Nursing center residents like me are suffering. NC must change visitation restrictions.

Nursing centers

I am a resident of Village Care health and rehab in King. My husband comes to visit when he can, but always through a glass partition or on the phone. I haven’t had a visitor in the building for five months.

People on the outside are not doing what they need to do. As a result of careless gatherings, the virus has spread even more.

I understand what is going on, but others don’t. They wonder what happened to their families. Depriving people of contact with their loved ones is just as dangerous as a virus.

If CNAs and nurses get their temperatures taken before entering, so can my husband. One visitor is what we each need to help us go on.

You still go about your lives, but we are the forgotten. We are sad, depressed, lonely and trapped. This is not the quality of life we deserve.

Delores Somers, King

NC Republicans

Regarding “I’m a Black Republican and here’s the reason – the GOP is helping Blacks,” (Aug. 10 Opinion):

Op-ed writer Sonja Nichols seems unaware that the same Republicans she praises for Opportunity Scholarships, N.C. Promise, and criminal justice reform also passed unconstitutional gerrymandered voting districts and unconstitutional voter ID laws, both of which they designed to suppress the Black vote in North Carolina.

Eric Weil, Raleigh

Mail-in voting

Regarding “Mail-in voting may accidentally disenfranchise millions of voters,” (Aug. 9 Opinion):

In discussing how mail-in ballots may disenfranchise voters in the 2020 election Marc Thiessen says: “The Democrats’ solution to these problems is to relax the standards for mail-in ballots,...” No, the Democratic-controlled House approved a bill to fund the U.S. Postal Service and to provide states with funds to prepare for the widespread use of mail-in ballots during the pandemic.

The Republican senators and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell refused to act on the bill, thus denying the opportunity to avoid all the problems that occurred during the primaries. The Republicans will be responsible for the election fraud that President Trump has predicted.

Jim Garlich, Cary

Absentee ballots

Regarding “Wait on ballots,” (Aug. 9 Forum) which advocates delaying sending out absentee ballots. Just because a voter has received a ballot does not require him or her to return it quickly. Voters can take their time, research the candidates and ballot initiatives, listen to debates, or not, and then make considered choices, mark the ballot (check it carefully), and return it. There is no rush. An absentee voter might be better informed than the one who rushes out to vote during his lunch break on Election Day.

Gertrude Kappel, Raleigh

US Postal Service

The president’s new big donor postmaster has canceled overtime, ordered mail to be left at distribution centers, and cut back hours, in an apparent attempt to jeopardize voting by mail. The White House already has put our lives at risk by its inadequate, inept response to this pandemic. Now, they further threaten people who, like many of my patients, depend on the mail to receive their medications in a timely manner.

Dr. Mindy Oshrain, Raleigh

New Zealand

How impressive that New Zealand has surpassed 101 days without community spread of COVID-19.

Quick to act, New Zealand observed strict lockdown in April and was able to reopen in June as everyone did what they were supposed to do. And I’ll bet few felt their personal freedom was compromised.

Now, New Zealanders are free to shop, dine, bar hop, dance as closely as they’d like, and attend live sporting events. One would like to think that this story would have been about the United States, leading by example, but such is not the case.

Seems like there is a lesson to be learned here.

John Dowd, Raleigh

Reopening schools

Kathleen Parker writes: “an exhausted mother of two young children tells me she’s praying her kids can go back to school.” (Aug. 11 Opinion) If the mother is exhausted with only two, how might she think a teacher feels when she has 20-25 in her charge every day?

Ray Stephenson, Atlantic Beach

My new license

I served my country proudly in the U.S. Army at a time when the military was scorned. I thought those times had passed. The veteran indicia on my driver’s license was prominently visible and got me courtesies from TSA when traveling and discounts from merchants .

The license expired. The new one seems to have suffered the ravages of a “designer” who moved the indicia to a less-visible spot and scattered superfluous images over it. It’s almost completely obscured.

Can I have my old driver’s license back?

Laurence Marks, Raleigh

This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 1:20 PM.