Media and government should stop politicizing COVID-19 vaccinations
The AJC on Wednesday prominently headlined the front page with an editorial opinion piece, “Get vaccinated. Save lives,” and further jabbed the public with a letter to the editor that questioned why COVID-19 shots are not required. I am disturbed at the over-emphasis on blaming Trump followers for the failure of many people to get vaccinated.
This effort to continue to politicize vaccinations is really so inappropriate. It ignores the millions of Blacks as well, regardless of party, who rightly, based on history, tend to distrust the government.
I am vaccinated, a Republican, and distrust a government and a media (including AJC) that gives us incorrect information on the virus. The sole push is for vaccinations over natural immunity, herd immunity, and alternative approaches to treating the virus.
KAREN KELLEY, MARIETTA
In Afghanistan, U.S. fails again at nation building
Bravo for the opinion piece “Kabul 2021: Saigon deja vu for the U.S.?” (Insights, Aug. 31). We’ve suspected this since we heard about the hard deadline for an exodus. We suspected, like Vietnam, to see democracy crumble. And, as we have observed over these last couple of weeks, it was warm and uplifting to see “Americans still possess the heartbeat to care about the victims of terror and authoritarianism.”
We failed again as a country trying to “nation-build.” Although our heart was in the right place, the vision on how to do so was misplaced. Few, if any, will argue that our method of departure was foolish: our former president’s willingness to have direct talks with the Taliban without the Afghan government was faulty and reminiscent of Vietnam. Yet, our current president should have been wiser in stating a hard deadline for departure and means to do so. However, we did learn from Vietnam the wisdom of winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan people, which is gratifying.
Let’s hope we learned another lesson and we continue with our compassion for the Afghan people.
MICHAEL O’SHEASY, GAINESVILLE
