Readers Write: Coronavirus loneliness, the USPS, racism on campus

As a 94-year-old retired doctor, I want people to understand the toll the pandemic has taken on seniors. A report from the Kaiser Family Foundation in California reported that 53% of people with prolonged pandemic exposure are depressed. I would guess it's more like 99% for those of us in senior communities.

Prior to the pandemic, our senior community had an atmosphere of joyful living that was focused on bringing people together and keeping us active and connected. The highlight of my week was a guitar lesson when my teacher came and we played together for 45 minutes. We had lectures, games, concerts, art and craft classes, and travel talks from people who had traveled all over the world, some by residents living in Charter House, the community where my wife and I live.

Since the pandemic hit, we have been locked in our individual apartments, wearing face masks whenever we go into the hallways or elevators. Food, packages and library books are brought to our apartments. No friends or relatives are allowed into the building unless a family member here is actively dying.

The toll on seniors is great. For these last months all activities have been canceled. Those who care for seniors have been heroic, and the administration in Charter House has done everything they can to keep us safe, and for that we feel very lucky. But it is easy to forget society's elders, especially when we are locked away in our rooms.

To those people who do not want to be inconvenienced by masks or feel compelled to congregate in large groups, I want you to understand that this virus has upended our lives. There is no way to minimize the isolation and psychological fear we live with daily: Will we ever be able to enjoy visits from our children and grandchildren? Will we live to see our great-grandchildren born during the pandemic? Will we be too old and infirm to enjoy the post-pandemic life in Charter House? Statistics show that the majority of deaths are those who are elderly and over 80 in nursing and senior living communities. The term we have for our community is "God's Waiting Room," and as each day goes by, we live with the realization that death could take us at any time.

Just when you think President Donald Trump's notoriously bad handling of the COVID-19 pandemic can't get any worse, it does. While his touting off-label use of an approved anti-malarial was bad enough, now he and the MyPillow guy are pushing a snake oil cure that isn't just potentially ineffective, it's lethal. Oleander grew wild in the New Orleans neighborhood where I grew up, and I was taught at a very early age not to even touch the stuff, because it's that poisonous. It's only a matter of time before somebody dies from eating it, just like that couple in Arizona where the wife got sick and the husband died from ingesting fish tank cleaner because it said "chloroquine" on the label.

Yes, Virginia, you might still be able to mail a letter to Santa Claus because Americans complained to Congress. (Thank you, America.)

Recently, the Trump administration was willing "to take 671 mail-sorting machines, roughly 10 percent of its inventory, offline to cut costs, and had in recent days removed, relocated and replaced public mailboxes in a number of states, including Oregon, Pennsylvania, California, Ohio, Montana and Arizona," according to the Washington Post.

The Trump administration prioritized cost savings and operational efficiencies instead of serving Americans during this pandemic.

In response, Americans complained loudly.

Americans thought that it was more important that the U.S. Postal Service deliver: necessary medicine to veterans and the ill, our daily mail, ballots so that citizens can state their American values while safely protecting their community, and, later, holiday messages and letters to the North Pole from children who still believe in Santa.

It is a shame that Americans must continually remind the Trump administration of our American values.

Jennifer Brooks, in her column "Not rain nor political heat stops mail carriers" (Aug. 20), continues the important conversation about the security of voting by mail. For those who have never voted by mail, misleading statements by people like President Donald Trump and Senate candidate Jason Lewis are worrying. So maybe it's helpful to hear from someone like me, whose only means of voting while serving in the military was to vote by mail. For military folks, mail is entrusted to the USPS from, and also to, military postal units to get it into the hands of those who are deployed, on training exercises, etc.

Is it possible that mix-ups occur and lead to envelopes going to the wrong post office box, as Lewis points out? Yes. Is it possible that there are glitches, human and technical, that result in botched ballots that are not counted? Yes. Is it possible that there are some ballots that are counted and should not be? Yes. But none of those possibilities suppresses the right to vote, regardless of what Lewis says. After years of voting by mail in the military, I would be very disappointed if I found out that a mechanical glitch or human error resulted in my ballot not being counted, but it's possible that in the many elections in which I've voted, that might have happened. I don't know. But I did vote, freely, and the possibility of an error did not in any way suppress my right to vote. I voted for Republicans, Democrats and independents, and no one, especially not the president, nor someone who wishes to represent Minnesota, should use scare tactics based on misleading statements to stop anyone from exercising their right to vote.

Regarding "Students fed up with campus racism" (front page, Aug. 21): I was among the St. Olaf College alumni calling for President David Anderson's replacement because he has shown tolerance during times when our community needed leadership and substance. I graduated in May 2020, when, as one of the speakers during St. Olaf's virtual celebration for my senior class, I called for Oles to stand up against racism because COVID-19 had exacerbated many social issues. In my speech, I referenced St. Olaf alumnus the Rev. James Reeb, who was beaten and murdered in 1965 by white supremacists because he protested in Selma, because he was a white ally in the struggle for civil rights.

Having witnessed the 2017 student protests against individual and institutional racism, and its aftermath of St. Olaf creating task forces, trainings and surveys, one after another, I saw an institution delegitimizing student, faculty and staff complaints of racism happening on its campus, all under the leadership of Anderson.

I'm proud to call the Rev. James Reeb an Ole, but Anderson of the class of 1974, not so much. Soon, St. Olaf will have existed for 150 years. That's 150 years of white male presidents. I say, no more.