SC parent wants state, governor to help protect children from COVID-19 in schools
Parent struggles with back to school
As our kids go back to school, many parents are struggling. Normally, my husband and I would be getting our kids excited about new teachers and new friends. How does that work during a global health crisis? “Hey, kids, here’s hoping you don’t end up on a respirator.”
Gov. Henry McMaster rigged the system so that if schools mandate masks, the state will pull their funding. Translation - esoteric quasi-political issues are more important than children.
The Delta variant makes COVID more contagious. More kids are being hospitalized. There are long-lasting neurological and autoimmune effects. Anti-mask policies gamble on our children’s health.
While I am grateful to the Beaufort County School District for hosting free vaccine clinics and finding loopholes in McMaster’s anti-mask pandering, I urge school officials to mandate masks and vaccinations. The recent Supreme Court ruling that blocked a request to deny Indiana University’s vaccine mandate gives precedent. Also, the Beaufort County School District is located in the richest county of South Carolina, which gives them the power to fight back.
As a parent, I am at a loss for what to do. Isn’t it my job to protect my kids, to keep them safe and healthy? How are parents supposed to do that when our governor is setting everyone up for failure? How did wearing a mask become an important issue for people to fight for, but our community’s health isn’t something to fight for?
We need grown-ups in all aspects of leadership more than ever. Unfortunately, you won’t find them in South Carolina.
- Heather Bragg, Bluffton
Gambling with our health
All safety protocols have been thrown to the wind. I have seen massive hordes of people huddled together in cramped quarters vying to dine out. Thousands daily paying to be served seafood and Diet Coke. No one wears a mask. And no one really knows who’s been vaccinated. I don’t know what to make of this. Everyone seems nonchalant about the whole thing, and bluntly, I am, too. I’m not picking a political side (they’re all terrible as far as I’m concerned), but if the public wants to gamble with their health, let them. Nobody is putting the brakes on nicotine. Nobody is slowing down any of our other collective self-destructive behavior, so just let it run its course.
- Sandon Preston, Hilton Head
No endless wars
Fifty-two years ago I was sent to a war I did not support, but I did my patriotic duty. I came home, but 59,000 of my brothers did not. The last remaining Americans were removed by helicopter from the embassy roof. I am seeing the same situation in Afghanistan. President Biden said the Afghans have 300,000 well trained soldiers against 75,000 Taliban fighters and Afghanistan would not fall to the Taliban. In the same broadcast, I saw Taliban driving American Humvees. In our rush to leave, the infrastructure was left to the enemy. Stop regime changing and peddling democracy to people who don’t understand or want it unless you are prepared to stay, perhaps indefinitely. I am sad and depressed that politicians sent me to Vietnam and countless thousands to Afghanistan. In the long run, the only thing I see is an enemy who can outlast us, and then give the bill for fighting all these endless and needless wars to our children and grandchildren. Be prepared to do the job or keep out.
- John Gerstle, Hilton Head
Help our allies
Biden is a good president, but he needs to pay attention to a severe problem in Afghanistan. as people who were promised an escape to our country for all their work are now climbing all over each other to get a piece of the floor on any plane to anywhere to not be killed by the Taliban.
People who helped Americans, like translators, were promised a quick escape to the USA for themselves and their families. Instead, they are in abject fear, trying to escape. They should have been helped out before any U.S. soldiers left. Today there’s no time to apply for a visa with mountains of paper-work. The Taliban are in the capital. Since Biden is re-sending some soldiers there, he should authorize a few to get the helpers safely out. They literally will be killed if they have to wait longer. The original promise when they started working was relocation to the United States for them and their families.
After the Vietnam war, I taught those refugees who had helped the American soldiers as cooks, translators, and drivers. Every single one told me, “If they hadn’t gotten us out right away, we would have been killed by the North Vietnamese.” That’s what happens to courageous people who help American soldiers. Forget red tape Biden and get them out now.
- Fran Reed, Hilton Head
What about home rule?
I’ve read with interest the articles about criticism of Governor McMaster over the budget proviso. First, because it does appear to have been a misstep to ban universal masking policies in schools, given the rise in COVID cases and public health experts’ calls for masking. Second, because I’ve heard nothing from local legislators about their support for the concept of “home rule.”
Back when local plastic bag bans, and state-level restrictions on them, were all the rage, our legislators railed against such state-level restrictions. As Bluffton’s own Rep. Bill Herbkersman put it in a Feb. 13, 2018 op-ed, “One of the tenets of my kind of conservatism is that we should try to keep the regulation of local issues as local as possible. The government closest to the problem probably has better information and a closer relationship to those most affected by the matter.”
Regardless of area legislators’ agreement or disagreement with public health experts’ advice on masking, one would think they’d oppose or attempt to roll back the proviso based on the concept of home rule, if only for the sake of logical consistency. But something tells me that’s a bit too much to ask.
- Alex Moody, Beaufort