Bill Budd, Port Orchard

Kitsap Sun April 16, 2020

We are all in this together. As the world get functionally smaller, we find it hard to disentangle when asked to. Our economies are tied together with supply chains stretching around the globe. It seems America First is a lesser America.

We grow dizzy when our president substitutes spin for truth. We have to praise our president to get him to cooperate (don’t call those governors) or for some to keep their federal jobs, demanding loyalty over competence. He likes temps leading our government departments.

We cannot even provide our health care workers with respirators and surgical masks. We should be heading up the world’s response to COVID-19 based on our nation’s collective knowledge, our technological and economic resources, and our emergency management plans and preparation. Instead, we lead the world in COVID-19 cases.

I am upset that we have to spend $2 trillion dollars to bail out our economy because we were not able to respond with accurate, reliable testing and contact tracing and that we did not have a world class planned response when those failed. I am upset that we have a president who says he is not responsible. So instead, in one day, we are spending more than we spent on all NIH health research on all diseases over the last 80 years.

I am sorry for all the lives that have been and will be lost. I am sorry that America can’t do more to protect humanity.

Bill Budd, Port Orchard