required to face this threat. While leading the way for over a year now, our hope in Al Tahoe is that the remaining districts within the city will get on board with this program, since you are “only as safe as your next door neighbor.”  

Dianne Rees, Al Tahoe Firewise team leader 



Voting in the age of disinformation

I opened my mailbox to find another couple of flyers portraying a lawless America in which Brynne Kennedy supposedly supports defunding the police. 

Because I have been working on her campaign since June, I know this rhetoric to be completely false. While leftist groups are being blamed for the violence around the country, an analysis from a centrist think tank revealed that White supremacists are behind the majority of US domestic terror attacks in 2020, that was published recently by The Guardian. 

Last week, I listened to the presidential debate. I was struck by the lies regarding coronavirus that were being presented by Trump from the death toll projections of over two million to his statement that “coronavirus is ‘going away.’” Trump continued to live up to his pants on fire ranting when he asserted that Biden’s proposed health care system would eliminate 180 million individual’s plans.

Trump also misrepresented facts regarding the H1N1 virus, claimed he had prepaid millions in taxes, and bragged about his health care plan for which details have never been released. Trump’s administration has conducted a dangerous disinformation campaign regarding voter fraud as analyzed by the following study, Mail-in Voter Fraud: Anatomy of a Disinformation Campaign. 

The attorney general, William Barr, has also added baseless claims to undermine the confidence of this election. The alternative reality provided by certain news agencies and social media only deepens the divide in our country. Because of the number of absentee ballots that will need to be counted in COVID times, we will most likely have to wait past election night for a clear victor to be determined. More than any other election, we need to fact check, vote early, track our ballot and be patient for the results.

Colleen Bye, South Lake Tahoe

Imagine a world without nurses; They hold the system together

In response to a letter a few weeks back. I’m a retired nurse who worked at a hospital in Tahoe. I not only support nurses here, but nurses in general who are the ones who hold the medical system together. 

Think about what it would look like if you removed all the nurses? Who would care for the patients 24/7? Who would do all the basics: medicating, cleaning, toileting, supporting patients and their families? 

Nurses are always there, dedicated to care for people. Management is always there making empty promises to placate and keep nurses quiet, keeping them sitting in a place of fear. Saying nurses are “heroes” is a way to boost themselves, while blankly staring past the needs of nurses. 

There wasn’t a union when I was working, so the hospital could shake nurses around like rag dolls and when they fell apart, instead of helping the nurses to find their strength again, nurses were tossed aside and replaced.

Whenever there was any kind of issue, management didn’t look inward to knowledge strengths within their own system, but would rather hire outsiders and pay megabucks. This did not happen once or twice, but many times. All that money could have instead been redirected to improve not only the toxic environment, but also assist all staff within the hospital.

I went to a course about bullying in nursing. I was willing to assist to make the hospital a stronger, safer and happier place to work. I presented my proposal and shortly after I was let go. I was devastated.

Patricia Okacza, South Lake Tahoe


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