Opinion

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OPINION

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Returning students to classrooms in November will cause more stress and chaos

I’m wrapped up in a warm blanket with my face glued to the computer screen writing my fifth essay of the week; it’s just another Wednesday afternoon of online learning. Little did I know that in the next five minutes, the Fauquier County Public Schools School Board was going to blow up the community with the unexpected announcement that schools would reopen Nov. 9. Needless to say, my brain was running around in circles trying to get some sort of grasp on what was going on.

The transition from in-person to online school was difficult, so I can’t only imagine how the transition from online learning to hybrid in-person learning will be. Of course, students need to come out of their reclusive shells and begin transitioning back to school eventually. However, I’m not sure the “throwing them to the wolves” method that the school board seems to be using is the best choice. Students and teachers went from having about three months to prepare for online learning to only one month. Lesson plans, classroom setups, deadlines, class supplies and so much more will have to change and no warning was given to prepare.

The safety and health of students and school staff, as well as their loved ones, should not be considered “experimental.” So far, it feels as if the school board is throwing us in and saying, “let’s see what happens.” While they have outlined some guidelines, such as required social distancing and face coverings, little has been revealed about how this will be executed and enforced.

Issues of safety should not be solved along the way. How will sanitary conditions be maintained throughout the in-person days -- and not just on the singular “cleaning day” on Wednesday -- and to what extent is mask-wearing required, are questions that the school board needs to answer and be transparent about from the start. While students may opt for virtual learning if they share these concerns, the safety of the students and faculty who do choose to return must be ensured, regardless of whether they care or not about it.

Speaking of the virtual learning option, this alternative provides little benefits alongside safety. In the current online classes, teachers are focused on teaching and assisting the students behind the computer screen. Under the hybrid model, teachers will be working with their in-person students, and the virtual students may only get a window to EDITOR OF THE FAUQUIER HIGH SCHOOL FALCONER

RACHEL SINGLETON

see what is going on, but no help or interaction with the teacher. Then, when these virtual students hope to receive help on the asynchronous days, teachers will be focused on teaching their other set of in-person students.

The whole timing of this return is even more mind boggling. When the school board skimmed the list of potential dates to return, why did they see a month that will be in the middle of flu season and say, “Ah yes, perfect.”?

Additionally, FCPS is experiencing staff shortages in multiple areas including teachers, nurses, bus drivers and substitutes. If this shortage wasn’t already hitting hard, it most definitely will if the school board moves forward with this plan.

Now don’t get me wrong, I understand the crucial need for some students to return to school. I see this need every day in my brother, who has an Individualized Education Program. His face is leaned into the computer screen as he attempts to concentrate on each assignment, some of which don’t always get done because of his struggle to adapt to online learning. My brother needs to return to in-person learning, as do many other students with IEPs, learning disabilities or other challenges such as mental health issues or difficult home lives.

However, the needs of these students shouldn’t be the reason to pick up the pace on our return. If the school board was so concerned with this, they should have devised a plan for these specific students, not the entire FCPS student population.

If the school board had made Nov. 9 the original school return date, then maybe they could have minimized the backlash to this decision. Part of the reason for this eruption of fear is the lack of preparation and warning for the return. While it is important that schools transition back into in-person learning eventually, the return must be handled with care and consideration of safety. With this in mind, the school board’s impulsive and unsympathetic decision making has, so far, caused more stress and chaos than the intended calm transition.

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Fauquier Times | September 30, 2020

A letter from Beijing: My dear American comrades

(The following letter is satire.)

We are informed that you are upset by the thousands of American lives that have been needlessly lost due to COVID-19. We understand your outrage but would ask that you understand the position of The People’s Republic of China.

We would first like to state that launching a global pandemic was never our intent. Its release was an accident and not the result of military calculation. Yes, it is true that our state labs are studying plague viruses; but we only seek to be prudent in an adversarial world. We must be prepared in case the next world conflict is fought on biological battlefields.

And yet you may ask, “Why didn’t you inform the international community of a potentially lethal biological threat?” Well, quite simply, it was not in our interest to do so. And besides, we merely did what your president would have done; we put our country first regardless of the consequence to others. Admittedly, not informing an unsuspecting world population was morally reprehensible, but moral consequence does not guide our actions.

We, like the U.S., were not fully prepared to deal with COVID-19 and needed to cover up its spread to avoid panic and gain time to devise a response. But, unlike the U.S., once the potential of the treat was realized, we acted quickly and decisively on a national scale.

We imposed strict civil discipline and implemented a local/global misinformation campaign. Controlling the populace eventually enabled us to control the spread of the virus. Controlling the messaging gained us the time to amass the necessary resources from domestic and international markets. Additionally, we needed time to complete many international objectives while positioning ourselves to best absorb the likely fallout. We were successful in this course; you took a different path and were not.

Consequently, The People’s Republic of China has weathered the first wave of COVID-19. As of the

How about if we schedule an All Lives Matter vigil in front of the courthouse: Black, White, Yellow, Red, Brown and Blue. Are we not all children of God?

Also, a note to ponder: Nothing date of this letter, China has recorded 85,000 cases with only 4,600 deaths as compared with 6.8 million cases in the U.S. and 200,000 deaths. Also of note, China represents 18% of the world population but less than 1% of COVID-19 deaths, while the U.S. has only 4% of the world population but accounts for 22% of global deaths. Those numbers speak for themselves.

It is a pity that your president delayed acting with a sense of urgency even though all the early warning signs were evident. He ignored the science, issued partial travel bans, and failed to mobilize a unified national response. Instead, he politicized a national emergency and continually downplayed the peril all the while knowing the severity of the threat. We do not fully understand this strategy but suspect that it has something to do with your upcoming elections. We do, however, understand that power is everything.

And finally, we note your president would like to assign sole blame for the global pandemic directly to us by calling it the China Virus. Let us assure you this added recognition is not necessary. If, however, you still desire to rename Covid-19, then we humbly suggest it far more appropriate to relabel it the Trump Virus … after all, the U.S. leads the world in the number of cases and deaths.

Again, we regret our part as the origin of the contagion. We hope this letter helps assuage the anger you must feel toward us. We also hope that you will come to realize that you must assume some responsibility for not insisting upon the truth and demanding more substantive action from your government. If you had done so, it could have resulted in less severe outcomes … certainly for the victims and their families.

Thank you for your understanding.

Sincerely,

Xi Jinping

State Chairperson

The People’s Republic of China

PS: AS DICTATED TO DON BACHMANN,

On courthouse Black Lives Matter vigils

Marshall says "unity" like playing a separate national anthem for Black people and a separate national anthem for white people at NFL games.

NANCY ANDERSON

Warrenton

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Say it ain’t so, Nancy

For nearly 40 years, I had the distinct privilege of working in the people’s House of Representatives. During my service, there were seven speakers of the House --- four Democrats and three Republicans.

In my opinion, Nancy Pelosi is the most effective in controlling her caucus, the most partisan, and the least likely to seek bipartisan solutions. Her own daughter, Alexandra Pelosi, has described her leadership style as she will “cut your head off and you won’t even know you’re bleeding,” if you disagree with her.

In recent weeks, the bipartisan Problems Solvers Caucus in the House of Representatives presented Speaker Pelosi with the latest $1.5 trillion COVID aid package. Included within this needed legislation was: $120 billion for enhanced federal unemployment benefits; $100 billion for K-12 schools; $95 billion for small business loans; $25 billion for COVID testing and contact tracing, and $12 billion for new broadband hot spots.

The House of Representatives was never given an opportunity to even discuss this package crafted by 25 Democrats and 18 Republicans. Speaker Pelosi simply said NO and by so doing told schoolchildren, doctors, small-business owners, and the unemployed to go to HELL.

Why would she not allow even debate on this legislation? The primary reason is that the package did not include the entire $1 trillion bailout of California and New York. As a Virginia taxpayer, why should I have to bail out the decades of mismanagement in New York City and San Francisco.

As someone who witnessed Nancy Pelosi’s statements and votes for more than four decades, I am convinced that Speaker Pelosi is far more interested in a campaign issue than helping the American people. Sadly, Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly demonstrated, in my judgment, that she hates traditional America, she believes we are an evil nation, she despises millions of Americans who disagree with her socialist philosophy, she has referred to her opponents as deplorables, enemies of the state and racists, and she longs for the day when our sacred constitution is shredded and replaced by her socialist manifesto.

As someone who has visited the City by the Bay, I am horrified that this once beautiful place has been transformed into a homeless tent city, an open-air drug shooting gallery and an outdoor sewer. This is a total failure of leadership and this is the kind of governance that Speaker Pelosi wants for all of America.

We must stop her and her acolytes from destroying this country that millions of Americans have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend. Please vote to save America from Nancy Pelosi’s vision of darkness! Vote Republican.

HARRY BURROUGHS

Warrenton

Comments reported on president’s attitude toward the military are ‘ fake news’

I am amazed that anyone is still pushing that fake quote of President [Donald] Trump calling our military service men and women “suckers and losers,” especially coming from a fellow veteran in the Sept. 18 opinion section (Fauquier Times, “2016 Trump voter: Denigrating military heroes is the last straw”).

Why? No one has done more for our veterans and military in the last 10 years than President Trump. Fact: Pay raises and improved VA health care.

The quote has been debunked by persons present during the supposed event, not to mention anti-Trumper and former National Security Adviser John Bolton. To his credit, I might add!

Claim: [President] Trump thinks less of our intelligence community than others. Fact: Our President appointed the first woman to head the CIA from its existence in 1947. Fact: Trump took out two of the worst killers of our military none other than Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Qasem Soleimani. On what a tip from a camel herder in Baghdad? Give me a break!

Claim: Most of the news isn’t “fake” and Russia did interfere with the 2016 election and Trump was the benefactor. Fact: The Mueller report resulted in 12 Russians being indicted on July 13, 2018, for “interfering” in the 2016 election. Supposedly, they hacked into the DNC and the Clinton presidential campaign. I say “supposedly” given U.S. Attorney John Durham is investigating the “investigators” of Crossfire Hurricane opened by none other than Trump-hating FBI official Peter Strzok.

The Mueller report, by the way, found zero, zip, nada evidence after two years of “investigating” and millions of taxpayer dollars wasted as to collusion between Trump and the Russians. Fact: CNN [likely a source of my fellow veteran] and fake news will have their day in court, the result of Professor Alan Dershowitz's filed $300M suit against CNN for defamation of character for manipulating his words during the Trump impeachment hearing. I watched the professor's presentation live and I know what he didn't say.

To sum up, the left is fearful of the military support for our president as was shown in the 2016 election and is expected to repeat, which I expect the left will try to suppress as much as possible. As for the author of the “hit piece” of last week, “You're fired.”

RON NIST

Warrenton

It’s time to turn away from President Donald Trump

In 2016, Mr. [Donald] Trump said that if we voted for Hillary Clinton, we’d have four years of scandals and indictments. Well, he was right. I voted for her and I got four years of scandals and indictments.

This week, we found out why Mr. Trump has spent years in court and millions of dollars to hide his tax returns from us. He is under investigation in New York for tax evasion and bank fraud. Yes, it’s despicable this man charged us, the American taxpayers, for the secret service to use his own golf carts and stay at his own resorts to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars while shirking all tax responsibility himself.

But to me, the more pressing matter is the $421 million dollars of previously unreported personal debt Mr. Trump currently owes, according to the records obtained by the New York Times. We don’t know who he owes this money to. This is a major national security threat.

With historically high unemployment rates, a massive dip in the GDP, more than 205,000 Americans needlessly dead due to his failed COVID-19 response and a nation torn in half by his constant divisive rhetoric, it’s hard for me to imagine why anyone would want four more years of this. No other developed nation has suffered anywhere near the deaths and economic destruction Trump’s failures have forced upon America.

Why do people want more of this? Is it his adultery? His swagger? His lying? His constant Twitter rages? What is so appealing about this man? I think some voters are so wrapped up in being anti-Democrat that they just don’t care what Trump does or says or who he cheats, as long as there is a Republican in office. For others, I think they are just afraid of admitting they made a mistake in voting for him.

Thankfully, many people of good conscience within the Republican Party, including Trump’s own former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, National Security Administration advisers John Bolton and H.R. McMasters, National Economic Council head Gary Cohen, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Chief of Staff John Kelly have all denounced him, among dozens of other former White House staff and literally hundreds of generals and intelligence community veterans.

Eight of his campaign staff are serving sentences or awaiting trial on felony indictments. News reports say that his most recent campaign manager, Brad Parscale, barricaded himself in his Florida home Sunday and was taken into custody, threatening suicide. None of this is normal.

I am grateful for the many Republican voices who are speaking truth. It’s striking that no living Republican former president or vice president has endorsed Mr. Trump. I pray that Evangelical Christian America will finally turn away from this immoral and unfit man before he does more harm to our nation. We deserve better than this.

HEATHER TROUT, DVM

Sumerduck

Next Supreme Court justice should dismiss legal ‘nonsense’

The nonsense started with President [Richard] Nixon … In 1972, he declared that there was “One China,” meaning both Taiwan and the People’s Republic. The U.S. jilted the small, free country to befriend the larger one.

The nonsense expanded with Roe v. Wade in 1973. Seven judges declared that an unborn human couldn’t be a “person.” They ignored that even non-human tax-exempt organizations, trustees, and corporations can be legal persons.

Now we are told that a person’s sex is “assigned at birth” and can be a choice. This non-scientific opinion is disproved by thousands of sex-reveal parties that are based on ultrasound images of unborn “non-persons.”

This past June, a 6-to-3 Supreme Court majority declared that sex non-discrimination laws, passed in 1964, also addressed sexual orientation and gender. But these trendy words weren’t even in use back then.

Enough nonsense … Let us be logical togeth

er. 1.China is a strong country with a large population and a brutal government. “One China” is

actually a lie, retold by professional diplomats. 2.Preborn babies are obviously persons. 3.A person’s sex is not a choice – it is immutable biology. 4.The Supreme Court’s newest opinion about sexual civil rights uses the same malarkey as

Nixon’s “One China” policy.

Former Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was apparently a nice person and a legal genius. But she invented legal-sounding nonsense just like Nixon did. I am eager for our next Supreme Court justice to base her decisions on logic, compassion and the Constitution.

PAT GRANDELLI

Goldvein