Letters to the Editor - The Lakeville Journal - 1-6-22

The true meaning of all those numbers

“Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics.  I can assure you mine are greater.”

—Albert Einstein

It is seemingly a numbers game, an endless counting and displaying percentages as pictures of reality…cause for excitement or a prod for despair.  You may disagree with what I present and conclude, you may select and explain quite differently — I invite you to delve.

Oft-reported percentages include: 71% of Republicans don’t believe Biden is a legit U.S. president, 60% of Republicans are not vaccinated, 17% of independents and 17% of Democrats are not vaccinated. Fox is the highest rated cable news outlet, and their 9 p.m. prime-time host is often #1 in cable viewers (@ 2.9 million with a MSNBC host close behind — sometimes in the lead). Importantly 66.8% of U.S. citizens 18 and over voted in the 2020 presidential election with Maine reporting the highest turnout of 79.2% of its registered voters, Connecticut a touch above U.S. average with 71.1 % turnout, Oklahoma the lowest at 55% turnout.   In 2020, 158.4 million Americans voted, a significant 7% up over 2016 at 139 million voters. Biden won 7 million more votes in the Presidential election: 51.3% of the popular vote vs. Trump’s 46.8%.

How significant then are these numbers in portraying the U.S.?  How reflective of U.S. adult behavior/opinion? Pew and Gallup put Republicans at somewhere between 22% to 29% of U.S. registered voters, Democrats at about 29%, independents 40 to 45%. So 71% of 29% of registered voters (Republicans) don’t accept Biden as president translates to about 20% of the overall U.S. voter population.  The depicted opinion landscape looks a bit different when the entire population is the canvas vs. segmentation by political affiliation.

As for media reach/influence, Fox cable news has 2.9 million prime-time viewers, while in comparison Lester Holt is #1 on network nightly news at 8 million viewers daily, PBS News Hour is 2.7 million daily. This is not surprising when one considers that 65% of Americans get their news from network newscasts, 38% of adults from cable news. The top three cable news networks have a primetime viewership of about 5 million — maybe 2 or 3% of eligible voters.  Kevin Costner’s “Yellowstone” gets 7.5 million viewers an episode.

“Being the Ricardos”, a recent movie about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, jolted me — 60 million watched “I Love Lucy” while Fox struts its 2.9 million prime-time viewers.  That media has big impact isn’t debatable.  No question the Big Lie is Big, fueled by disinformation — it is rampaging the nation like the pandemic with a potentially equal injury to our democracy as COVID has to the nation’s health. Inaccurate and illegal tales being spread need to be abruptly confronted and shown as false. Congress must do its duty — disclose truth — with numbers and actions.

In the meantime, keep numbers in perspective. There are many differences across this nation, yet there is still much in common.

“It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies.” 

— Thomas Paine

Kathy Herald-Marlowe

Sharon

When enough is finally enough

Why is it great men like Jonas Salk can find a cure for polio and Louis Pasteur can discover antibiotics?

Now we have over paid chemists who work for selfish and greedy pharmaceutical companies who I believe can’t devise a compatible vaccine that works effectively.

We spend billions on putting men in space and allowing cell phone companies to store our information to scrutinize our way of life and our very existence.

Then there is the DNA that supposedly can tell you about ones’ self.

But, now, this COVID-19 and variances are  causing astronomical paralyzing paranoia and worldwide animosity feeding weak-minded Americans like Trump did.

Now, it’s a fact that Americans don’t trust our government with acts of mending dilemmas.

Enough is enough.

Michael Parmalee

North Canaan