Racism is a public health emergency
The United States has yet to get the racism “virus” under control, it doesn’t help to have a super spreader in the White House. It is a tragic consequence of our collective, institutional infection that the police continue to kill and discriminate against black men and women and get away with it. It is tragic that episodes like the white female in New York City calling the cops on a black birdwatcher continue to occur. It is appalling to have a president who condones armed white protestors while essentially calling for violence against black protesters.
It is amazing black Americans don’t rise up more often against the police, voter suppression, economic inequality, unequal justice and incarceration, housing segregation and toxic neighborhoods. Merely driving and jogging are high risk behaviors for black Americans in many communities. I think most whites don’t know that between 1918 and 1921 almost 250 black Americans were lynched, some of them World War I veterans. My white grandparents were alive then (they didn’t talk about it), I am sure black families remember that and so much more.
It is way past time to treat racism as a public health emergency.
Jim Owen
Belfast
Our fellow countrymen
Many things can be true at once. COVID-19 should be taken seriously, but we should take every action possible to support the careful reopening of our country. The president was not always consistent in his remarks regarding coronavirus, but he allowed the federal government to marshall every available resource while maintaining the Constitutional balance of federalism.
George Floyd’s death is an evil tragedy, but I believe cops as a rule care for their communities. America’s past and present are marred with failings, but it is the world’s best and greatest hope for enduring freedom. Protesting against injustice is admirable, but destroying your neighbors’ lives is not. The president’s callous Twitter statements hurt us in our country’s raw moment, but ultimately I think he wants to make the country a better place.
It is a national tragedy how all issues now are wedge issues. We divide into camps the moment a national story occurs. It’s impossible to have a nuanced view of good and evil, good policy and bad policy, uniting rhetoric and necessary rhetoric. May we remember the people we live, work, and play with are our fellow countrymen whose fates as Americans are tied to our own.
James Rudolph
Bowdoin
Floyd’s final minutes
Can you imagine what George Floyd was thinking, feeling in those last few minutes that his air, his life was slowly being crushed out? He was begging for air — life!
All the police officer had to do was lift his knee. It’s so sad.
John Tiedje
Gorham
The rest of the story
Linda Porter’s praise for Donald Trump and Susan Collins in a recent letter to the BDN focused on the passage of the CARES Act as “phenomenal work” for Maine. Supporting the CARES Act is a no brainer. It is the rest of the story that is troubling.
Our world has been twisted into a reality for which we have few rules. But rather than uniting us, Trump incites division by turning a health care crisis into a partisan spitting match and promotes violent retribution for a country protesting the murder and torture of yet another black man.
Sen. Susan Collins finally came out with a statement condemning the president’s despicable church photo op. She is one of the few Republicans who has. But for too long she has allowed a deeply conservative and, I believe, corrupt Republican Senate to manipulate and use her to, in particular, appoint ultra conservative judges.
I think Porter must be ignoring the grave danger Trump poses by his anti-science, anti-medicine messaging on the virus and his promoting of brute force to quell an angry, grieving country. She must be ignoring that a “moderate” senator has succumbed over and over to the pressure to join forces with an extremist Republican Senate.
I am glad that the CARES Act was passed and a Maine business is being acknowledged. But I can not pretend these elected servants of the republic are less than who they are.
Jo Trafford
Portland
Protecting the elderly
Statistics suggest elderly people are more likely to be harmed by the virus. When people refuse to wear masks and refuse to keep distance they represent a threat to the elderly!
Stop making the elderly cry out, “I can’t breathe!”
Earl Kunstman
Bangor
Keep up the pressure
The unconscionable lack of action to prevent the more than 100,000 coronavirus pandemic deaths, the ongoing climate catastrophe, the more than 250,000 dead from poverty and related issues, and the continuous cavalier police killings of black people — they are all connected. Each stems from hubris and arrogant disregard for human life, that of our fellow living beings, and science.
Get active in the movement for black lives, which demands equal justice and you’ll find allies in the fight for a better public health response. Join with the workers who strike for paid sick leave so they won’t spread the virus, and you’ll find compatriots who’ll work to save the Clean Air Act. The movements can work together.
Protect the vulnerable, the poor and jobless. And adapt to a more renewable and sustainable economy. Industrial polluters seem to seek out locations to do their dirty work where the population is desperate for jobs, and has a little political power. Now the Post Office is threatened when people need it to safely vote in November. The Environmental Protection Agency is being eviscerated.
Let’s keep up the pressure. It won’t bring back those we’ve lost, but we can possibly prevent more deaths.
Haydee Foreman
Blue Hill
What Guilford visit says about Trump
Everything we need to know about our president is wrapped up in the simple story that all of the swabs produced in Guilford on the day of his visit had to be destroyed. Why? Potentially because our role model in chief decided not to wear a mask.
And kudos to Gov. Janet Mills for speaking her truth to his power. I’m proud to be a Mainer with her as our leader.
Craig Kesselheim
Southwest Harbor