A18 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAY, AUGUST 10 , 2020
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR[email protected]LOCAL OPINIONSThe July 31 Metro article reporting that D.C. schools
will start the academic year with all-virtual learn-
ing did not include the perspective of any parents who
believe D.C. Public Schools failed our children by not
developing a plan to bring students safely back into the
classroom, at least part-time. This decision enormously
stresses working parents of young children who cannot
virtually learn without adult guidance and supervision,
putting us in an untenable situation. Many parents
don’t have the luxury of “basically” not working while
they “shepherd” children through virtual learning, as
the parent interviewed suggested. DCPS’s decision will
increase inequities in D.C.
Also troubling: DCPS will not provide my child, who
has disabilities qualifying him for an Individualized
Education Plan Program, with a current assessment of
his needs and adequate supports until in-person learn-
ing resumes.
Every day that schools remain completely closed,DCPS is failing children with special needs.
Alyssa Saunders, WashingtonNo local public K-12 school systems are opening,
but the University of Maryland plans to have college
students back on campus. It does not matter what
social distancing protocols are in place; college stu-
dents will be college students. They will party on the
weekends and spread the novel coronavirus.
College students, who can distance-learn, are al-
lowed back on campus while we force our elementary
students, who struggle with distance learning, to stay
home.
Allowing college students back on campus will most
certainly contribute to community spread and keep
our youngest and most vulnerable students out of the
classroom longer. It is time to start prioritizing children
and families in the fight against the novel coronavirus.
Emily Friedman, Silver SpringThe wrong priorities in resuming school
W
HETHER, AND how, to open schools that
abruptly shut down in March following
the outbreak of covid-19 is fraught with
gut-wrenching issues. Children need to
get back to their teachers and classmates. But can it be
done safely?
Much is still unknown about this virus. It makes
the situation worse when p ublic health issues become
clouded with suspicions about politics. This is the
unfortunate case in the back and forth between
Montgomery County and state officials over whether
private schools can — or, more importantly, should —
provide in-class instruction while public schools offer
only distance learning.
The dueling directives of the past week are bound
to leave parents, teachers and students confused.
County Health Officer Travis Gayles prohibited Mont-
gomery’s 130 private and religious schools from
bringing students back on campus. Gov. Larry Hogan
(R) proclaimed that Montgomery County was over-
stepping its authority, and a group of private-schoolparents filed a federal lawsuit alleging discrimina-
tion. Dr. Gayles doubled down, and then backed
down.
Dr. Gayles said h is blanket o rder — and his continu-
ing recommendation that private schools not open —
was based on the reality that “we do not have control
of the virus to date.” He said no reopening plan can
succeed with the county’s rate of transmission and
caseload so high. The county is averaging about 80
cases a day, dramatically higher than the four new
cases each day in March when schools closed.
Whatever the merits of Dr. Gayles’s argument —
and federal public health officials have repeatedly
talked about the need for communities to control the
spread of the virus before reopening schools — his
order was badly handled. Issued on a Friday night on
the eve of some school openings, the order gave no
notice and little chance for schools, parents and
students to provide input. Why was such an order
imposed on private schools while the public system
was allowed to come to its own decision? Shouldn’tcounty officials have examined the safety plans of
schools and how they retrofitted facilities before
issuing a blanket order? These and other questions
fueled conspiracy theories that county officials hos-
tile toward private and religious schools — and
friendly to the teachers unions — were responding to
the political dilemma of public-school parents upset
that private and religious schools were opening while
their children’s schools remained shuttered.
There were also questions about Mr. Hogan and his
second-guessing. Why does the governor trust offi-
cials in Montgomery to make decisions regarding nail
salons and masks but not about school safety? Why
didn’t he consult with Montgomery health officials?
Was he egged on by a tweet from a Fox News
commentator urging him to think of his political
future?
County and state officials should put their differ-
ences aside to determine what is safe and to establish
clear guidelines, communicate them and see they are
adhered to.A political tug of war in Montgomery
Student safety is the real loser in the back and forth between Mr. Hogan and county officials.
T
HE FEDERAL government went on an exe-
cution spree last month, killing three prison-
ers in one week. F ederal officials had not
carried out a death sentence since 2003. Two
more federal executions are scheduled for next
month.
“With these executions, the federal government
has joined the small minority of jurisdictions that
conduct executions and the even smaller number of
jurisdictions that are willing to pursue them in the
midst of the worst global pandemic in generations,”
the Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks
death penalty policies and their application across
the country, found. “The resumption of executions
along with the government’s disregard for procedur-
al protections and established norms firmly place it
in the ‘outlier’ category at a time when support for
capital punishment is at a historic low.”
Daniel Lewis Lee was the first man the federal
government put to death last month. His family
begged federal authorities at least to delay the
execution because they could not attend for fear of
catching covid-19. The family’s wishes were ignored.
Religious advisers for Wesley Purkey and Dustin
Honken, the two men executed after Mr. Lee,
similarly had to consider whether to put themselves
or others at risk to be present.
These men were convicted of serious crimes.
There have been executions in the United States in
cases that were less certain and in circumstances
that were more disturbing. What is particularly
stomach-turning in this case is the eagerness federal
officials showed in carrying out the sentences.
Attorney General William P. Barr’s original plan was
to execute five people over six weeks starting last
December. Litigation only delayed that plan, and the
coronavirus did not deter the executioners. No
matter what happened, the prisoners were going tospend the rest of their lives in prison. There was no
need to rush the inmates onto their gurneys.
The executions provide another reminder of the
skewed priorities of the Trump Justice Department.
We’ve been reminded, in a summer of police abuse
and nationwide protest, that one of the administra-tion’s first acts was to diminish the o versight of state
and local police departments. But the zeal to execute
burns brightly.
The death penalty is ineffective and immoral. We
look forward to a day when the Justice Department
again assumes a mission truer to its name.Mr. Barr’s
execution spree
The attorney general eagerly
enforces the death penalty.ABCDE
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1301 K St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 (202) 334-Steven Pearlstein went right to the heart of the
matter in his Aug. 2 analysis of the House subcommit-
tee hearing with the leaders of Amazon, Apple, Face-
book and Google [“Putting brakes on Big Tech re-
quires rewriting the law,” Business]. The problem is
the inadequacy of our antitrust laws, caused in large
part by judges “infatuated by free market ideology.”
Note the word: economic “ideology,” not “theory”
or “principle.” T hat ideology, first promoted by Milton
Friedman in the 1960s, has produced, in addition to
the limitless influence of the tech behemoths, the
financial inequality that is tearing us apart — and that
the novel coronavirus has exposed. Friedman’s ideol-
ogy has worked out so badly that even mainstream
economists are backing away from it.
The real challenge ahead is finding an economic
strategy that works for all of us, not just for Ama-
zon, Apple, Facebook, Google and the 0.1 percent.
Mr. Pearlstein’s common-sense legislative recom-
mendations are a great place to start.
Fred Gottemoeller, AlexandriaWhat Milton Friedman got wrong
Regarding the Aug. 5 news article “Census Bureau
says count will end a month early”:
The Founding Fathers knew the value of population
data. They mandated a decennial census in Article 1 of
the Constitution. By law, census results must be deliv-
ered to the president by Dec. 31.
The 1870 census wasn’t completed until August 1871
because the Census Bureau lacked the technology to
accurately count the fast-growing population. This
year’s challenges are no less extreme, starting with the
novel coronavirus pandemic, which delayed census
field operations by four months. Nearly 40 percent of
U.S. households haven’t been counted. Children and
minorities are at highest risk of being missed.
Until recently, there was broad bipartisan agree-
ment that the Census Bureau needed additional time.
Thanks to election-year politics, the bureau is shorten-
ing its operations by at least a month.
Good public policy depends on good public data.
The census drives $1.5 trillion in federal spending, and
undercounts cause states and localities to lose critical
funding — and impacts safety functions such as disas-
ter planning and emergency response operations. Con-
gress must act now to ensure the bureau has the time
and resources it needs to conduct a full and accurate
census. To do otherwise could undermine the integrity
of the count and the next decade of decision-making.
Linda Jacobsen, McLean
The writer is vice president of U.S. Programs and
chief demographer at Population Reference Bureau.The census takes time
The president’s unilateral effort to bypass Congress
and put his stimulus and unemployment benefits plan
in action has a poison pill embedded in it that amounts
to a backdoor attempt to weaken Social Security: a cut
in payroll taxes. How would a cut in payroll taxes
benefit the people who are unemployed? And, more
important, it would cut payments into the Social
Security fund, and more than likely lead to Republican
calls for cuts in Social Security benefits in the near
future. This is stretching the president’s ability to use
executive orders to unilaterally make new laws.
Norman Michael Harman,
Harpers Ferry, W.Va.A poisonous executive order
Corporations should talk to lawyers before follow-
ing the advice of John W. Rogers Jr. and Charles
A. Tribbett in their Aug. 4 op-ed, “If corporations
want to stop racism, here’s where to start.”
They say “every company needs clear hiring goals”
based on race to achieve “diversity.” But diversity isn’t
a reason to consider race in hiring, according to
Taxman v. Board of Education. And hiring goals to
achieve racial “diversity” are racially discriminatory,
as ruled in Lutheran Church v. FCC.
Companies can use race-based affirmative action
to remedy something more extreme than a mere lack
of diversity, namely, what the Supreme Court calls a
“manifest imbalance” in “traditionally segregated
job categories.” But the Supreme Court has rejected
the “ ‘completely unrealistic’ assumption that minor-
ities will choose a particular trade in lockstep propor-
tion to their representation in the local population.”
Hans Bader, ArlingtonThe pitfalls of diversity in hiring
Ornithologists Gabriel Foley and Jordan Rutter
argued in their Aug. 5 Wednesday Opinion essay,
“Colonialism mars these bird names. They must be
changed.,” that eponymous bird names such as
Bachman’s sparrow and Audubon’s oriole should be
changed because their namesakes are undeserving
of honor. The authors made a good case that, for
example, the Rev. John Bachman is undeserving,
regardless of his achievements as a birder, because
he was a racist who argued in favor of slavery.
But the writers argued not that some of those
honored are unworthy because of their specific
moral failings but that all such eponyms must be
abolished, because those men were part of a “colo-
nial system that wove the fabric of systemic racism
through every aspect of our lives.” The writers
rejected distinguishing worthy from unworthy indi-
viduals on the grounds that “the stench of colonial-
ism has saturated each of its participants.”
Mr. Foley and Mr. Rutter’s argument would imply
that no White American who lived before, say, 1861
should be honored, no matter his or her personal
achievements or qualities, because the society they
lived in was racist and colonialist.
Why not judge people as individuals rather than
as symbols of a favored or disfavored identity?
John Shea, Ellicott CityJudge lives, not times
Regarding Bennett Minton’s Aug. 2 Outlook essay,
“The lies our textbooks told my generation of Virgin-
ians about slavery”:
I was a few years ahead of Mr. Minton in Arlington
County elementary school, but I have never forgotten
that bizarre history book. Once, at the dinner table
(another historic artifact), I asked my dad whether
enslaved people weren’t better off before emancipa-
tion than after. I’m glad he took the time to disabuse
me of that notion. How many students my age never
had the occasion to question what they were reading?
Dave McCord, ArlingtonA bizarre history book
S
AUDI ARABIA’S assassination of journalist
Jamal Khashoggi took place Oct. 2, 2018.
Khashoggi, a Post contributing columnist
then living in exile, went to the Saudi
Consulate in Istanbul for paperwork so he could
remarry. As has been documented by United Na-
tions envoy Agnes Callamard, a Saudi hit squad
arrived with forensic tools, including a bone saw.
The Khashoggi killing came after previous attempts
by the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, to lure
the journalist back to the kingdom and silence him.
The Khashoggi case is one of deception and
murder with impunity. Khashoggi’s body has never
been found. Now comes a chilling new chapter of
alleged Saudi perfidy that should once again remind
all that the kingdom is led by a ruthless despot.
When Khashoggi disappeared, the kingdom said
he had requested the paperwork at the consulate
and “exited shortly thereafter.” On Oct. 7, a Saudi
official, responding to reports that Khashoggi was
killed in the consulate, “strongly denounced thesebaseless allegations.” On Oct. 8, the Saudi ambassa-
dor to the United States said reports Khashoggi was
detained or killed “are absolutely false, and base-
less.” On Oct. 15, President Trump said he talked to
the crown prince and “his was a flat denial.”
However, a lawsuit filed Thursday alleges that
about the same day the crown prince made the “flat
denial,” a second Saudi hit squad traveled to Canada.
This time, the target was Saad Aljabri, a former top
Saudi intelligence official who had worked closely
with U.S. officials on counterterrorism in the past.
The crown prince apparently wanted to silence him,
too. The lawsuit, brought by Mr. Aljabri, contains
unproven allegations, but they have eerie parallels
to Khashoggi’s assassination. According to the
complaint, the Saudi killers who flew to Toronto
belonged to the “Tiger Squad,” the crown prince’s
“personal mercenary group”; they carried two bags
of forensic tools; and the squad included an
instructor in the same criminal evidence depart-
ment as the executioner who dismemberedKhashoggi. The squad members, traveling on tour-
ist visas, were asked by Canadian officers at border
control if they knew each other. They lied, saying
they did not. On secondary screening, a photograph
was discovered of them together and their plot was
thwarted, the lawsuit says.
In his final minutes of life, Khashoggi was told by
his killers, “There is an order from Interpol. Interpol
requested you to be sent back.” Mr. Aljabri alleges in
his complaint that the crown prince threatened him
on WhatsApp on Sept. 10, 2017, that if he did not
return to the kingdom on his own, a worldwide
manhunt would be initiated based on bogus corrup-
tion charges diffused by Interpol, the international
police organization. The crown prince tried to make
good on the threat, but fortunately Interpol rejected
the material in 2018 as “politically motivated.”
The new allegations, if proved, reinforce the
conclusion that the kingdom is led by a crown prince
who commands death squads and continues to
evade accountability for murder.The crown prince of death squads
New allegations remind us Saudi Arabia is led by a ruthless despot.
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EDITORIALSTOM TOLES