Bee Opinionated: Death in Davis + Raising the roof + Feinstein’s failures + Bring Tice home

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It’s Robin Epley here again with The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board, and we’ve got lots to cover so let’s get right to it.

The police may now have a suspect in custody for the stabbings, but take it from someone who lived in a community gripped by fear following random, inexplicable violence: The Davis we knew will never be the same.

Opinion

How do I know? Because 10 years ago, I was living in Boston when the Boston Marathon bombing occurred. I vividly remember those stressful and terrifying days now, as Davis residents grapple with the stabbings that claimed the lives of two innocent people, and seriously injured one other.

“Davis — a quiet college town known as Bike City USA — is supposed to be a safe place to raise a family or send your kids away for college. But after such an act of terror, communities often struggle to pick up the shattered pieces of peace. And that’s OK. It’s normal to feel shaken up and angry after you’ve been terrorized.”

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Vol. IV, experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event triggers fear, helplessness and horror in response to the perceived or actual threat of injury or death. A community exposed to a traumatic event shows increased rates of acute stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression, panic disorders, generalized anxiety disorders and sometimes increased substance use disorders.

“As a former Bostonian, my advice to Davisites is simple: Don’t let the sheer horror of one man’s unthinkable hate stop you from loving each other. I promise the safety you once felt in your community will return with time.”

UC Davis PhD student Justin Weiner shared his insight in a Bee op-ed on what it was like to walk around town and the university’s campus before the suspect was arrested.

“After the third attack, the town virtually shut down. While things were operating as much as possible during the day, as soon as the sun went down every door and window in town was locked. Everybody I know slept with a weapon in their bed. My roommates and I had discussions about the various potential entrance points in our house — something I hadn’t thought about since going to tactical medicine training years ago.”

It took me months to return to beautiful Copley Square, the urban park near the scene of the explosions, where the finish line for the race is painted year-round on the street. For weeks after, a makeshift memorial of runner’s shoes was piled high.

I urge you to find joy in the small acts of kindness that you see in your neighbors and community at this time. Try to be someone who creates kindness for others.

“I hope Davis finds its way back to its quiet parks and beautiful green spaces sooner than that.”

Raise The Roof

“House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the Republican from Bakersfield, gave a short lecture in his chamber recently about the federal debt, taking on the persona of a dad. ‘If you gave your child a credit card and they kept maxing it out,’ McCarthy said, ‘you wouldn’t blindly raise their limit — you’d help them change their behavior and figure out where to cut back on the spending.’”

The Fresno Bee Editorial Board wrote last week about the complex standoff between the House Republicans that McCarthy leads and President Joe Biden over what is known as the debt ceiling.

The country is poised to begin defaulting on its debts by June 1 if a new limit is not approved. Economists say going into default will plunge the already inflation-burdened economy into a host of unknowns: Financial markets would be upset, and a recession might occur.

Biden wants Congress to raise the ceiling so bills can be paid, and take up future budgeting as a separate matter, the board wrote, while McCarthy and the House GOP have already passed a bill that would increase the ceiling for a year, but also tie it to spending cuts and other measures Democrats oppose.

Biden has not accepted that deal.

“The debt is a real problem and it is only getting worse. But GOP-backed cuts should not be promoted in the crucible of an impending default. A robust debate between the parties should happen in budget deliberations,” wrote the board.

“McCarthy is pandering to the hard-right members who only backed him for House speaker on the 15th vote in exchange for concessions on the issues like the debt. Speaker McCarthy, don’t take America to the brink of default. Stop the posturing, raise the debt ceiling, then have the honest budget debate the nation needs.”

Goodbye, Sen. Chips

Last week, I wrote that it’s time for Sen. Dianne Feinstein to go.

Feinstein, the longest-serving woman in the history of the U.S. Senate and the oldest current U.S. Senator, refuses to relinquish a job she obviously can’t do anymore.

Except, we’ve seen this almost-exact scenario before, with devastating consequences.

By 2020, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had achieved something close to cult status. Fans of the longtime, liberal justice called her the “Notorious RBG,” she was immortalized in popular culture and ephemera, bobbleheads, tattoos and on T-shirts.

At 87, she was a feminist pop culture icon. But since her death in 2020, Ginsburg’s reputation has been reassessed in the minds of many, even some of her most ardent supporters, thanks in large part to her refusal to step down.

“Had she retired in 2013, after then-President Barack Obama had won re-election and Democrats had control of the U.S. Senate, America’s political landscape might look very different today. By staying on the bench until her death at the age of 87 in 2020 — under the Trump administration — Ginsburg denied Americans the chance to replace her with a like-minded justice.”

Her seat went to conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett, who’s helped lead the court away from the liberal ideals that Ginsburg established during her decades on the court.

There is, then, a direct line between Ginsburg’s refusal to retire in 2013 and the demolition of American women’s bodily autonomy in 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

“At a time when women’s rights and bodily autonomy are increasingly under attack and imperiled by federal judges appointed in the Trump era, Feinstein’s leave of absence from the committee is holding up the process, and has ensured that the only new judges who are confirmed are those who can muster Republican support.”

“Now, as with Ginsburg, we can draw a direct line between Feinstein’s selfish refusal to retire and the inability of Democrats to more effectively counteract the judicial damage done to the courts during the Trump years. That damage has threatened, and in some cases, outright stopped, access to abortion care for millions of American women.”

Opinion of the Week

“My arms are aching to hold my firstborn again.” — Debra Tice, the mother of Austin Tice, a McClatchy journalist who was kidnapped while reporting in Syria more than 10 years ago.

Got thoughts? What would you like to see in this newsletter every week? Got a story tip or an opinion to tell the world? Let us know what you think about this email and our work in general by emailing us at any time via opinion@sacbee.com.

Have a lovely Sunday!

Robin