Mercury panic shows we’re a nation of wimps

Sometimes the government overreaction to a situation borders on the ridiculous. Such is the case in the recent “mercury trauma” at Walter Johnson Junior High School. Are you kidding me? Kids held over night? Classes canceled for three days? Testing and decontaminating all the backpacks and accessories? This is nuts.

I am surprised nobody was hurt in the total chaos.

I understand that mercury is dangerous. We are constantly exposed to it, however, thanks to coal power plants, gold and metal processing and volcanic eruptions. It’s also in the food supply — mainly seafood — in some dental fillings and, yes, even in some of our vaccines.

Where is the intelligence of our millennial parents? There appeared to be an inordinate amount of total uninformed panic. This appears to be the norm in today’s world. The Review-Journal and other media were complicit in becoming part of the problem and not part of the solution.

I am 77 years old. When I was a kid, we played with mercury-like marbles. We put dimes in it so they would be nice and shiny. I’m not saying it was right, but that is what we did.

In today’s world, so many people are fearful of everything. We are a wimp society. I frequently see people giving their shopping carts a complete wash-down with Purell to sanitize them at grocery stores. How silly and paranoid can we be?

In the days of yore we developed antibodies to prevent illness. I recently had a young woman sneeze on me accidentally and you would have thought she had committed a mortal sin. I said, “Don’t worry, I’m old. I have antibodies, relax.”

Let’s lighten up the panic mode.

Larry McGrorty

Henderson

Senior aggravation

Once again, the Democrats have snubbed every senior citizen in this country. We have not seen a substantial raise in eight years to the Social Security checks so many of us rely on to live.

It seems that both Republicans and Democrats have forgotten us. Perhaps if some of us would remind them that we still are allowed to vote, they would see things differently.

If the United States can send our worst enemy $1.7 billion, it can certainly afford to pay heed to the needs of seniors.

Douglas Murphy

Las Vegas

Do no harm

Regarding Paul Harasim’s recent column on Dr. James Gabroy’s handwriting complaint before the state Board of Medical Examiners:

We are 50-year residents of Nevada. Dr. Gabroy is the fifth primary care physician we have had in that time. All have been competent doctors. None had perfect handwriting.

With the generally acknowledged shortage of general practitioners in Nevada, we are concerned that the board’s pending actions could deprive our community of one of its outstanding and compassionate physicians. He is the kind of doctor we imagined Dr. Welby would be like in real life.

To punish Dr. Gabroy over sloppy penmanship is out of line. In today’s age of advanced technology, surely there is a solution to this “problem” short of revoking his license.

The Hippocratic oath invokes “first do no harm.” The board’s pending action seems to violate that oath for all of his patients and our community.

Bob Amblad

Jeri Amblad

Henderson