Open Letter: Ketchikan Borough Assembly, Give us our fields back.By Shari and Thomas Montgomery
May 19, 2021
The recent decision to shut down Ketchikan’s field facilities needs to be reversed. People have suffered enough loss over the past year. This virus has taken two people from our community, while the government has taken our schools and performing arts, our jobs and livelihoods, our sports and graduations, our weddings and funerals, our vacations and holidays, our mental health and sanity, and 14 months of our irreplaceable time. Federal, state, and local policies surrounding this pandemic have long surpassed the "two weeks to flatten the curve" plan. Our hospital has seen very few severe cases and our local COVID Unit has never been overwhelmed. With a national death rate of 1% and a local death rate of less than half of a percent, we need to take a serious step back and look at the real damage we are doing to our community. In December, President Biden said, "Just 100 days to mask, not forever, 100 days." yet, earlier this month he extended his federal mask mandate until September 13th. That is another 125 days after what he promised us. How long is this going to last? How long are we going to live in fear of this survivable virus? Vaccines have been available for quite some time now to all our residents over 16 years of age. 89% of our seniors and 58% of residents 16 and older have been vaccinated. With the recent emergency approval of a 12+ vaccine, Ketchikan will be able to vaccinate even more of our population. There are people who choose not to be vaccinated, just like there are people who do not get flu shots every year. Humans take risks every day. Over the last couple millenniums, we have figured out how to stay alive pretty dang well. It is time we take back our personal responsibility of living and stop letting the government tell us what to do, when and where we can do it, and who we can do it with. Our smiles have been hidden and our hugs have been forbidden for too long. This virus is not going anywhere, but we as a community can. Vaccines will protect our vulnerable, common sense will protect the rest. Ketchikan Softball Association uses the Weiss fields that you have recently shut down. We played a full season last summer with zero covid cases linked to our adult softball games. Players know the risks of participating in organized sports during this pandemic. For most of us, the rewards far outweigh those risks. For some of us, softball is the only chance we get to have fun and feel normal again. We are all responsible and respectful towards each other and deserve the right to choose if we want to play or not. We are all healthy adults and closing our fields is not protecting us; you are hurting us. You are taking away an essential contribution to our mental and physical health. It is safer for us to play softball on a big open field than spend our weekends socializing in an enclosed space such as a bar or restaurant. We need human interaction, we need exercise, we need our fields. I know this past year has been difficult to navigate with so many unprecedented events. Ketchikan is a very resilient community, and our citizens are some of the best. We have made it this far, now it is time for you to trust the people you work for and do the right thing. We can take care of ourselves now. You have given us vaccines and free testing sites. You provided rules, recommendations, and safety measures when we did not know how to handle this virus at first. You dispersed funds to those in need and provided resources for our unmet obligations. I thank you for that. Thank you for taking care of our community when we did not know what to expect. It has been over a year now, and it is time we get back to normal. Let the people of Ketchikan take care of their own like they have been for over a century. We all signed the waivers assuming our own risks, releasing KGB of any liability. We all pay the sales tax that helps fund the facilities. Give us our fields back. Give us our summer back. Give us our lives back. Let us play ball. Sincerely, Shari and Thomas Montgomery
About: Editor's Note:
Received May 12, 2021 - Published May 19, 2021 Related Viewpoint:
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