Recent editorials from North Carolina newspapers:
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April 22
Winston-Salem Journal on observing Earth Day:
In the middle of a pandemic that is affecting our health and livelihoods, the search for a silver lining can seem like a fool’s errand.
But an interesting side effect of our current state of affairs is the degree to which the Earth seems to be rebounding. Stories are circulating from locations around the world about a dramatic change in air quality and clarity - perhaps most dramatically in India, where residents of Punjab say they’re able to see the Himalayas, some 125 miles away, clearly for the first time in 30 years - all because of a reduction in air pollution generated by industrial activities.
Similar reports have come from China, Italy and Los Angeles.
We may not have noticed much change in the air quality in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, but residents have reported a proliferation of wildlife - deer, rabbits, foxes - returning to residential areas where traffic - foot and car - has been reduced because of sequestering. The natural world is thriving without us. And yet, our parks and greenways are getting more use as people relieved of their daily commute also relieve themselves of cabin fever by walking, biking and running.
This is, of course, a backward way of cleaning up our environment - and it’s creating other problems, such as significant increases in medical and grocery waste. But, whatever the trials of the day, some of these developments bring a certain degree of delight. And they lead to the question: Why can’t it always be like this?
We could have cleaner air. We could have pristine water. We could have wildlife in our yards and more green areas to tromp through. But we’d have to change our priorities - and our policies. We’d have to change the systems that make pollution the cost of doing business. We’d have to make a conscious effort to be stewards of our surroundings rather than mere tenants.
Earth Day 2020 - today is its 50th anniversary - will be celebrated in a different fashion this year than usual. Groups aren’t likely to gather to plant trees and flowers and share a dish. But we hope that people will still spend some time reflecting on our relationship to and influence on the planet.
Before the coronavirus knocked us back on our heels, we’d been noting several positive developments, including increased action on climate change - a problem that could have a more profound effect on us, in the long run, than COVID-19. Coastal cities from Boston to Norfolk to Miami are now trying to figure out how to mitigate the effects of rising seas - and how to pay for doing so. In Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam has signed legislation to support the goal of the state going completely carbon-free by 2045.
And grassroots groups like the Citizens Climate Lobby are trying to sign Republican and Democratic legislators to their Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, a plan that would reduce pollution while maintaining a strong economy.
Unfortunately, challenges remain. The Trump administration has rolled back dozens of environmental rules, including auto emission standards, in the name of economic development - because “the greatest economy in the history of America,” as President Trump has called it, wasn’t enough. More must be sacrificed.
But it’s not too late to change course. If we’ve learned nothing else from COVID-19, we know now that we can change, when we so choose. Just as we’ve adapted our habits to deal with the current cruel reality, we could change our ways to nurture a planet in ways that would benefit us for generations to come.
For more information, go to www.earthday.org/earth-day-2020.
Online: https://www.journalnow.com
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April 21
The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer on “ReOpenNC” protests:
Moral Monday protesters once regularly marched on North Carolina’s Legislative Building demanding better teacher pay and Medicaid expansion. Now we have people who plan to protest every Tuesday against the mandatory business closures imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
You might call their movement Mortal Tuesdays, a protest that calls to mind a twisted version of New Hampshire’s state motto – “Breathe mask-free and die.” Protesters turned out for the rally on April 21, a few hundred, sign-toting, flag-waving, horn-honking people declaring their opposition to the “tyranny” of Gov. Roy Cooper, whose stay-at-home order has made him guilty of saving lives.
The protest, dubbed Reopen NC, is part of a national drive to lift stay-at-home orders that have kept many businesses closed and caused a huge increase in unemployment. The restlessness is understandable. The protests are not.
If states simply “reopen,” their economies will not be instantly restored. People will be reluctant to gather in groups from arenas to restaurants. At the same time, COVID-19 infections will spike and another round of stay-at-home orders will come. States can reopen by degrees as COVID-19 testing shows a lesser risk, but a full return to a vibrant economy may not come until treatments or a vaccine can provide confidence that it is safe to resume all activity.
Nonetheless, the protesters, egged on by Internet conspiracy theorists, right-wing groups and President Trump came out at 11 a.m. They declared their freedom to assemble - social distancing be damned - and so they did, gathering in a mostly shuttered downtown and threatening their own and others’ health.
A counter-protester, a nurse, wore a personal protection gown on which she printed a message: “Rally together, die alone.” The protesters circled the Capitol, rebels against health-safety rules passing beneath a bronze solder high atop a memorial to the Confederate dead.
The group had the appearance of a Trump rally on the march, overwhelmingly white, skeptical of all authority, but accepting of the president’s self-declared perfection. But it’s Trump, not Cooper or other governors, who brought the nation to this pass.
The reason the virus has run rampant in the U.S. is because the president squandered a month of preparation before sounding a national alarm. Now his continuing failure to produce enough COVID-19 tests leaves governors blind to the extent of the disease and forced to default to broad stay-at-home orders. The Trump administration is compounding the economic pain by bumbling the delivery of relief.
The economic losses are widespread, while the deadly effects of the disease are targeted. It disproportionately kills the elderly and the poor, people who live and work in close quarters, who still take public transportation and have long lacked adequate medical care that now leaves them more vulnerable. That is a pattern not lost on the protesters and their sympathizers, though not directly expressed. They think they can survive this “flu.” Others are on their own.
For all that, there was good news on April 21. The protest was small, a few hundred turned out in a state of 10 million. The great majority of North Carolinians still support the scientists and their government leaders who are urging restraint. They are committed to common sacrifice and mutual care. And they, in their great absence on April 21, support the hope that the people of this state and the United States will prevail in this together, despite those who are noisily deserting from the common effort.
Online: https://www.newsobserver.com
Online: https://www.charlotteobserver.com
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April 21
The Fayetteville Observer on consequences of reopening businesses too soon:
Protestors and some politicians here in North Carolina and in other states are calling for an end to stay-at-home orders and an end to business closures to protect against the spread of the novel coronavirus.
We believe it is too soon. An analogy making the rounds on social media serves well. To lift restrictions now would be the same as concluding: “The parachute has slowed our rate of descent; we can take it off now.”
That particular analogy might have resonance in this community, home of the paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne - people who know the life-saving value of a properly deployed parachute.
And we must never forget that, in spite of the temporary economic pain, the core issue must always be saving lives. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and state public health officials have said that social distancing is working to help “flatten the curve,” which helps keep our hospitals from being overrun by people seeking treatment for COVID-19, the mainly respiratory illness caused by the virus.
But we are still very much in a fight.
Fayetteville’s District 5 councilman Johnny Dawkins, in an open letter he posted on Facebook, called for Mayor Mitch Colvin to end the city’s 9 p.m. curfew. He also called on the mayor to tell Cooper the city’s businesses should be allowed to reopen. (Currently, a limited number of businesses remain open, including restaurants that can do delivery or takeout only, grocery stores, pharmacies and others deemed essential under the governor’s order.)
Dawkins, noting that Fayetteville is primarily a retail service economy, wrote: “Let our citizens show the world, during this slow, organized opening, that we will continue to be responsible, we will continue to ‘social distance’, we will continue to ask the Lord to protect us, and we will continue to patronize the many businesses whose employees depend on us, for their livelihoods.”
Absent from the council member’s letter is any mention of adequate, mass testing for the coronavirus. The notion of testing has also been largely absent from the protests that have been broadcast from various state capitals - where participants, many openly flouting the 6-foot rule of social distancing, have instead raised a laundry list of concerns from gun rights to rallying for Donald Trump’s reelection.
Public health officials believe the only way the U.S. safely reopens is with mass testing on a scale that the country has not begun to achieve. The testing must be accompanied by sufficient health personnel to conduct contact tracing, which is locating all who may have been infected by individual carriers. Mass testing and tracing have been key tools in countries that have done a better job limiting new infections, including in South Korea, Germany, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Iceland and Singapore.
As of last week, a little more than 3 million people have been tested for COVID-19 in the U.S. Several models show that, at minimum, the country needs to be testing at least half a million Americans per day, and some models say that many millions must be tested daily. The reason is simple: The virus, which has no vaccine and no medically accepted treatment, has gotten away from us. We do not know who has it. Sending people back into close quarters with others too soon has been compared to playing Russian roulette with people’s lives.
The economic pain of these lockdown orders is real, for all of us. The news business is not immune; the drop in business-related advertising has caused layoffs and pay reductions across the industry. Every reasonable person knows that this situation cannot continue indefinitely. We could indeed reach the point that the widespread economic damage will cause worst health outcomes than the virus, particularly among groups already vulnerable because of existing socioeconomic circumstances.
We are hopeful a gradual easing of restrictions will start in North Carolina and elsewhere within the next couple of months. Cooper said last week that easing would be based on three factors: Testing, tracing and trends on COVID-19′s spread. He acknowledged “We can’t stay home forever,” but he also accepts the scientific truth that we are not ready yet.
Any move to reopen the state, or the country, without adequate testing would only lead to a reemergence of the outbreak, which could lead to even more economic pain if we are forced to re-introduce social distancing to stop the spread.
Our parachute is deployed. Let’s let it lower us safely to the ground.
Online: https://www.fayobserver.com
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