Editorial voices from across the country
Jim McNutt/Observer-Reporter Exterior of the Observer-Reporter building in Washington.
Editorial voices from newspapers around the United States:
Whooping cough appears to be on the rise. If the anti-vaccination crowd continues to get traction, we should all get used to that.
The highly contagious disease, more properly known as pertussis, can cause serious illness and, in some cases, death. It is largely preventable through childhood vaccination, but there’s the rub.
Based on bad science, a small but increasing number of people are opting out of vaccinating their children, which endangers not only their own family, but children too young to be fully immunized, people with suppressed immune systems and those whose vaccinations have worn off. Allowing preventable diseases to make a comeback because of junk science is shameful. We’ve said before the state should remove its hazy personal exemption for vaccination requirements for school students, and we stand by that. A better solution would be if parents just started acting responsibly.
Turkish President Recep Erdogan called the failed military coup against him a “gift from God,” and it is a gift that keeps on giving. The gleeful leader is putting the United States, his ostensible ally, in a difficult spot.
As the United States has learned the hard way, nothing is ever simple in the Middle East. The putting down of a military coup against a democratically elected government should, for example, be cause for an unequivocal celebration. Erdogan, however, is a totalitarian leader who has used the coup as an excuse to go further toward dictatorship than he has before.
President Erdogan has linked an ally turned enemy, Fethullah Gulen, a cleric living in exile in Pennsylvania’s Poconos, to the coup and demanded his extradition by the Obama administration. There is no evidence of such a link and the White House is understandably reluctant to deport someone for the crime of being a political foe.
The United States needs Turkey’s help in the fight against ISIS but there are limits to what can be done to appease a purported ally. President Erdogan is emerging as a threat to democracy that may surpass that of Islamic terrorism.
It was 50 years ago on Aug. 1. The day started early for Charles Whitman, a 25-year-old former U.S. Marine studying engineering at the University of Texas in Austin.
He drove to his mother’s house shortly after midnight. There, he stabbed her in the heart and carefully placed her body on her own bed.
He then returned home and stabbed his wife to death.
As morning came, Whitman rented a truck, cashed some worthless checks and started hitting local stores, buying guns and ammo.
Back at home, he assembled the remainder of his arsenal, along with a number of other provisions, including food, water and personal hygiene items.
About 11 a.m., he headed for campus. For the UT Tower.
He posed as a deliveryman and wheeled his deadly cargo into the tower and rode the elevator to 27th floor and headed toward the stairs to the observation deck.
Whitman ascended to the observation deck, took up position and for 96 minutes brought unimaginable horror to the UT campus.
Thankfully, three law enforcement officers and a civilian volunteer managed to make it to the observation deck. The horror ended with Whitman’s life. In the end, 15 innocent victims, including an unborn child, were dead and another 32 wounded. One of those wounded would die seven days later. Another’s death in 2001 was directly attributed to his injuries from that day in Austin.
Back in 1966 mass shootings in public spaces were rare. We wish we could say the same today.