Rheumatology care

To the editor:

Living with a rheumatic disease has taught me how important and challenging access to care really is. From long wait times to long drives, getting the care I need can feel like a full-time job.

For patients with any chronic condition, regular visits and timely treatment aren’t optional – they’re what keep us functioning, working, and able to enjoy our lives. But right now, too many Washingtonians are waiting months for appointments or traveling hours to find a specialist. Unfortunately, I have friends who are struggling with the same challenges and have had to give up activities they love simply because their disease went unchecked for too long.

This shouldn’t be the reality in a state that prides itself on innovation and healthcare leadership.

It’s time for our lawmakers to invest in programs that bring more rheumatologists to underserved areas, expand telehealth options, and ensure doctors are supported so they can keep their doors open. People with chronic diseases are asking for help; I hope our leaders are listening.

Laura Genoves

Bainbridge Island

Will BI stand up for what’s right?

To the editor:

I write from Scotland, though I feel the privilege through family and life-long friends of a place in our community. I graduated in 1992, and our ceremony was different in that a classmate of ours and his grandmother walked together down the aisle. She was an islander, but interred at the time she would have graduated. Our local history tells of resistance, courage, friendship, and the power of local press. It also tells of fear, inaction, acquiescence, complicity, and racism.

Now we have ICE. We have fear, racism, violence, killing, and apparently unchecked federal power.

I write with three questions. First: Will this newspaper follow the light of its history and speak up now, and continue to speak up to protect the rights and lives of everyone? Second: Will COBI speak up and take a stand condemning the violence we see nationally, continue that condemnation for as long as is required, protecting everyone in this community? Third: Will BIPD commit to condemning the violence of ICE actions and commit in specific detail to a planned response to the day or night ICE might come pounding?

Peter Kushner

Bainbridge Island