Letter: Editorial: We must not use students as leverage in public policy

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RE: Editorial: We must not use students as leverage in public policy

I fully agree with this week’s editorial: “We must not use students as leverage in public policy.” But why stop with students?

Since we first heard about COVID-19, we have heard officials in our government and personalities on Fox News tell us multiple times the virus is a hoax, is nothing to worry about, will go away and is China’s fault. Yet, here we are with surging infection rates at the precise time of year they said it would disappear in the heat.

On July 4, Trump said 99 percent of coronavirus cases are “harmless.” Since the mortality rate is above 4 percent for those infected, I suppose dying is “harmless.”

The United States has 4 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the infections. How can this be?

And to learn billionaire-backed businesses and churches with close ties to the president received millions of dollars in PPP loans. It’s difficult to understand when the poor and hungry and medical workers find what they need so hard to come by.

Yes, I am emotional. My 78-year-old wife of 56 years has been a resident of a local nursing home for 10 months. Two nights ago, the nursing home called to tell me she tested positive for coronavirus and was being moved immediately to a quarantine room. I was in some of the worst combat of the Vietnam War, but it was nothing compared to this.

Millions of old people—even those without the virus—are suffering and even dying for what certainly looks like someone else’s political and financial gain.

Carl Hess
Ozark, Alabama

 


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Carl, you have written to me many times. You have shared about your time in Vietnam and your angst about the current president. You also have shared your love for your wife. Cutting through all that surrounds and troubles us in our world right now, I grieve with you and pray earnestly for a good outcome for her.


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