Editorial voices from across the country
Editorial voices from newspapers around the United States:
The brand of authoritarianism practiced by late President Hugo Chavez and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, continues to inflict enormous suffering on the people of Venezuela.
This country, with some of the world’s largest oil reserves, was once one of the economic bright spots of Latin America. It did have problems – protracted poverty, corruption and periodic government upheaval. But the solutions put forward by Chavez after his election in 1998 have proved to be nothing short of disastrous.
His agenda flatly rejected capitalism and the free markets – and promoted redistribution of resources and government control of the economy. He went after the press. In the name of the people, Chavez nationalized the Banco de Venezuela, telephone and electrical utilities.
He redistributed land, controlled food prices, and took temporary control of rice and coffee plants. He used the nation’s oil revenues to break free from economic interactions with Western democracies.
The sad demise of this country, which once had a rising middle class and a bright future, tells a grim tale of the damage that excessive demagoguery and bad government policies can do. Let us hope the suffering people of Venezuela will find their way out – through free speech, fair elections and opportunities to succeed.
The decision to charge four young adult African-Americans in Chicago with hate crimes and other felonies for the abduction and torture of an 18-year-old white student with special needs was the correct one.
The case is especially notorious because of the depravity of the crime and the brazenness of the perpetrators. The victim was cut on the scalp, burned with cigarettes and beaten repeatedly while gagged and bound. They also heckled the victim with anti-white racial epithets and denunciations of President Donald Trump.
The fact that the four perpetrators are African-American doesn’t exempt them from hate crime charges.
It shows that even racial minorities can be charged with hate crimes, especially when they make an issue of the victim’s race.
People agree to tax themselves to pay for things they need in common but cannot afford to provide individually.
In a recent Gazette-Mail, Dr. Jamie Jeffrey made the case for increasing the state’s tax on a luxury that has public health consequences – sugary drinks, including soft drinks.
West Virginia’s budget shortfall is well-known, and any increase in revenue would help the new governor and Legislature solve that problem.
But more state revenue, while needed, is not even the best reason to raises taxes on soft drinks. The best reason is the health of West Virginians, starting with the youngest ones.
As Dr. Jeffrey pointed out, she and her colleagues continue to see children with rapid weight gain, insulin resistance, high triglycerides and a dark rash around the neck and knuckles that can be a sign of diabetes.
Children go on to develop diabetes and fatty liver disease, starting as young as 6. They are usually diagnosed around age 11.
West Virginia might amplify the effectiveness of such a tax increase with a well-conceived public information campaign to go with it. It could be motivating for people to be reminded how sugary drinks damage their children’s health, and how small changes add up to big differences over time.