September 24, 2020
OPINION: September Cheers & Jeers
There is no joy in writing this September Cheers & Jeers column. Normally, September, the month of back-to-school stories and fall sports coverage, is one of the happier…
There is no joy in writing this September Cheers & Jeers column. Normally, September, the month of back-to-school stories and fall sports coverage, is one of the happier…
The “us versus them” mentality that has been steadily growing in this country over the past decade seems to have reached a new high, or perhaps a “new low,” this week.
If one thing stands out from last weekend’s “Back the Blue” pro-police rally in downtown Camas, it should be this: several young people from the Black Lives Matter counterprotest reported feeling threatened by people armed with baseball bats, handguns and long guns.
Given the fact that most of these long, slow COVID weeks feel like we’re all swimming upstream in a river of molasses, it’s always a bit startling to look back at a month’s worth of news stories before writing this monthly Cheers & Jeers column and realize just how much has happened over the past four weeks. August, at least in Camas-Washougal, has been a month filled with Cheers-worthy news.
It is becoming increasingly clear to anyone listening, reading or watching news sources outside the right to far-right news bubble of FOX News, The Washington Times, OAN, The Epoch Times, National Review, etc., that our president and his upper-echelon supporters may be trying to sabotage the November general election by seeding doubt about vote-by-mail systems and destroying the United States Postal Service.
When the COVID-19 pandemic first shuttered schools in March, no one could have suspected that, five months later, local school superintendents would be pushing for an online start to the 2020-21 school year.
This month’s Cheers & Jeers is a little different in that we only have one of each, but since nothing in 2020 is even close to “normal,” we’re hoping our readers will forgive us.
The fact that the city of Camas finally has a city administrator ready to take the reins and lead day-to-day operations should come as welcome news.
It is no surprise that issues surrounding COVID-19 safety precautions have become a sticking point between teachers’ union leaders and district administrators in Washougal.
If there’s one place Camas shines, it’s in the collaborative efforts that go into pretty much every decision impacting its highly regarded school district’s students, families and staff.
