saturday, february 22 , 2020. the washington post ez re A1 7
Free For All
matt mcclain/the washington post
Former ambassador to Ukraine Marie L. Yovanovitch testifies on Capitol Hill in November.Regarding the Feb. 10 news article “Left-
wing Sinn Fein party surges in historic but
inconclusive Irish election”:
Let m e explain it. The leader of Sinn Fein is
a woman, Mary L ou McDonald. Yes, there are
a lot of leaders of major international politi-
cal parties in the world who are women.
When The Post writes an article about a
major development in a country’s political
landscape featuring a specific party, it should
include a picture of the leader of that party.
McDonald may become the next prime
minister of Ireland. So, if The Post includes a
photograph in its coverage, it should dig into
its files or contact a photographer and get a
photo of McDonald.
But The Post should not include a picture
of some man who is not the party’s l eader and
is not even mentioned in the article, as
happened in this case.
C.E. Wray, CharlottesvilleA look at Sinn
Fein’s leader
The availability of a recently Food and Drug
Administration-approved drug, Palforzia, to treat
inadvertent exposure to peanuts is good news for
those children and teenagers with life-threatening
peanut allergies. However, the Feb. 2 Politics & the
Nation article “First peanut allergy drug, long
awaited by families, earns approval from FDA” refer-
enced a report by the Institute for Clinical and
Economic Review (ICER), a nonprofit, drug-pricing
watchdog group, saying there is insufficient evi-
dence that using Palforzia is better than strictly
avoiding peanuts or non-commercialized peanut-
flour oral immunotherapy.
It’s important to clarify the interpretation of
ICER’s findings. The patient community may be
confused by them, and insurance companies some-
times make determinations on coverage of drugs
based on ICER reviews. ICER’s primary focus is on
the cost-benefit of drugs. ICER is not a substitute for
the FDA when evaluating whether a drug is effective
or safe. The FDA’s approval of Palforzia confirms that
the drug is safe and effective for children and teens
with a peanut allergy.
ICER’s evaluation demonstrates a lack of under-
standing of Palforzia’s value to patients and their
families. The patient community and insurance com-
panies should not misinterpret ICER’s findings on
Palforzia’s efficacy. This new therapy is not meant to
be a substitute for strict avoidance n or a substitute for
carrying an emergency epinephrine auto-injector.
Instead, Palforzia can mitigate the allergic reaction to
accidental exposure for the 1.2 million American
children with life-threatening peanut allergies.
Kenneth Mendez, Washington
The writer is president and CEO of the
Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.Take the FDA’s word
on this allergy drug
Why does The Post persist in the use (misuse) of the
word “epicenter” in any context other than earth-
quakes? An example (one of many recently) is the
caption on a photograph that accompanied the Feb. 9
front-page article “WHO praises China despite flaws in
virus response.” The caption read: “A s news of the virus
spread, officials effectively sealed off Wuhan, China,
the epicenter of the outbreak, from the rest of the
world.” This misusage is now ubiquitous in reporting
about the novel coronavirus outbreak in China, but the
media have been abusing it for decades in all manner of
contexts.
The prefix “epi” means “above” or “outside,” as in
“epidermis” for the outermost layer of skin. “Epicen-
ter” i s a technical term originating in seismology, a nd it
refers to the point on the surface of the Earth that is
directly above the deep underground focal point of anearthquake. There is no other proper use of the term,
despite the widespread misuse.
“Garner’s Modern American Usage,” i n its article
on “epicenter,” says William Safire, in his own “On
Language” column, quoted geophysicist Joseph
D. Sides as attributing t his type of misuse to: “Spurious
erudition on the part of writers combined with scien-
tific illiteracy o n the part of copy editors.”
My guess is that this represents pseudoscientific
illiteracy by writers who mistakenly believe, because
an earthquake is a major or a (literally) cataclysmic
event, that the word “epicenter” s omehow means the
particularly important center or super center of an
event. I fear the battle to stop the misuse of “epicenter”
may be a lost cause, b ut I implore The Post t o do its part
to stem the tide.
Marshall Lasky, Chevy ChaseA high-magnitude mistake
agence france-presse/getty images
A man wearing a face mask rides a bicycle in Wuhan, China, on Monday.Why the large type on the Feb. 6 front-
page headline “Trump acquitted”? It w as not
news. It was a foregone conclusion from the
start. The Senate just proved conclusively, to
the world, that our democracy is no better
than any other country’s bought-and-paid-
for government.
Leslie McDunn, Woodstock, Va.I have to question the judgment in using a
banner headline to report that the Senate had
acquitted President Trump on two impeach-
ment counts. I can guess only that it was a
gesture of impartiality because the same
large typeface banner announced his im-
peachment in the Dec. 19 edition.
Regardless of where you fall on the politi-
cal spectrum, the acquittal by the GOP-
c ontrolled Senate was never in doubt, d espite
sworn oaths by its members to be impar-
tial. This became even more obvious once theSenate voted not to subpoena any key wit-
nesses or documents.
In contrast to the House decision to im-
peach the president, which truly was historic,
Trump’s acquittal was hardly news.
The only real news on Feb. 5 was Sen. Mitt
Romney’s (Utah) lone vote among the GOP
senators that the president had in fact abused
the power of the presidency for his personal
gain.
Brent Byers, Great FallsWhen I saw President Trump show off the
Feb. 6 Post h eadline “Trump acquitted,” t hree
thoughts immediately ran through my head.
First, congratulations on getting publicity
for The Post. Second, isn’t The Post banned
from government offices? Where did Trump
get his copy? Third, the headline must be
“fake news” coming from The Post.
Stephen Eccles, AnnandaleJust another no-news day
evan vucci/associated press
President T rump holds the Feb. 6 Post at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.We enjoyed the Feb. 6 obituary for Kirk Douglas, “Actor’s
intense, masculine energy drove scores of roles.” Douglas was a
stalwart of our movie-watching for decades. However, we think
there was a glaring omission in the obituary, especially in the
Washington area and in the current political climate.
“Seven Days in May” was a riveting portrayal of our constitu-
tional system, patriotism, sacrifice, intrigue, deception, hubris of
an egotistical aspiring “leader,” personal loyalty vs. duty, honor,
reluctance to stoop as low as the opponent and more. We’re sorry it
wasn’t included.
Peter Linn and Susan Osborn, McLeanKudos to Ann Hornaday f or her fond eulogy for Kirk Douglas
and her trenchant critique of modern Hollywood [“You’ll never see
another movie star like Douglas,” Style, Feb. 7].
To h er list of classic films starring the late actor, add “Lonely Are
the Brave” — Douglas’s own favorite.
Gary Parker, WashingtonTimely Kirk Douglas classics
In her Feb. 7 op-ed, “We will persist and prevail,”
former ambassador to Ukraine Marie L. Yovanovitch
observed that we are living in perhaps the most
challenging times she has witnessed. As a 35-year-old
American, I cannot let that opinion go unchecked.
My generation didn’t grow up hiding under our
desks during air-raid drills. When our country was
attacked by terrorists, my heroic peers volunteered to
protect us without being drafted.
Admittedly, there is a lot of work to do, and it
saddens me to learn how poorly Yovanovitch has been
treated with words. Though I personally abhor that
treatment, in a society that values free speech morethan any other society in human history, that
treatment is not unreasonable. Although Yovanovitch
is exercising her free speech to attack a duly elected
politician, she is not in jail. Things are okay.
Losing a job is traumatic. Thankfully, unemploy-
ment is very low right now. In my opinion, these are
the most exciting times I have ever seen: I recently
paid off my student loans and purchased my first
piece of property.
Rather than ripping up the other side’s ideas, I ask
everyone to work together to fulfill President Trump’s
prediction that “the best is yet to come.”
Gregory J. Feeney, WashingtonNot the best of times but not the worst
The Feb. 9 obituary for Roger Kahn, “Brooklyn
native wrote lauded baseball classic ‘The Boys of
Summer,’ ” brought back memories of a 1952 spring
training baseball game the Brooklyn Dodgers played
in Mobile, Ala. I was 11 years old and was there in the
shaded stands with my father and two brothers.
Kahn pointed out that, because of segregation,
black fans were allowed only in the bleachers, where
there was no shade. But so many had come to see
players such as Jackie Robinson that the overflow
was permitted in the outfield.
Eventually, the people standing and sitting in the
hot sun were halfway to the infield. If a ball was hit
into the crowd, it was considered a double by the
umpires.
Even back then, I could not understand why the
shaded stands that had room could not have been
used for the overflow. It still angers me almost
70 years later.
I have always been thankful to Kahn for includ-
ing this documentation of racism in his classic book.
Charles Sullivan, Washington
On the field, in the book
A simple fact check would have revealed the flaw
in the statement in the Feb. 7 Metro article “Adven-
tist to take over Howard’s hospital” that Howard
University “produces more African American medi-
cal school graduates than Harvard University, Yale
University or the Massachusetts Institute of Te ch-
nology combined.”
M.I.T. has no medical school, so it has no African
American medical school graduates. Howard proba-
bly graduates more African American engineers,
architects and nurses than the top 50 liberal arts
colleges combined because the top 50 liberal arts
colleges do not have engineering, architecture or
nursing schools.
Edward A. Merlis, McLean
One reason Howard stands out
Most people have sufficient common decency to
abhor the suffering of the more than 100 million pigs
raised every year on our factory farms [“Lawsuit
aims to stop the use of ‘downed’ pigs in food,” P olitics
& the Nation, Feb. 10]. To h elp us do something about
it, The Post should include photographs in articles
about factory farming. Big-agriculture companies
hide the suffering of these highly sentient animals.
The Post can help by exposing it.
Frederic Lane, Burke
Expose pigs’ suffering
Sally Jenkins’s columns are always good, often
great. Her Feb. 5 Sports column, “Lasting lesson of
Super Bowl is that failure breeds success,” however,
was utterly awesome. Her observations deserve to
become a chapter in a book on successes achieved
after successive failures. I believe that volume would
serve as a guidepost to both my 7-year-old grandson
and his 67-year-old grandfather. Many t hanks for the
edification — and reinforcement.
David Boldt, HerndonA s uperb lesson on loss
niall carson/associated press
Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald
on Feb. 10 in Dublin.To add to the excellent Feb. 6 obituary “Packers’
star defensive b ack key to Super Bowl I victory,” a bout
Willie Wood, a D.C. schoolboy who
made good in the National Foot-
ball League as a Hall of Fame
defensive safety for the Green Bay
Packers: The first Super Bowl
game, in 1967 , featured Woods’s
Packers against the Kansas City
Chiefs, whose defensive star Fred
“The Hammer” Williamson boast-
ed before Super Bowl I began
about the havoc h e would i nflict on
the Packers’ offensive squad. Early in the game,
Williamson got steamrolled and, as he was attended
to on the field, a sideline mic picked up Wood saying:
“Oh, oh. The Hammer just got nailed.”
RIP D.C.’s own Willie Wood.
Robert Shvodian, Bethesda
RIP Willie Wood
Willie Wood
ben brewer/reutersYoung pigs feed in a pen in Ryan, Iowa, in 2019.
alberto e. rodriguez/agence france-presse/getty images
Kirk Douglas, who died Feb. 5 , is shown at a s creening of
“Spartacus” in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Aug. 13, 20 12.Why was Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) not
included in the Feb. 8 front-page photograph that
accompanied the article reporting on the previous
night’s Democratic presidential debate, “Democrats
turn up the heat on electability”? The consensus
opinion is that she was the standout performer in
the debate, and she placed a strong fifth in the Iowa
caucuses. In addition, she has garnered coveted
endorsements from major newspapers. She offers
the best chance of defeating President Trump and
saving our democracy.
With so much at stake, it is frustrating for
Klobuchar supporters such as me to see her so
ignored.
Betsy Smith, Fairfax
Missing Klobuchar
melina mara/the washington postSen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) talks with a
young boy in Las Vegas on Tuesday.