| In June, Post Opinions launched Voices Across America, a showcase for writers that reflects the nation's breadth geographically but also demographically and ideologically. Over the past seven months, VAA has become a destination for op-ed writers offering, from far-flung perches, distinctive views on matters with national resonance. In July, Christopher Solomon in Okanogan County, Wash., eloquently described agonizing over whether to flee when one of the many Western wildfires this year crept ever closer to the valley he loves. Julie Cohen in St. Louis wrote in September about thinking, with disgust, that she was driving by an anti-mask, pro-Trump roadside demonstration. Then she realized — mortified by her closed-minded assumption — that people had stopped along the highway to honor Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, one of the 13 service members killed in the Aug. 26 terrorist attack at Kabul airport, as his body was transported to a local funeral home. John C. Ackerman, the county clerk in Tazewell County, Ill., and a Republican, wrote last summer, questioning why new Republican-backed election measures in Georgia and Texas were being so widely attacked as racially discriminatory when the laws largely echo those already on the books in his heavily Democratic home state. The mainstay of VAA, though, is its roster of contributing columnists (the platform also hosts Post Opinions columnists, including Gary Abernathy in Loveland, Ohio, Perry Bacon in Louisville, Helaine Olen in Southern California and Kathleen Parker in Camden, S.C.). Thus, for this end-of-year newsletter, I'd like to highlight some especially notable pieces by these regular VAA writers: Lizette Alvarez in Miami, Kate Cohen in Albany, N.Y., Micheline Maynard in Ann Arbor, Mich., Fernanda Santos in Phoenix and Bill Whalen in Palo Alto, Calif. You can read them below. | As Florida breaks records for infections, the governor battles over whether students can be required to wear masks. By Lizette Alvarez ● Read more » | | | | To school board members across the country making hard, sometimes unpopular decisions, often without pay: Take courage. By Kate Cohen ● Read more » | | | | Gov. Gretchen Whitmer still has a chance to demonstrate competence in handling this mess, but time is getting short. By Micheline Maynard ● Read more » | | | | For one, throwing people in need out on the streets is no way to solve the housing-security problem. By Fernanda Santos ● Read more » | | | | Why does the GOP keep winning gubernatorial races in deep-blue Massachusetts but must resort to trying to use the side door to the governor's mansion in the Golden State? By Bill Whalen ● Read more » | | | |
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