Readers critique The Post: What we got wrong about a potato plague

After their latest disease detections — the second major instance in just 18 months — Canadian authorities took action to restrict the movement of seed potatoes from Prince Edward Island internationally and domestically to prevent the spread of wart to other potato-producing Canadian provinces. They also halted shipments of fresh table stock potatoes to the United States until all parties could be certain that only disease-free potatoes were crossing the border.

Beyond producing unmarketable potatoes, the detection of potato wart in the United States would be devastating to our growers and the communities they support. At least $300 million per year in export markets would be immediately cut off, and we would need to undergo a lengthy and costly battle to regain those international customers. Potato wart has been found in Prince Edward Island in eight of the past 10 years. The detections in 33 potato fields in the province since 2000, plus a dramatic drop in the amount of disease testing via soil samples, makes U.S. potato growers question how widespread the disease is on the island. As a solution, U.S. potato farmers consider it extremely positive that Canada has committed to conduct 35,000 soil samples to determine the scope of the disease, and thereby begin the process of resuming trade with the mainland United States. U.S. potato growers and consumers want normal trade to resume, and we welcomed the announcement that trade between Prince Edward Island and Puerto Rico (which has no commercial potato production) has normalized. However, we are not willing to risk the consequences of introducing potato wart into U.S. agriculture and must allow the scientific process to determine where the disease is present to be assured that the disease threat is mitigated.

Kam Quarles, Washington

The writer is chief executive officer of the National Potato Council.

Diverse religious views are welcome

The Feb. 7 news article “An imperiled Roe v. Wade prompts more candor from religious voices” was a breath of fresh air. I’ve looked and haven’t seen anything like it in any other major newspaper. The usual coverage of religion and Roe v. Wade defaults to ultraconservative evangelical Christian definitions of the issue and religion and makes more moderate and liberal religious views something of an afterthought. This article presented the more moderate and liberal religious views with real faces and studious, degreed clergy who have wrestled with the issue thoughtfully and heartfully. Moreover, the article included rabbis and Judaism, which most coverage of the issue omits. I am grateful for the article’s balance, for its clarity and matter-of-fact style and for The Post’s inclusion.

Mark E. Hoelter, Washington

The writer is a retired Unitarian Universalist minister.

Context and clarity needed

In the tragic Feb. 7 Metro article, “6 years in crash that left 2 dead” about a woman sentenced in a driving-under-the-influence case, I tripped over this intriguing line: “She had been traveling 75 mph, about 2.5 times over the speed limit, authorities said.” What was the speed limit? It couldn’t be 30 mph, since 75 mph is not “about” 2.5 times the speed limit; it is exactly 2.5 times. But it wasn’t The Post who said this; it was “authorities.” The Post is off the hook, and my head hurts.

Steve Earle, Front Royal, Va.

I appreciated the thorough reporting in the Feb. 7 Metro article “6 years in crash that left 2 dead” — “gas pedal was pressed down at its maximum” — but, as with nearly all articles that include sentencing, I have no idea how to evaluate the sentence handed down by the judge. Was it excessive? Was it average? It would be a great service if The Post would provide context. I recognize that this would place another burden (and would vary by state) on time-sensitive reporting, but it would be valuable and appreciated.

Patrick Plunkett, Alexandria

Missing game coverage

As a Howard University men’s basketball season ticket holder, I was disappointed to see that the Feb. 6 paper had mentioned only the score of the Howard vs. University of Maryland Eastern Shore game the day before — even though American University ’s game played at the same time was noted in a college basketball roundup. If The Post, as with many companies, is suffering with workplace shortages, I would happily dust off my high school sports editor visor and chip in. Just let me know.

Christopher Donnellan, Falls Church

Keep our favorite comic

I love seeing “Classic Peanuts” each day. I admit the water-bed scenario went on a bit long, but the comic strip is almost always as relevant today as it was decades ago, and it makes me happy. Many of the newer strips are often more obtuse and, truthfully, not that funny. Keep running “Classic Peanuts”!

Lisa Roney, Washington

I have read two recent letters in The Post complaining about the “Classic Peanuts” comic. Please keep this comic in the paper. It is one of the few clean, apolitical comics, and the situations are mostly timeless. If a few readers don’t like it, they don’t have to read it. I ignore about a third of the comics, but, out of consideration for other readers, I don’t ask to have them removed.

Bruce Weiss, Frederick

Goldberg was not the only one who misspoke

In her appropriate Feb. 5 op-ed about the paucity of knowledge about race in this country, “Whoopi’s rant shows why we need critical race analysis,” Karen Attiah misspoke (regarding Whoopi Goldberg’s mistake) when she wrote, “White Christian Europe and its descendants in America relied on brutal violence against Jewish, Black and other people of color to create today’s world order.” What a shame that the original American Indigenous peoples are now collectively lumped together as “other people of color.”

As I learned as an adult, those original inhabitants not identified were slaughtered, violated and displaced and even today remain in deplorable conditions as a result of White Pilgrims conquering this country.

Oh, that’s right, we have done them a great favor this month by changing the name of our football team. Take that and a nickel to the store of equality.

Jacksie A. Chatlas, Washington

Another myth in need of busting

I was disappointed with Rebecca Simik’s Feb. 6 Outlook essay, “Five Myths: Nursing,” reporting that a Lancet research article found nurse practitioners “performed as well as junior doctors.” What is a junior doctor? How is that title defined?

As a nurse practitioner for 30 years, attending the same professional development and reading the same peer-reviewed journal articles, I do not compare myself to a “junior” doctor, and none of us should. As experienced registered nurses, we undergo rigorous education at the bachelor’s, master’s and (for some) the doctoral levels, attend many hours of precepted clinical hours and must have a national board certification before being licensed as a nurse practitioner. Every two years, we must prove professional development in our specialty as well as in pharmacology to support re-licensure as a registered nurse and a nurse practitioner and to renew our license to prescribe medicines. Many of us also have Drug Enforcement Administration licenses to prescribe scheduled drugs such as Ritalin and morphine.

Though our nascent entrance into the health-care field began with different educational training, our ongoing professional development is the same, and we should never be compared to “junior” doctors.

Nancy Runton, Alexandria

Demographics make a difference

I was saddened to read the Feb. 8 obituary for Phil Harvey, “Fought — and won — a long legal battle over his sex-product business.” I had a summer internship with PSI as part of my master’s in public health program at the University of Michigan in 1972, and I lived in Harvey’s house while he was abroad. He was an eccentric and innovative pioneer in the field of reproductive health and rights.

In addition to breaking down legal and social barriers to improving human and reproductive rights, he was a pioneer in social marketing. Now, 50 years later, perhaps it is high time to recognize the consequences of societal inaction and denial, as outlined in Garrett Hardin’s 1968 essay, “The Tragedy of the Commons.” Demographic determinants and sociopolitical dynamics define our future, but they are intertwined. Fragile states and territorial, ethnic, religious and other conflicts stem from expanding populations competing for limited resources. How can anyone ignore the effect of population growth and its consequences on global warming, migration and deterioration in the human condition in so many countries? Though nobody should control individual choices, the role of many religious, political and cultural entities with massive influence continues to use ideological altruisms to obscure the truth. Our nation would be economically dormant without a younger migrant labor force. All of our businesses should welcome migrants. This is what made America great.

Demographics make a difference. I see little reporting on that dimension. It is a journalistic oversight to kowtow to politics and ignore science.

William Johnson, Arlington

Presel’s favorite achievement

I was disappointed with the mini-obituary for Ambassador Joseph Presel [Metro, Feb. 11] and would like to amend the record. As the obituary noted, he was ambassador to Uzbekistan from 1997 to 2000. Always self-deprecating, however, he once told me that he hated it when people called him “ambassador.”

Presel always said his proudest achievement was in having been the subject of discussion in the Soviet Politburo. The report of the Politburo’s review of Presel’s activities related to human rights issues in the Soyuz appeared in the Bukovsky archive, which quotes the relevant results from a March 24, 1977, Politburo meeting. Here’s a rough translation: “On further measures to discredit U.S. intelligence in the anti-Soviet campaign of human rights. Decision #50/71 of the Politburo of the Central Committee on the KGB note number 575 of 03/21/77. The note positively evaluated the materials published in ‘Izvestia’ that exposed action by the U.S. special services. To enhance the effect after the visit of [Secretary of State Cyrus] Vance to Moscow, [the government will] arrange interviews with [Soviet Jewish activist Sanya] Lipavsky and disseminate them through TASS, APN, and Gosteleradio. The KGB will organize [protest] letters from Soviet citizens to Washington; however, so as not to provoke a response [from the United States], [the government] will avoid compromising the 1st Secretary of the Embassy of the United States [Joseph] Presel and the [Washington Post] correspondent [Peter] Osnos and [will not] expel them from the country.”

Presel’s reaction to this was as follows: “My dislike of publicity is almost pathological. It is not that I am sorry about my service in Moscow — it was useful and probably the most interesting posting I had in the Service — but I have never found it necessary to blow my horn. However, I must tell you that the citation from the Politburo archives is one that I have long treasured. I look on it as my good conduct medal. I am delighted to have gotten under their skin to that extent.”

He was something of a force of nature — totally untamed and always his own inimitable persona. One of a kind.

Joe Clare, Fairfax

It’s ‘normality,’ not ‘normalcy’

So, Benjamin Dreyer considers me a “word-peever” because I don’t think “normalcy” is a legitimate word, according to his Feb. 8 Tuesday Opinion commentary, “It’s the end of ‘normalcy,’ but not in the way you think.” Well, in actualcy and as a matter of practicalcy, I wonder if any doctor or scientist has ever discovered an abnormalcy, which I presume would be the opposite of the word he’s defending.

Perhaps this makes me a fussbudget, but I think there’s a relation between sloppy speech and sloppy thinking. It’s a question of causalcy.

Norm Antokol, Silver Spring

An unnecessary display

The Feb. 11 Metro article “Health care tops Biden visit” was accompanied by a photograph of pro-Trump protesters at President Biden’s motorcade in Virginia with the derogatory saying “Let’s go Brandon” prominently displayed on their signs. Is this the best picture The Post could find of the president’s event there? Why not print a photograph of those who were there in support of the president instead of a bunch of whining Trump supporters? Must The Post continue to give these people space they don’t deserve?

Jared Wermiel, Silver Spring

A disrespectful cartoon

I am on the board of directors of my condominium association. I found ridiculous and insulting the implication in the Feb. 7 “Dustin” comic strip that homeowners association board presidents have plenty of free time. I can’t even joke about it.

The president of my association, at a 55-and-older community, is running a business while doing a heroic job of guiding us through multiple major construction projects, contracts, multiple property managers, several smaller projects, meetings, meetings and more meetings. Residents snipe at her over non-issues, such as being unethical when she followed Montgomery County law exactly. Her business has suffered because she has spent so much of her time on condo activities.

Condo/homeowner/co-op associations are not a joke or a hobby. They are an important responsibility for managing property held partly or completely in common. Boards and committees are volunteers with the interests of the association at the center; they are not paid staff. The associations could not function without them. If it were such an easy task, dozens of people would be running for boards and volunteering for committees, when the reality is that there are barely enough people to do the work, and sometimes not enough.

Respect, please.

Carol Edwards, Silver Spring