The Washington Post - USA (2022-01-19)

A22 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19 , 2022

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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LEVEN HOURS of terror in a Texas synagogue ended m ercifully this past weekend when the three remaining hostages escaped without injury. That was due in large measure to the smart thinking and quick actions of the s ynagogue’s rabbi, who engineered the flight from a g unman. The attack by an armed British citizen is being investigated as an act of terrorism. Among the troubling q uestions that must be an- swered is how did Malik Faisal Akram — who reportedly had a c riminal record and a history of mental illness and was known to British intelligence — even manage to get into the United States? And how did he get a gun? Saturday’s events at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, between Dallas and Fort Worth, were another horrifying example of the antisemitism that contin- ues to haunt the world. That Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker knew what to do after he and his congregation’s worship- ers were held at gunpoint was a result of the increased threats faced by the Jewish community. After the 2018 mass shoot- ing at the Tree of Life synagogue in

Pittsburgh, in which 11 people were killed by an assailant shouting antise- mitic slurs, synagogues across the county focused more attention and resources on security. Rabbi Cytron-Walker said he had taken part in at least four active- threat trainings in recent years. “When your life is threatened, you need to do whatever you can to get to safety,” he told “CBS Mornings,” recounting how he threw a chair at the assailant and yelled “run” to the two other people who were still being held hostage. Mr. Akram, 44, identified by authorities as the gunman, was fatally shot by law enforcement officers who rushed the suspect after the hostages made their escape. He had demanded the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscien- tist convicted in 2010 of attempting to kill U.S. military personnel in Afghani- stan. People who heard Mr. Akram on a Facebook live stream of services, which showed part of the attack, said he chose Congre gation Beth Israel because of its proximity to the federal prison in Fort Worth where Ms. Siddiqui is being held and because “America only cares about Jewish lives.”

According to The Post’s Devlin Barrett, Matt Zapotosky, William Booth and Jen- nifer Hassan, Mr. Akram has been known to security officials in Britain. The BBC reported that he had been investigated in 2020 by Britain’s counterintelligence and security agency and placed on a watch list as a “subject of interest” before it was concluded that he no longer posed a threat. According to his brother, Mr. Akram had a well-known history of mental health problems and a criminal record. “How was he allowed to get a visa and acquire a gun?” asked the brother. Good questions. After 9/11, strict security protocols were put in place to screen out people coming to the United States with the aim of doing harm. What were the circumstances of Mr. Akram’s entry through New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Dec. 29; was there a human mistake or a failure in the system that needs to addressed? It will be important for authorities to determine whether Mr. Akram acted alone. That it was seemingly so easy for him to acquire a gun — reportedly buying it off the street — underscores once again the complete folly of American gun laws.

Unanswered questions

How did the Texas synagogue attacker get into the U.S. — and how did he get a gun?

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N ISSUING an executive order banning mask mandates in Virginia public schools, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin said he was standing up for parents and their right to decide what’s best for their kids. In fact, he was standing squarely against the large majority of Virginians, including parents, who support mask mandates in schools for their own children and for others. The right response to Mr. Youngkin’s order is resolute resistance by the state’s school districts, especially in regions where the virus is running rampant — which is most places these days. The Centers for Disease Control and Preven- tion and the American Academy of Pedi- atrics (AAP) strongly recommend contin- ued mask-wearing for children in schools, a stance that Virginia’s own chapter of the AAP reiterated in response to Mr. Youngkin’s order. They are the health experts; they should be heeded by responsible school officials. Mr. Youngkin, who issued the order upon being inaugurated on Saturday, has framed his decision as promoting liberty. What nonsense. Virginia law requires

that children under the age of 18 be buckled up when they are in moving vehicles; parents are legally liable if they are not. There is no exemption to that rule based on individual “liberty”; it is grounded in personal safety and public health, just as mask mandates are. By his action, what the governor really promotes is the virus, and its chances of even more virulent transmission. He does so as the omicron variant spreads, driv- ing up cases and hospitalizations across the nation and the commonwealth. It is true that children are less likely than adults to become severely ill from contracting the coronavirus, or to be hospitalized or die. It is also the case that some 8.5 million American children have tested positive for the virus in the past two years, and nearly 11 percent of those cases were added in the last week of December and the first week of January, according to tracking data from the AAP. Each week, children represent roughly some 17 percent of new cases; since the start of September, 3.4 million kids have tested positive. Those are huge numbers. They mean

that even if children are less likely than adults to transmit the virus to other adults in a school setting, as data suggest, even a small rate of child-to-adult transmission will yield many new adult cases. Some of those adults will be especially vulnerable owing to preexisting health conditions. Some of them will get very sick; and some are likely to die — all in the name of Mr. Youngkin’s warped idea of personal liberty. By his order, Mr. Youngkin is catering to a Trumpist minority of Virginians. More than 70 percent of Virginians support the K-12 school mask mandate issued by the state health commissioner in August. And that was at a t ime when covid-19 transmission was a fraction of its current level. In attempting to ban mask mandates in schools, Mr. Youngkin is emulating the Republican governors of Texas and Flori- da, who have faced lengthy court fights to enforce their will. That’s a mistake in a moderate state such as Virginia, whose record in combating the coronavirus has been strong relative to other states — until now.

Mr. Youngkin’s illogic on masks

Banning mandates for face coverings isn’t about ‘liberty.’ It’s about Trumpism.

By appointing Andrew Wheeler as Virginia’s next secretary of natural and historic resources, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has missed an opportunity to bring Virginians together in the cause of promoting business opportunities and en- hancing the environment. As the Jan. 10 editorial “A thumb in the eye of environmentalists” reminded us, Mr. Wheeler brings to this appoint- ment a record of environmental program destruction as President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency administrator. Mr. Youngkin should recall that some of the nation’s greatest environmental accomplish- ments have been secured by Republican EPA administrators, including William Ruckelshaus and William Reilly, and their counterparts under Republican governors in various states. Surely, Mr. Youngkin can identify an accom- plished Republican who recognizes the importance of maintaining and expand- ing sound environmental protections in the commonwealth. The Carlyle Group, where Mr. Young- kin was co-chief executive, has said “cli- mate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, creating unprecedent- ed risks and opportunities for businesses across all industries.” Mr. Youngkin should take a cue from his former business colleagues and push for sound environmental management in the commonwealth that will increase business opportunities, reduce business risks and foster a healthier environment for all of us. R ichard Liroff, Arlington

Failing to see the options

In her Jan. 12 op-ed, “What if the GOP becomes a majority party?,” Megan McArdle made some good points. But she might have gotten carried away when she posed the question “What sort of political positions should the left adopt, if Repub- licans start to outpoll them?” Hmm. Maybe those that align with our principles? Is there any room for principle, or should all our positions be driven by polling alone? Harry Appelman, Silver Spring

Principles over polls

The Jan. 13 Metro article “GOP con- gressman compares vaccine mandate to Nazism” reported that Rep. Warren Da- vidson (R-Ohio) compared D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s (D) upcoming vaccine mandate to Nazi Germany. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said the same thing about mask mandates. Last week, my husband and I flew home from Germany, where we were visiting our son who supports our U.S. military forces there. It is illegal to display a swastika in Germany, and the evil of the Nazi regime is publicly and clearly communicated in schools, mu- seums and memorials. To equate lifesav- ing vaccines with a movement to exter- minate humans is preposterous. Such remarks mirror the incendiary rhetoric used by Hitler and all dictators to inflame emotions and create fear. During our visit, we enjoyed German restaurants after easily complying with the mandate to show our fully vaccinated status. We felt safe and relaxed eating out as hospitals filled up at home with unvaccinated Americans. Sallie McElrath, Hyattsville

Feeling safe — with mandates

We all have a stake in reversing the steep college enrollment declines reported in the Jan. 14 Politics & the Nation article “Alarm stirred as college enrollment falls again.” Rather than continuing to demonize higher education as bad for the United States, political leaders should legislate and govern in ways that recognize the role U.S. colleges and universities play in delivering the talent needed for an increasingly knowledge- based economy. Congress can start by reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, now stuck in political gridlock. Everyone who advises students and families should share evi- dence that most college degrees are worth the investment of time and then support them in applying and complet- ing financial aid applications, which are down in number. Leaders of four-year colleges and universities and community colleges need to accelerate reforms so every program of study imparts the skills students need to obtain a good job and pursue a rewarding career. They can start by honestly assessing outcomes of their programs and investigating whether students — especially students of color and those from low-income f amilies — are concentrated in programs that do not lead to good jobs. If enrollments are to rebound, pro- spective students need to see that college leaders, advisers and politicians believe in them and share responsibility for ensuring their success during and after college. Josh Wyner, Washington The writer is executive director of the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program.

How to increase enrollment

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FREDERICK J. RYAN JR., Publisher and Chief Executive Officer

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COMPLICATED clash of government and industry interests threatened on Tuesday to force a torrent of flight cancellations and forestall technological revolution, all at once. The Federal Aviation Admin- istr ation, major airlines and wireless carriers have been in a months-long spat over the 5G rollout’s potential risk to air travel — a nd it reignited this week at the last minute. Americans who’ve never even heard the word “altimeter” before will be surprised to learn that the arcane instru- ments providing pilots with precise altitude readings have been standing in the way of the glorious future long promised by cellular providers. But it’s true: Astounding speed and ample cov- erage are finally supposed to arrive to 5G-equipped smartphones with the swi tching on of frequencies in the so- called C-band of spectrum, which Veri- zon and AT&T paid a pretty penny to snatch up in a Federal Communications Commission auction last year. They were planning to activate it earlier this winter. The problem? The safety-minded FAA was skittish — concerned that 5G signals could interfere with altimeters operating in the adjacent band of spectrum, confounding readings as planes plunged through rain or fog toward the runway. A plea from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urged the carriers reluctantly to delay, and then delay again. A deal finally was struck, but on Monday, two days before the twice-delayed launch, the FAA and airlines testing their tech- nology said they had discovered that too much 5G, beaming at too many airports, affects too many altimeters for a full rollout. The airlines warned that “huge swaths of the operating fleet... may need to be indefinitely grounded.” They said that “the nation’s commerce will grind to a halt.” The best resolution is likely an ex- panded version of the earlier agreement: buffer zones, maybe bigger than previously proposed, at more airports than previously proposed, until the least- c apable altimeters can be replaced and

the FAA determines what conditions the more advanced altimeters can handle. This is essentially what Verizon and AT&T committed to on Tuesday when they pushed back the activation of 5G on some towers. The question, however, remains: Why on earth is this happening only now? Each side blames the other — for not studying and solving the issue ahead of time, or for not providing enough data to allow it to be studied thoroughly at all. Normally, the FCC (which manages commercial spectrum) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (which manages federal government spectrum) would sit down together to detangle this sort of dispute. In this case, little detan- gling occurred until the last minute. The FAA is far from the only federal

agency for which use of this bandwidth is critical. Some senators believe the lesson is to update the memorandum that governs FCC-NTIA coordination or to craft a new process with a final-say adjudicator. Yet a simpler and more serious lesson might also have emerged. This dust-up spilled over from the previous administration, which allowed crucial positions, including for some time the chief of the NTIA, to remain empty. (This month, a new chief was finally confirmed.) More generally, Presi- dent Donald Trump’s White House dis- played disregard for the intricacies of the inner, quieter workings of the executive branch. These intricacies, it turns out, matter: to keep the lights on, to keep the planes flying and to keep our phones up to modern-day snuff.

A slowed 5G rollout

The resolution shouldn’t have taken this long.

STEFANI REYNOLDS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES An airliner takes off from Reagan National Airport on Tuesday.

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yet the pressure remains. With more than 330 million coronavirus cases worldwide, many corporations and gov- ernments had to consider issues such as that of an overworked populace and find alternatives. However, several solutions have been temporary. Luisa constantly fulfills requests without taking breaks, which only adds to her overall stress that flows out in tears throughout “Encanto.” Stress can be re- lieved only if its source is addressed in some manner. Workers must be helped by those who control their jobs, and they must also be helped by their communities. Though the article says to begin with a “thank you,” I think it would be wise to go beyond and actively participate in community activities and offer solace when anyone seems to be under pressure. Audrey Czarnecki, McLean

Karla L. Miller’s Jan. 16 Business column, “Timely lesson of ‘Encanto’ film: Worn-out workers need community support,” compared the stress of Luisa Mad- rigal, a character from “Encanto,” to the stress and responsibilities that people face today. I a pplaud this parallel between a fictional character and all who work to support their communities and themselves. As noted in the column, the pandemic has provided some flexibility for people,

We’re all under pressure

MICHAEL DE ADDER

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The Washington Post - USA (2022-01-19)

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