Get it together
What is happening to our country? We’ve sunk so low that we’re now threatening and in some cases physically attacking teachers because they care about your children. These are the same teachers who work 60-plus hours a week for lousy pay and endless abuse and criticism. And for what — masks?
Numerous studies have shown masks work. Do they 100% stop the spread of COVID-19? No, but they do slow the spread. Numerous studies have also shown wearing a mask does not impede your ability to breathe or your body to intake and process oxygen. If that were the case, we’d have doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians, etc. all passing out — and their masks are much more restrictive.
Yes, masks can be hot and uncomfortable. However, being intubated is a whole lot worse.
Ric Murtland, Yorktown
Thank you
Re “After hours of vitriol and misinformation, Virginia Beach School Board votes to make masks mandatory for students, staff” (Aug. 11): I would like to thank the members of the Virginia Beach School Board for persevering through trying conditions to do the work that the citizens of Virginia Beach elected them to do. It is extremely unfortunate that an overly vocal, animated and sometimes threatening faction of the community would continually direct animosity toward our elected public officials. Not satisfied with taunting the School Board, the disruptive faction further debased the public hearing by heckling other citizen speakers, to include, worst of all, young students.
Their repeated inability to engage in civil discourse should be a concern to all. How should we expect the students in our schools to conduct themselves when they see parents yelling, cussing and directing vulgar gestures at those they disagree with? Such conduct is an insult to all citizens of Virginia Beach, for it sets a bad example for our youth and it interrupts the public’s business.
I urge Virginia Beach residents to take a hard look at current board members who encourage the unruly faction and vote for candidates who can inspire civil debate, a stark contrast to what we’ve seen at the past two board meeting.
John O’Sullivan, Virginia Beach
Unbelievable
Re “Consequences” (Your Views, Aug. 14): I do believe Abbot Granoff (I refuse to call him doctor) needs to revisit the Hippocratic oath he took as a medical professional, part of which states, “I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.”
As a retired nurse I am appalled at his views. It has always been the gold standard as a medical professional to “first, do no harm.” Thank goodness he does not represent the medical community as a whole. I feel for his patients. Though I believe all who are able should get the vaccine, doing so still remains a personal choice. And how does he know what medical or religious issues may exist that influence the decision not to get the vaccine in the first place?
These days the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and an ever-increasing number of virus “experts” are all over the map with their recommendations for COVID-19 treatment: masks, distancing, lockdown, vaccines and everything else under the sun. Thankfully the writer has greatly simplified matters: Get the vaccine, and if you don’t, be refused treatment and risk dying. Got it!
Nicole Kilby, Virginia Beach
It’s time to act
Re “Carbon hidden in soil: Could Chesapeake Bay restoration methods be a model for blunting climate change?” (Aug. 12): The Chesapeake Bay Foundation provides a glimmer of hope regarding global warming. However, our general tepid response to the dire U.N. climate predictions is disheartening. George Orwell stated, “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”
I fear we are losing that struggle. I taught overseas, 1990-2004, where a warming earth was becoming evident. In Denmark, folks marveled that it no longer snowed in winter. In Estonia, bears came out of hibernation in February into a warming Nordic world. In Jordan, colleagues contemplated installing air conditioning into their homes for the first time.
We often were confronted with the accusation, You Americans are only 4% of the world population, yet you have emitted 25% of historical carbon emissions. Upon our return to the U.S. in 2004, we were surprised to realize that global warming was not even on the radar here. I attributed that indifference to our nation’s temporal location, which has delayed climate change’s visibility in our daily lives. Now, its effects horrify us.
Consider the Titanic, too well engineered to sink. Consider our planet, too vigorous to collapse. Are we dismissing dire climate predictions simply because they do not match our own optimistic narrative? Are we lacking once again the courage to acknowledge what is in front of our own nose?
Christy Lumm, Newport News
Our president
The fiasco in Afghanistan, the lack of border security, inflation, etc. Now consider this: We have over three more years with this man in charge. Frightening.
Robert B. Gregory, Knotts Island, North Carolina
COVID-19 vaccine
For my evangelical friends, love your neighbor as yourself: Get vaccinated.
Joseph H. Discenza, Poquoson