By allowing students to return, UNC put the Chapel Hill community at risk

Reopening UNC

Why is UNC putting so many at risk by bringing students back to campus? They are coming to Chapel Hill from across the country and abroad. Some will have COVID-19 and not know it, presenting a real danger to students, faculty, staff and the vulnerable in our community.

Testing of UNC athletes, coaches and staff has already found that 37 tested positive.

Even with the mandate to socially distance, wear masks and wash hands, UNC can’t guarantee students will comply outside of class, and there are few mechanisms for enforcement. UNC officials hope to change norms. It’s a lofty goal, but we’ve seen evidence that such warnings are falling on deaf ears, particularly among young people.

UNC Provost Bob Blouin said if things go badly, UNC can take an “off-ramp” and send students home. But in light of the almost certain reality of how this will go, isn’t it better to not enter the highway in the first place.

Diane Bloom, Chapel Hill

Adjunct professor, UNC School of Public Health

Lt. governor post

Someone please tell me why the State of North Carolina needs a lieutenant governor. Dan Forest has done nothing but lambaste Gov. Roy Cooper with his every effort from the first day he was elected. It bothers me to think that my tax money goes to pay Forest’s salary while he impedes the office of the governor. Instead of electing a lieutenant governor, allow the governor-elect to pick his own to complement the workforce, not weaken it.

Russ Frazier, Youngsville

Election turmoil

Millions plan to vote by mail in November. These vote will likely be crucial, yet will take weeks to count and verify. Accusations of theft/loss/destruction of ballots are certain to occur. And polling places will likely be understaffed due to seniors avoiding exposure to COVID.

Political extremists will do their disruptive thing. Foreign powers are poised to interfere. With a landslide victory unlikely, it may take weeks or even months to declare a legitimate winner.

And our politicians appear to be doing nothing to prepare for this election.

Our problems can be traced back to the faltering of our wonderful political system in which politicians now ignore the important issues and focus instead on keeping their positions of power. The lack of concern for the American good now more than ever calls for serious consideration of a constitutional amendment for term limits in Congress.

Bob Wood, Raleigh

Drive-thru voting

In anticipation of a shortage of poll workers for early voting and on Election Day, I suggest drive-thru voting.

Temporary voting sites could be set up in parking lots or parking decks. Voters would drive up, sign-in to receive a ballot, and mark it inside their vehicle. They would then drive a few feet to the ballot scanner or a locked ballot box to cast their ballots.

Poll workers would wear PPE, use hand sanitizer frequently, and voters would only need to open their vehicle window slightly to receive and cast ballots. The risk of virus transmission would be very low.

I’ve been a poll worker several times and now at age 84 I would be willing to work at a drive-thru voting site in November with little fear of contracting COVID.

Thomas Henkel, Chapel Hill

Republican Party

As an unaffiliated voter who closely follows politics and government, I have concluded that the Republican Party is on the verge of irrelevance. The reason is that a “dangerously misinformed” man has hijacked what was once called “the party of Abraham Lincoln.”

The party’s leader continues to downplay the threat to public health, including that of his supporters, as he drags the Republican brand through the muck and mud of his own making.

Will today’s Republican Party be bold enough to replace Trump as their candidate or will they stand by and watch as what they once called the Grand Old Party sinks into oblivion?

Graham Marlette, Durham

School vouchers

I commend the parents who are suing the state over religious discrimination at voucher schools (July 27). These voucher programs are anti-education and should be rejected by all.

We should reject vouchers, not because some schools that receive our money reject gay children and parents, for instance, but because many of them use textbooks from fundamentalist publishers that teach innocent children that dinosaurs lived peacefully with us 6,000 years ago when Earth was “created.”

It’s disingenuous to demand accountability, rigorous curriculum, and success from public schools while funneling millions to religious schools and requiring little accountability from them.

America requires children to be educated. Do we really want to give precious money to let parents define that word however they want?

Jimmy Holcomb, Efland