Gov. McMaster should support school mask mandates to save SC lives

Ban on mask mandates puts others at risk

Gov. Henry McMaster’s ideological blinders have rendered him incapable of common sense reasoning. The idea that all parents always know what’s best for their children is absurd. Bringing a child into the world doesn’t automatically make parents experts in child rearing. Of course, most parents are going to make decisions that they believe are in their child’s best interest, but other parents, for various reasons, are dysfunctional. They neglect or abuse their children, or are unable to separate their children’s needs from their own. Our governor seems to believe that the judgment of even the worst parents, regarding public health, is superior to that of pediatricians and experts in infectious diseases. A ban on mask mandates puts the “rights” of some parents over the rights of others to minimize the risk of their children being infected. I don’t see anyone arguing that wearing clothes in public should be a matter of personal choice. If we can be required by law to wear clothes in public places, then a mask mandate during a deadly pandemic certainly seems like a reasonable option.

- Jeff Koob, Columbia

Fundraising letter got it wrong

Yesterday, I received in the mail a lengthy fundraising letter from Sen. Tim Scott. He claims that the Democrats are “rabid socialists ... bent on destroying our country.” He uses the term “socialists” throughout his plea.

He ends the four-page diatribe against the Democrats with this: “As British philosopher Bertrand Russell famously said, ‘All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.’”

Perhaps Tim Scott should know, before he quotes people out of context, that Bertrand Russell was himself a socialist, and was very supportive of our great president Franklin Delano Roosevelt who ended the Great Depression with the New Deal, which gave us, among other helpful programs, Social Security.

- Susan Grey, Columbia

Climate, insurance risks growing

The Aug. 20 article “Climate risk becomes urgent issue for insurance industry” is timely in light of the damage inflicted by Hurricane Ida. This is the second consecutive year that a Category 4 hurricane has made landfall in Louisiana. Are losses of this magnitude to be built into their annual forecasts?

Insurance regulators in the U.S. are behind the curve compared to Europe and Asia, but they’re shifting. The new focus from New York’s Department of Insurance, an Executive Order from President Biden, and possible new SEC rules coming from the House and Senate are all focused on requiring insurers to consider climate-related financial risks.

I’m in banking so I’m no stranger to financial risk management, but it’s time to actually reduce the climate-related risk. The Energy Innovation Act (HR 2307) is a market-friendly carbon fee and dividend approach recommended by both economists and environmentalists. While regulators work on improving forecasting and financial reporting, I want Senators Graham and Scott to be leaders in reducing climate risk by supporting the carbon fee and dividend.

- Mary Gassel, Tega Cay

GOP’s cruel hoax

Republican leadership around the country and in South Carolina is perpetuating a cruel hoax. They are using a public health crisis for political purposes. Rather than using our best medical knowledge to fight and control a public health problem they are using a health crisis to gain political support. They want you to believe that measures to fight the pandemic are really attacks on our constitutional freedoms. This is pure hogwash. The constitutional freedoms we wish to protect are freedom of speech and the right to peaceful political protest. We have a long history of governmental actions which limit some actions in order to protect the community. How is requiring mask wearing different from requiring a driver’s license to drive? There are many examples where we already require vaccination that no one says are attacks on our freedom.

This demonization of the other party’s actions and creating fear in one’s own followers is standard operating procedure in politics these days. Unfortunately, done in the context of a public health crisis, these policies are killing people. I say wake up and throw them out.

- Peter H. Swanson, Columbia

Too many questions

I have grown leery and weary looking at press conferences from Washington. Specifically, I want to pinch the head off those reporters who want to know, in detail, military plans, methods and intentions. Why do they need to know what’s going to happen before it happens? With the world watching and listening to such broadcasts, don’t they realize they can put lives at risk and disrupt operations by broadcasting to the world? The briefers have much more tolerance than I’d have. Don’t give me that “freedom of the press” crap. By the tone of some questions, they want to know too much, primarily to be equipped to criticize.

- Eugene D. Allen, Columbia

Duncan wrong on impeachment

I am astounded that Rep. Jeff Duncan supports an article of impeachment for “dereliction of duty.” He says that he is “heartsick at the president’s failure to fulfill his duty that has resulted in American deaths and thousands of Americans and Afghan allies being abandoned.” Duncan said that Biden’s actions “proved he is a threat to our national security and the Constitution.” Where was Rep. Duncan’s outrage when President Trump unilaterally withdrew our troops from Syria to the benefit of Russia, Syria, and Iran? Not only did he not discuss this action with our allies, but he didn’t heed the advice of our military leaders. His actions were a rash decision that left thousands of Kurdish rebel fighters and innocent Kurdish citizens vulnerable to a Turkish attack on the Kurds, who had fought alongside the Americans for years.

Rep. Duncan has the right to feel any way he wishes about President Biden. My complaint is his blatant hypocrisy. There were so many opportunities for him to show his concern for the Constitution during Trump’s presidency, yet not once did he say anything. Space will not allow a list of examples.

- Toby R. Burleson, Columbia

Closing bars bad business

Within the last year, a number of lawsuits have been brought against bars in 5 Points in an attempt to shut them down. This has resulted in the closure of two bars and reduced attendance at the rest. While this may seem like a win against underage drinking, I believe the opposite is true. We were all in college once and we all know that college kids will always find a way to drink and have fun with little regard to the consequences. Now, instead of them doing it somewhere where that money is taxed and they are somewhat supervised, they have turned to house parties instead. At least at bars, students could be cut off, girls had someone to talk to if they felt unsafe, and fights would be broken up by bartenders and bouncers. Now, there is no regulation on how much they will drink and what drugs they will combine with that. It is significantly less safe for girls as they have no one to turn to and fights can escalate to gunfire. Within a year, I am sure we will see the adverse effects of these bars closing, and I hope it is not too late.

- Jeremy Lewis, Columbia

Get vaccines to those in need

I believe it is unconscionable that inept DHEC employees let willing, vulnerable SC citizens not receive the COVID-19 vaccine while offering various enticements to others to get the vaccine. I actually became angry as I read the excellent investigative article by Zak Koeske. I won’t repeat the failings of DHEC from the article, but those employees should, at the least, be reprimanded or suspended or fired. What do they have to say for themselves?

- Marcia Brown, Columbia