| Our columnist (and new deputy editorial page editor) Karen Tumulty's late mother was an Air Force wife and, consequently, not much of a saver — the family moved too much for that. So it was telling, when Tumulty's mother passed away six years ago, that among her belongings was a tattered yellow booklet, held together with rusted staples: the record of young Karen's vaccinations, mandatory for international travel. Her vaccine passport, if you will. "Rather than resent an impingement on their liberties," Tumulty writes, "my parents' generation thought of these requirements as freedom itself." How, Tumulty wonders, have we come from then to now? From a country whose citizens raced to get in line for the new polio vaccine to one where millions, driven by disinformation, refuse the covid vaccine? From a society where a vaccine record served as a badge of honor to one where even the notion of being required to produce a record generates bristling anger? "For my mother, that vaccination record was more than a bureaucratic imperative," she writes. "It was a testament to her duty as a parent and a statement of the call to service that every military family shares."  (Karen Tumulty) My mother didn't resent the requirement; she embraced it as a testament to her duty as a parent and as a fellow citizen. By Karen Tumulty ● Read more » | | | | Before we start coercing the unvaccinated, try a little bribery. By Charles Lane ● Read more » | | | | Stranger things have happened. By Greg Sargent ● Read more » | | | It wasn't that long ago that someone like him would be the logical presidential nominee for the GOP. No more. By Paul Waldman ● Read more » | | | | We're in the midst of a nonmilitary civil war. It's time for institutions in a position to stand up for multiracial democracy to do so. By Perry Bacon ● Read more » | | | | Election reform efforts in Florida, Georgia, Texas and elsewhere have been denounced as racist voter suppression, but as an election official, I know that my heavily Democratic home state already has plenty of similar laws. Voices Across America ● By John C. Ackerman ● Read more » | | | | If we are to fight for gender equality, menopause should not warrant special treatment. By Kathleen Parker ● Read more » | | | | The governor's plan is too expensive and not comprehensive. There's a better way. By Marc Elrich ● Read more » | | | | Bipartisan action must be taken on a gargantuan scale and an emergency timetable. By David Von Drehle ● Read more » | | | | After four years of the Trump show, many Republicans want to get back to the basics. By Henry Olsen ● Read more » | | | | The administration has done many things right during the pandemic, but it made a grave error with its premature return to normalcy. By Leana Wen ● Read more » | | | |
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