Jan. 6 was attack on the U.S.: Letters to editor of The Fresno Bee, Oct. 17, 2021

Jan. 6 attack on Constitution

It was Constitution Day on Sept. 17, an event that I heard nothing about until the day had already passed. A shame.

America is defined as its borders, it’s citizens, its collective history, its pop culture and spiritual values. Yes, but I say America is in essence our founding documents. The Declaration of Independence is a great statement of intent, but the Constitution makes America. It lays out how we govern ourselves, what rights we hold inviolate, and how we resolve our differences. It’s why we are different.

Then there was Jan. 6. They crashed through locked doors and windows, beat the police and attempted to thwart the Constitution while calling for the deaths of constitutional officers. The Constitution just wasn’t their cup of tea, anymore — fair elections and the electoral college didn’t produce their selfish outcome. Their call to arms was “Make America great” — ridiculous since the Constitution is America. They were un-Americans. We must remember all of what we saw and those, even now, who want to convince us we didn’t see anything.

Africa can use U.S. vaccines not needed

After reading about the South African vaccine train, Transvaco, I firmly believe the U.S. needs to step up its aid to vaccine distribution in Africa. At current vaccination rates, it’s unlikely the continent will be able to vaccinate more than 40% of the population by the end of the year.

The Borgen Project, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting extreme global poverty via U.S. foreign aid, said it best: “Pandemics have no borders.” Letting a virus ravage an entire continent will end up hurting the U.S. It puts us all at risk of facing a more contagious, more deadly variant, and hurts our economy as it devastates the same emerging markets that U.S. companies are trying to invest in.

I know the U.S. has its own issues vaccinating the population, but our problem is with conspiracies and politics, rather than accessibility. The unvaccinated population in Africa is being turned away from vaccination sites because they have no more vaccine doses. Meanwhile the U.S. is allowing doses to expire while our unvaccinated population spreads misinformation. We should be donating doses instead of wasting them.

Education, motherhood

The Valley Voice, “Pregnancy does not doom a woman’s chances for education, career, says Fresno State student,” by Michelle Ferrer, argues that pregnancy and motherhood do not hinder a female student from pursuing her goals in education. It was in response to Paxton Smith’s viral valedictorian speech.

However, motherhood does severely change the course of one’s education and career, and though it does not doom it, it does make it significantly harder to achieve these goals.

Ferrer argues that, “according to Paxton, hopes, aspirations, dreams, and efforts for the future end when pregnancy begins.” However, though motherhood does not diminish the ability to achieve those dreams, it does make achieving them significantly harder. What Ferrer neglects to acknowledge, and what Paxon is trying to say, is that, though motherhood may motivate one to achieve their educational goals, it is far easier for a female student to achieve academic success without having to split their time and energy between education and a child.

Having a child while trying to achieve these goals is a significant challenge in splitting energy between school and a child, and needs to be acknowledged when talking about parent-students.

Biden correct on pull-out decision

An article in the Opinion section Sept. 23 unfairly implied that President Joe Biden set the stage with his quick withdrawal from Afghanistan, putting the Taliban in charge, resulting in possible starvations and malnutrition of millions of children. The president made the correct decision to quickly exit the country for the following reasons:

1) After 20 years the Afghanistan government could not convince its existing population and new generation that they were more credible than the Taliban. They laid down their weapons.

2) The Taliban always maintained significant control as evidenced by President Trump’s negotiating for withdrawal in February 2020. They subsequently became more emboldened demanding the U.S evacuate by a certain date. So Biden could pull out or send in more troops to fight the Taliban again, which would have cost more U.S. and Afghan lives.

In approximately 15 days, over 130,000 Afghans were evacuated. If the withdrawal period had been extended, we could have conceivably evacuated half their population, but where would we send them? Everybody was happy in Afghanistan with the $300 million per day U.S. support; however, we can’t be responsible for every child in the world. After all, they all have parents.

9/11 showed American unity

The remembrance of 9/11 from 20 years ago was a good time to put things into perspective, especially the heroism of those who died and those who lost loved ones.

It was truly a great tragedy, but we remember it also brought us together as a nation in so many ways, although that unity has dissipated so much in the past two decades.

I can't help but compare the loss on 9/11 (nearly 3,000 dead and many more injured and otherwise suffering) to our ongoing pandemic tragedy. I would not have submitted this letter before the 9/11 remembrance to avoid minimizing the pain of those who suffered losses 20 years ago. However, our current tragedy has resulted in more than 700,000 deaths and countless thousands more suffering from long-term health problems and/or loved ones. And this is just in the U.S. during a global pandemic.

While there was misinformation shortly after 9/11, it cannot come close to the misunderstandings and misrepresentations about today's pandemic, many based on political affiliation. I fear too many more people are going to unnecessarily die and/or suffer. Partisanship causes many of us to protect ourselves and, more importantly, protect others, including those we love, but partisanship also causes others not to take precautions, unnecessarily exposing others, including those they love.

After 9/11's tragedies we proved that we could overcome challenges by working together. It's a lesson worth remembering today.

Fire agencies must work together

“60 Minutes” recently reported about generous efforts by Southern California firefighting agencies to bring several state-of-the-art night-vision helicopters — which can fight wildfires all night long — to Northern California. The effort was not welcomed with open arms.

Why? Apparently the two agencies directing the fire battle in Northern California — Cal Fire and the U.S. Forest Service — dislike collaborating with each other or with “outsiders.” According to the commander from Southern California, there is “inherent resistance to change.”

Meanwhile, fires rage and we had to breathe smoky, toxic air for weeks.

The report made clear that the effectiveness of the night-vision helicopters is well proven. At one point after the helicopters were grounded for two days, unable to get clearance. Cal Fire and the USFS grudgingly allowed them to join the fight, but soon after they had to return to Southern California.

Come on, Cal Fire and U.S. Forest Service, with huge respect for your efforts during this terrible time, get your act together and embrace whatever help and new technology could hasten the end of these fires. If “60 Minutes” got it wrong, it’d be interesting to hear your side.

Climate change, or just super hot?

Last month Fresno broke a record for the most 100-degree days in a year. Of course, there will be those that are quick to claim that this is due to global warming. I realize I may be looking through a rather narrow window, but I don't think that breaking a record that's stood for 37 years qualifies as climate change.

How about we just admit that that our summers here are hotter than hell? The Green New Deal isn't about saving the planet. It's about control. Oh, the destruction of our planet is assured. But it will be God's doing, not ours.

No Blacks in this tournament

Shame on the PGA. The only African Americans included a recent tournament were the ones that they recruited to sing the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

Shame, shame on you PGA.

Ryder Cup: Harold Varner lll, not invited. Cameron Champ, not invited. Joseph Bramlett, not invited.

All are African Americans who have won tournaments. No Mex-Am. Nor any of Latin descent.

Tiger Woods, DL.

This story was originally published October 17, 2021 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Jan. 6 was attack on the U.S.: Letters to editor of The Fresno Bee, Oct. 17, 2021."