The Washington Post - USA (2022-02-13)

A26 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 , 2022

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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N ENDURING feature of the pandemic has been its disparate impact, not only on people of varying ages and wellness but also on different places at different times. That’s one reason that moves in some states to lift mask mandates categori- cally, including in schools — with no local option to retain them — are misguided, premature and risky. The impulse behind ending mask mandates is no mystery: Everyone is sick of being told to cover their face, just as all are fed up with having to think about other aspects of covid-19. Two years after it barged into our lives, the pandemic is like a hostile, hygiene-challenged house guest who refuses to leave. Still, it is a triumph of exasperation over expertise simply to throw up our hands and say, “We’re done!” Science, not politics and pandering, should determine pandemic policy. The best way to get beyond the miseries of the coronavirus is for policymakers to retain and enforce prudent precautions, carefully calibrated for particular communities according to the disease’s prevalence and spread. Those precautions include mask man-

dates in school districts where the virus is still on the rampage. Several Democratic and Republican governors have em- braced moves to repeal such mandates in recent days — despite the standing rec- ommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nation’s top health-protection agency. One of them is Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, who last year said he would leave it to localities to determine mask policies in their own school districts. That was sensible, given varying local infection rates, school conditions and ventilation systems. But upon taking office last month, Mr. Young- kin abandoned his own proposal, and good sense, and ordered a mask-optional policy statewide. Now, state lawmakers, including some Democrats, are pushing through legislation that would give the governor authority to enforce his order. At least 70 of Virginia’s 131 school districts, representing a large majority of the state’s students, have rejected the governor’s attempt to abolish school mask mandates. For good reason: Most are in counties or cities where the recent average of new coronavirus infections per 100,000 residents is 50 or more cases

daily, a threshold indicating what the CDC calls “substantial transmission.” In fact, most Virginia localities have rates far higher — in some cases well above 100 new cases daily per 100,000 people. Those who oppose school mask mandates point out that most school-age children are unlikely to get very sick if they contract the virus, and even less likely to be hospitalized or die. They conveniently airbrush the fact that those same children might transmit the disease to their immunocompromised class- mates, who are at far greater risk, as well as to vulnerable adults who work in schools. They include teachers, office staff, cafeteria workers, janitors and re- source officers, some of whom are elderly, obese or in other ways at risk for a sickness whose lethality is proven. One important way to ensure schools stay open is to ensure they are safe, along with the communities they serve. Masks, along with vaccines, help do exactly that by keeping people out of hospitals, off ventilators and alive. How many times must we be reminded that covid-19 is a killer, transmitted by air- borne particles that come from infected people’s breathing?

On masks, follow science

Politics and exasperation should not determine pandemic policy.

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ACING POTENTIAL Democratic losses in this year’s midterm elections, the Biden administration has already tried one classic e lection-season gimmick, releasing oil from the national Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a desperate attempt to ease gas prices. Now several Democratic sen- ators want to step up the pandering, proposing to suspend the federal gas tax through the end of the year. In fact, they should head in the oppo- site direction. Their motivation is as obvious as it is imprudent. Inflation is among the biggest issues heading into this November’s vote. Gas prices are up about a dollar year over year. By suspending the 18.4-cent-per- g allon gas tax, Democrats can make it look as though they are restraining high prices. By making the suspension temporary, they can also claim that the tax break is merely an emergency measure to see the country through extraordinary supply shocks. Yet, unlike in other parts of the econo- my experiencing high inflation, supply problems are neither novel nor rare in

the oil market. Every time gas prices spike, and politicians roll out some ploy to seem to be addressing the issue, the culprit is typically a supply issue: a war in Libya, say, or a hurricane in Louisiana. The Organization of the Petroleum Ex- porting Countries exercises cartel price- setting power, which makes it even hard- er for supply to respond to demand when disruptions occur. Politicians can de- clare — and have declared, over and over again — that spiking gas prices reflect exigent circumstances that require temporary relief. In this case, that temporary relief would cost the treasury about $20 billion. The fact that this relief would termi- nate at the end of the year, right after the midterm elections, reveals the politics behind the proposal. Yet the only thing worse than a temporary suspension would be a permanent one. The federal gas tax is a critical, though increasingly weak, policy that Congress should bolster, not undermine. Originally the revenue source for the Highway Trust Fund, the value of the tax revenue it

produces has declined steadily, because the tax rate is not indexed to inflation and Congress has refused to raise it since

As a result, lawmakers have
scrounged for money elsewhere to fi-
nance the nation’s roads, defying the
sound principle that those who use the
roads should pay for them — and those
who use them more should pay more.
Suspending the gas tax would be another
step toward breaking the linkage be-
tween how much people use the roads
and what they pay to maintain them. One
side effect would be more driving — and
more wear and tear on the nation’s infra-
structure. Another would be more green-
house gases in the atmosphere.
The sound way to protect Americans
from oil-price shocks is to cut the nation’s
reliance on oil. Raising the gas tax would
do that, encouraging consumers to drive
less and to buy more fuel-efficient cars,
without clumsy government mandates.
This might not be the most convenient
message for Democrats ahead of Novem-
ber. But it is the best long-term response
to the nation’s oil addiction.

Shameless Democratic pandering

Suspending the gas tax won’t protect us from high prices.

The Feb. 6 editorial “This is gerry- mandering at its worst. Here’s why it doesn’t have to be this way.” omitted reference to the house next door: Mary- land. Just look at the map: areas physi- cally detached from each other yet in the same district. Sprinkled around Balti- more, separated between counties, are long, winding districts intended to ensure election of a favored candidate (often realigning a district just before a reelection). In Maryland, a state historically led by Democratic governors and perpetual Democratic legislatures, there has been one party responsible for partisan gerry- mandering. Gov. Larry Hogan’s (R) promise to review redistricting (even via an independent commission) has been trumped by a continuing disposition to assure partisan election results by the same biased legislators resetting districts in their own model. With the governor’s veto now overridden and suits filed, it could be up to the courts. What could go possibly wrong? Maryland could be a perpetually incurable case. Craig L. Wilson, Lusby, Md.

It was nice to see Virginia used as an example for how an independent commission could produce fair redistricting. The problem is that Virginia’s bipartisan redistricting commission crashed and burned. The Virginia Supreme Court delivered the fair maps. Fatal flaws in Virginia’s bipartisan redistricting commission started with the 16 commissioners. The commission is composed of eight sitting legislators and eight citizens selected from lists provided by the legislators. So all the commissioners were political partisans. The legislators wanted to keep their seats, and the citizens wanted to help them do that. Compromise was not a consideration. Two of the legislative members could veto a map, and at least two of the commissioners were members of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the dark-money organization coaching Republican state legislators as they ger- rymander their states and make voting difficult. Virginia needs a rewritten redistricting amendment approved before 2029. The commission should be independent, and the process should be transparent. Incumbent political officeholders should be banned, and the General Assembly shouldn’t get a vote. Robert Wilson, Charlottesville

Perpetually bad mapmaking

The Feb. 10 editorial “Not the only things Mr. Trump shredded” fatalistical- ly declared that the Presidential Records Act “lacks teeth.” Former president Donald Trump should be prosecuted for his alleged destruction of documents. The law provides for criminal penalties for willfully destroying or concealing documents. Per the editorial, Mr. Trump’s behav- ior was “wanton,” so there is no excuse not to advocate prosecuting him, unless powerful people should never face con- sequences. Brendan Martin, Falls Church

Prosecution is possible

David Ignatius suggested in his Feb. 9 op-ed, “The crisis in Ukraine is one for the history books,” that the current Ukraine crisis could be compared in importance to the Cuba crisis in 1962 or the Suez crisis of 1956. Perhaps. It reminds me much more of Adolf Hitler’s ethno-nationalist fixation, ex- treme nationalist grievances and “sala- mi” tactics: remilitarization of the Rhineland, Anschluss with Austria, the Sudetenland crisis, occupation of Czechoslovakia’s remains, invasion of Poland. It didn’t end well. Robin Biswas, Bethesda

History repeating?

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EDITORIALS

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S A winter chill deepens across Afghanistan, the Taliban ap- pears to be imposing political conditions to match. Prominent women’s rights activists have been tar- geted for threats, beatings and abduc- tions, including two — Tamana Paryani and Parwana Ibrahimkhil — who were taken by armed men from their Kabul homes on Jan. 19 and have not been heard from since. The United Nations’ human rights agency has called their disappearances part of a larger pattern of arbitrary arrests, detentions, torture and ill-treatment targeting civil society activists, journalists and media workers, as well as former officials of the U.S.-backed government and army. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the Taliban has been holding at least nine foreign citizens, including one American and several Brit- ish passport holders, under murky circumstances. (Two journalists on assign- ment for the U.N. agency were later reported released.) This is not the behav- ior of a legitimate government, much less of a ruling group seemingly heedful of the repeated admonitions — from the United States and other democratic gov- ernments — that its access to financial support and diplomatic recognition hinge on respect for human rights. All this provides context for the Biden administration’s decision to support an equal division of $7 billion in frozen Afghan central bank funds between American victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and a trust fund for humanitarian relief of the Afghan people. Though the issues, moral and legal, are extremely complex, with the ultimate disposition of the money up to a federal court in New York, the administration is surely right about one thing: Despite the desperate needs of the Afghan people, many of whom are at risk of starvation, it would be a mistake to put the money back at the disposal of Afghanistan’s central bank, with no strings attached — as the Taliban demands. There is an apparent tension at the heart of the administration’s position: It does not consider the money as the

Taliban’s, except, implicitly, to the extent it can be used for compensating the Sept. 11 victims, who have won a default judgment against the Taliban for its backing of the attacks. Nevertheless, there is a certain practical wisdom to the policy. Not long after the fall of Kabul, the Sept. 11 victims asserted a legal claim to all $7 billion. Without intervention by the administration — through a law that enables the executive branch to state its interest in such cases — the entire amount of money could be unavailable to help the Afghan people. Now, however, the possibility has been opened that half of it — $3.5 billion, roughly equal to 17 percent of Afghanistan’s $20 billion

total annual economic output — could be used for aid. The court should rule consistent with that great humanitarian need, just as the United States has been attempting to facilitate relief, in part by being flexible about applying economic sanctions laws to aid organizations. The Taliban, by contrast, is increasing its people’s suffering, in part by oppressing those who protest peacefully for their rights, and in part by detaining aid workers. Time and again, the Taliban has prom- ised moderation and inclusivity. A good way to regain international funding and recognition would be to stop violating that promise.

Aid for Afghans — not the Taliban

The Biden administration made a good call on Afghanistan’s frozen assets.

ZOHRA BENSEMRA/REUTERS A worker from the U.N. human rights agency directs displaced Afghan women into a distribution center for supplies on the outskirts of Kabul on Oct. 28, 2021.

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concerns until he offered his view of what men need to be needed: “We imagine ourselves as builders, soldiers, workers, brothers — part of something bigger than ourselves.” What about caretakers, nur- turers and parents? Until society values equally a wide range of roles to which any individual regardless of gender can contribute and that also meet a universal desire to be needed, we will not solve the problems he identifies. Mr. Yang’s view of masculinity only perpetuates inequality and divisive- ness. Perhaps Mr. Yang and his friends should expand their conception of how they can contribute rather than becoming “detached” and “dropping out.” Joan McIntyre, Arlington

While reading Andrew Yang’s Feb. 9 Wednesday Opinion essay, “The boys are not all right,” I could not resist queuing up Tammy Wynette’s “Stand by Your Man.” Yes, I admit that there are real challeng- es for boys in schools, and men no longer dominate the ranks of college-goers. Yet men are still paid more than women, with the last reporting by Payscale showing that women make 82 cents for every dollar men make. All those successful women, so little reward. And, still, I bet most of those women who are crowding men out of colleges end up working for men when they graduate, funneled into middle-management roles, because, well, they are women. And men are suffering because they are men. Nancy Bolin, Falls Church

I was sympathetic to Andrew Yang’s

Stand by your man, I guess

David Zipper’s Feb. 6 Outlook essay, “Companies are still racing to make self-driving cars. But why?,” closed by asking the question: Why should we be excited about this technology? His piece laid out several reasons we should not. However, there is another reason not mentioned: the challenge of getting people to accept the ethical implica- tions of the accidents that will inevita- bly occur even if there are far fewer of them. Now, when people are killed or injured in car accidents, we can blame human drivers whose deficiencies we can understand or even forgive, and we can punish lawbreakers. Having a human killed or injured by a programmed machine will be psychologically wrench- ing in a much different way. Donald O. Weitzman, McLean

Go slow on self-driving cars

MICHAEL DE ADDER

 Letters can be sent to [email protected]. Submissions must be exclusive to The Post and i nclude the writer’s address and telephone numbers. Writers whose letters are under consideration for publication will be contacted.

The Washington Post - USA (2022-02-13)

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