Pandemic mask information and failed management

Two informed readers from Kansas wrote these commentaries

To the editor of the Leavenworth Times a Kansas newspaper:

I listen, read and watch reports in reference to the virus. Persons argue that it is their right to come and go as they please. They are in their own world.

A lot of these people declare it is their personal right. Have they fought, got wounded or have a loved one die for them? If they have, then go ahead make your day yet remember you could be a Typhoid Mary to someone or a group of people.

This attitude reminds me of a state governor some time ago who condemned gay people over and over again. Later in that year one of his children declared that they were gay. It was not a day later that he changed his attitude to gay people and vocalized support for them.

I believe some of these righteous people will change their attitude when someone they love comes down with the virus due to someone’s selfish attitude. Words like “sorry” will not mean anything because they chose themselves over the people in their family, neighborhood and country.

The government has lacked the leadership to get this problem under control. The quick answer to recovering both medically and economically is testing.

We can develop a reliable, free test. Then we can open businesses and get the economy to slowly return to the new normal. We waited too long and had a shotgun approach to the problem. A leader who is worth their salt would rely on medical doctors for the procedures to get us back to the new normal.

We can develop a vaccine but not overnight. It is a long procedure to ensure its safety. The Salk vaccine took years. Beginning in 1948, it took until 1957 to get it safely out in the public. Then later, researcher Albert Sabin developed an oral vaccine. We could cut that time in half because of the knowledge base and equipment we have.

Are there any quick answers? No, but if you follow the procedures set forth by the CDC – social distancing, washing your hands – until a reliable vaccine is developed, we can suffer together and conquer this dreaded disease. From Roger Harrison in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Why I wear a mask - opinion letter published in The Wichita Eagle, a Kansas newspaper

WEAR A MASK- Let me be clear: I do not like wearing a mask when I go into buildings and public spaces, but I do.

Some see wearing a mask as a sign of weakness — fear that I’ll get the virus. That can be a valid reason to wear it. Or perhaps I’ll be shamed by other mask-wearers.

There’s another reason. If I were carrying the virus — which I don’t believe I am — it would be cruel of me to risk spreading the virus to you.   So on the off-off-chance that I may carry the virus, I will wear the mask. Wearing it is my gift to you. From Ron Nibbelink, Augusta, Kansas

Kansas echo - the world waits it out: Donald Trump

Trump faces a slew of foreign policy challenges all at once- but the world appears to be waiting for administration turnover.

An echo opinion published in the Wichita Eagle by Andrew Malcolm special to McClatchy

Americans are not the only people who are closely following the 2020 presidential contest. And that reality is causing serious and growing challenges for Donald Trump.

A self-proclaimed world-class deal-maker, a perhaps overconfident Trump is confronting not one, not two, but a half-dozen serious foreign policy problems simultaneously. None of these escalating challenges, save perhaps Venezuela, are new. And solving them has stumped all other recent presidents.

But the timing and scale of some are of Trump’s own choosing or making, depending on your view of him. This accumulation of coincidental crises could be intentional or the result of an unorganized administration reflecting its leader’s sometimes impetuous inclinations.

But each one carries important consequences and threats for the nation’s foreign relations, peace and the president’s chances of capturing a second term next year.


In fact, the possibility — some would say likelihood — of a Trump with chronically unfavorable poll numbers joining George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter as one-term presidents seems to be a factor in recent decisions by China and North Korea to back off of previous commitments. Iran also has been willing to stir up more trouble, and the Taliban has dragged out peace talks on Afghanistan, awaiting perhaps a more friendly successor administration.

Waiting out the maximum eight-year life of an American administration unfavorable to their interests is a default option for many foreign governments, especially in Asia where one-man or one-party rule is common. Japan has been successfully employing protectionist trade policies this way for decades.

Last week, as he has long threatened, Trump imposed large tariff increases on Chinese goods when, he said, officials reneged on commitments already agreed to, including protecting intellectual property rights.

“I’m different than a lot of people,” an understated Trump said without admitting that includes many in his own adopted GOP. 

“I happen to think that tariffs for our country are very valuable.” (MaineWriter- another serial lie!)

Few beyond Beijing doubt the need for significant changes in Chinese cyber-espionage and trade