To the editor:

I see that Sen. Richard Hilderbrand, a Republican from Galena and chairman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, is pushing a resolution meant to pressure Gov. Laura Kelly into rescinding plans for including incarcerated adults in the second phase of vaccinations along with essential workers and those of us 65 or older.

According to Hilderbrand, who balks at wearing a mask during his Statehouse rounds, Kelly’s plan would favor violent criminals and sex offenders over their victims.

Really? That’s what he thinks this is about? Is he not aware that Kansas prisons are among the hottest of the state’s hotspots; that more than two-thirds of the state’s inmates and one-third of the state’s prison employees have tested COVID positive in the past 11 months; that when these workers go home they can’t help but put their family members at risk?

What’s going on here, I think, is that Kelly cares more about state employees, their families and the rest of us than does Hilderbrand.

With all this in mind, I’d like to propose a compromise: If Hilderbrand drops his Willie Horton sideshow, he and his constituents can have all the hydroxychloroquine they want. Seems fair.

Dave Ranney,

Lawrence