Sacrificial lambs for The Atlantic

August 01, 2020

I wanna know which editor for The Atlantic green-lit this.

The idea that I might have to continue to work while facilitating another subpar semester of virtual learning is almost too much to bear. Even though COVID-19 cases have spiked where I live in Texas, I want to send my children back to school in the fall. I don’t want to have to repeat the spring, for my kids’ sake and my own. Schools simply need to find a way to make reopening safe.

I know we all live for our precious clicks, but when the hot take comes from someone whose Twitter bio denotes contributions to such hallowed publications as The Federalist, Washington Examiner, Daily Signal, and Epoch Times, maybe weigh the benefits against the longterm damage? In this case, not just to the publication’s name, but also to society. Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief, should issue an apology.

When you allow someone to grace your pages with a piece that calls for schools to ‘simply’ “find a way to make reopening safe,” you know it will sound reasonable to some readers. In doing so, you’ve contributed to the already out of control and still growing problem. There is no way to reopen the schools safely at this moment. Not a chance.

We’ve tried reopening Major League Baseball without the fans and failed, We’ve tried reopening cruises and failed. (Who wants to go on a cruise in this moment?) We’ve tried running camps for kids and failed epically. (Who thought this was a good idea and who sent their kids?!) All of these things have gone badly. What makes people think we can send millions of kids back into close contact with dozens, (if not hundreds or thousands) of their peers, and not have a similar outcome? In other words, why are we still considering reopening schools?

The lockdown was difficult, but we were heading in the right direction, albeit slowly, as the number of daily confirmed cases trended down from around 30,000 to around 20,000. Since we’ve ‘reopened,’ things have gotten ugly with some days approaching 80,000 new cases. There’s no evidence that Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” but only a damn fool would wager their kids, and their community as a whole, in these circumstances.