Charlotte area colleges should require returning students to get the COVID vaccine
Colleges, vaccines
I just read that most colleges in the Charlotte area won’t require the COVID-19 vaccine. (May 5) What a disappointment.
More than 70,000 students attend college in the Charlotte area. Imagine the difference it would make in protection for those of us who live in the area.
Through the worst of the pandemic we saw many gatherings involving college students with no social distancing, no masks. Surely schools can rethink this and make vaccinations mandatory except for medical exceptions.
Please, let’s take whatever steps we can to get the most people vaccinated — and this includes colleges making this a requirement.
Pamela Rhynes, Charlotte
Protect customers
Like many women, I lost my hairdresser during the pandemic and sought a new one. I just got my second masked haircut and asked the stylist if she had been vaccinated. She replied, “No, and I don’t think I’m going to be.”
I told her that by getting a vaccination she was not only protecting herself, but her customers. I didn’t make a big deal about it. I understand that getting a vaccination is a personal choice. But that personal choice also affects me and our community.
So in the future, I will be exercising my personal choice to find a new beautician. Please get vaccinated.
Deb Park, Charlotte
Gun access
He had access to a “fairly large cache of weapons.” Are those not the most telling words in the May 4 front-page account of the mass shooting in Boone? A mentally unstable man had access to a “fairly large cache of weapons.” Our country’s ill and sane have the same dangerous access.
So much tragedy traces to these few words. We as a nation have far too much access to a “fairly large cache of weapons.”
Clarke E. Cochran, Indian Trail
Liz Cheney
As a life long Democratic voter, I find myself cheering for Liz Cheney because she speaks the truth and refuses to bow down to the Trump Republicans.
U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx plans to introduce a resolution to have Cheney removed from her leadership position in the Republican caucus.
North Carolina would be so much better served by a Republican like Cheney, who I may not agree with ideologically but who has the courage to challenge the Big Lie and the political courage to stand her ground and do the right thing for the country.
Instead, North Carolina is represented by Foxx, who supports Trumpism over our constitutional democracy. It doesn’t take any courage to do that.
Terri Matthews, Charlotte
Leaf bags
Kudos to all involved in eliminating the use of plastic bags for collecting yard waste. (May 6) This change has been a long time in the making and is one more positive step in our becoming a world class community.
Dick Winters, Charlotte
Stick with plastic
Discontinue use of plastic leaf bags? Really? Plastic leaf/yard waste bags have been used for decades.
Many neighborhoods have an abundance of trees that shed lots of leaves every year.
Big-box and small-box retailers and their distribution centers buy plastic leaf bags by the trainload year-round. What should these businesses do with them now?
C.C. Ryder, Charlotte
Afghanistan
The recent announcement that the “forever war” in Afghanistan would be terminated by September was welcome news.
However, Afghanistan is not a highly industrialized country with a high-tech military, and it faces the very real possibility of a return of the Taliban and a return to a darker time, especially where it comes to women’s rights. Actually, in many cases, women’s survival.
If we have accomplished anything of value in the 20 years in Afghanistan, it is the advancement of women’s rights. Lest we think that all of those billions spent and all of the tragic lives lost were for nothing, we can look at the progress of women’s rights as a worthy accomplishment.
Let’s not place that accomplishment in jeopardy by leaving Afghanistan to the tender mercies of the Taliban.
Alex McKay, Charlotte
