While I have been isolated since March, doing what I have been told to do, Marin school campuses are about to reopen in the midst of the worst of the pandemic (“Marin schools maintain reopening plans amid virus volatility,” Nov. 19).
Regardless of having been an educator in Marin for over 25 years, it is unfair and unjust to reopen schools, particularly for the largest, most vulnerable demographic in Marin, the seniors. While children are often asymptomatic, they are spreaders to the vulnerable.
I hear parents’ complaints about schools needing to be open, but for what? Socialization? There will be no socialization for students sitting behind plexiglass. There won’t be socialization without any school-related functions. Students and teachers have more opportunities for collaboration on Zoom than in school at all.
So what is it really about? Schools need to ask themselves that question and keep all community members safe. I’ve voted for all of the bonds for schools, now it is time for parents and communities to step up and keep students at home. The seniors in Marin outnumber all other members, yet our voices, the voices of the most vulnerable, go unheard.
— Susan Mariam, Tiburon
Throughout the course of this pandemic, I keep harkening back to the same hopeful sentiment. It could be another month or it could be another year, but there will come a time when Americans have access to a vaccine for COVID-19. For many people around the world, though, the hope of access to vaccines is far less certain.
Globally, diseases like polio and measles take thousands of lives every year. The difference between these diseases and COVID-19 is that these three diseases already have vaccines. The reason people around the world are still dying from these vaccine-preventable diseases is access.
But there is hope. Polio cases have decreased by 99% since 1988 and we are getting very close to completely eradicating the disease. Measles vaccines have saved 23 million lives since the year 2000 and a single lifesaving vaccine can be produced for less than $4.
So when it comes to this issue of access, there is one easy, tangible way you can help. Please contact Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Dianne Feinstein to voice your support for global childhood immunization programs. No one should have to suffer from a disease we already have the means to prevent.
— Kylie Clark, Novato
The most disturbing legacy of the outgoing administration is the idea that we, as citizens, no longer can trust any of the institutions that hold our democratic society together — not Congress, the courts, law enforcement, federal, state or local officials, the press, the electoral process or, ultimately, each other. Instead, it now seems that all are suspect and all with whom we disagree are “morons” or worse.
Lost is the idea that we need shared institutions and values to survive as a democracy. We should look out for each other. Under the recent order, loving your neighbors and even your enemies (look it up in the Bible, Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 5:44) has been written out of the equation, a curious anomaly of our religiously devout executive branch.
As this difficult year winds down, I hope we all try to treat each other with decency, respect and trust. Treat everyone as we would like to be treated ourselves. While we are at it, let’s include as part of this wearing masks and standing a few feet apart so we don’t infect other people.
Living in a society full of other humans requires this kind of accommodation, which is about as burdensome as having to drive on the same side of the road, and with similar public health benefits.
— Ben Ballard, Larkspur
Given Donald Trump’s antics over these last four long years (the latest being his rush to get a vaccine into circulation before the election and beating the dead horse of his well-deserved defeat), I don’t suppose there’s any way to jump-start his much-anticipated departure, is there?
If not, the spectacle of this aberration — a presidential poseur being carried out of the Oval Office kicking and screaming while blessing all the cheering throngs who (in the topsy-turvy recesses of his mind) gave him an additional four-year reign at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. — will be a sweet treat to start off 2021.
— John D. Schneider, San Rafael
