Feb. 18 Letters to the Editor | Opinion

I had been bounced around by nearly a dozen providers when I arrived there this morning and was told that they could do nothing for my very acute pain. …

I see now that I am not important enough for any of them to care about “getting to the bottom of” either the source or relief of my constant, debilitating pain. …

Don’t settle for being treated like a second-class citizen in your own country. We have fulfilled our end of the social contract with our hard work, dutiful payment of taxes and civic participation. If the state — or indeed that nation — isn’t coming through with their end, then is it not our duty to call them on it?

What is happening to the least of us will happen to our children and grandchildren if we do not speak out and stand up for our rights. It is a human right to be treated with dignity, compassion and respect, even when we can no longer “contribute to society” with our physical labor. …

It is time for each of us to be brave and tell our stories. …

For awhile now, we’ve been hearing about conflict between the city of Lewiston and Nez Perce County over the operation of the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport.

We’ve heard repeatedly about the loss of Horizon’s service and how the county doesn’t want to lose control to the city. But what we haven’t heard is what the city and county’s respective goals and plans for the airport are.

The conflict is a result of vastly different plans and goals for the airport.

These differences can mean very different outcomes for the airport and radically affect the people and communities of this region who depend upon it for individual and business travel as well as commerce and medical transportation.

It’s important to remember the airport services more than just Lewiston or even Nez Perce County. As a regional airport, it serves Pomeroy, Kooskia, Grangeville, Elk City and everywhere in between.

It’s time the city, county and even the airport board present their plans and goals to the public, and the people of this region be allowed to vote on which plan(s) are put into action and will best meet the needs of our communities — not the self-serving plans of a few individuals or groups.

I challenge the city of Lewiston, Nez Perce County and the airport board to share with us their plans and goals for the airport and the Lewiston Tribune to publish those plans in an unbiased fashion so we, the people, can govern our future.

We are told there is no crisis at our southern border. Recently 254 pounds of fentanyl and 395 pounds of methamphetamine were seized at a border crossing in Nogales, Ariz.

The fentanyl alone was enough to potentially kill more than 50 million people. Then, 100 pounds of fentanyl and 40 kilos of heroin were confiscated in New Jersey — enough lethal doses of fentanyl alone to kill the population of New Jersey and New York City combined.

Why highlight these seizures? Because border officials acknowledge they only catch a small percentage of the illicit drugs crossing our southern border. Our country is being flooded with deadly drugs that will probably kill hundreds of thousands of people.

Most people don’t realize the enormous toll these drugs take on society. An addict needs hundreds of dollars a day to support his habit and gets it by either selling to other addicts or by stealing. Until you witness the rage of someone on meth, you really don’t understand. A few weeks ago, two women were decapitated by someone on meth. Most of the violence we hear about daily is drug-related.

These drugs are a weapon of mass destruction that is devastating our society and 90 percent of it crosses our southern border. We should be declaring war on someone.

While politicians are engaged in their petty little partisan wars, millions of our citizens are being hurt. Thank you, President Donald Trump, for your determined effort to highlight and fix this horrible problem.