Thumbs up, thumbs down
Thumbs up to plans to distribute millions of COVID
testing kits and N95 masks in Connecticut. COVID positivity rates are the highest they’ve been in months, and worries are growing even in highly vaccinated Connecticut. The holiday season, when people gather with family members from all over the country, has raised new concerns of household spread. It comes at a time when many of us had hoped the worst of the pandemic was over, but we’re finding again that the virus moves on its own schedule. Testing and masking, along with vaccinations, are necessary to ever get back to where we want to be, and the state is doing its best to make that help available.
Thumbs down to the tragic deaths of two aid workers from Connecticut-based Save the Children in Myanmar. At least 35 people, including children, were killed in eastern Myanmar on Christmas Eve in an attack that has been blamed on the country's military. The two Save the Children workers were reportedly traveling back to their office after conducting humanitarian activities in a nearby community when they were caught up in the attack. “Violence against innocent civilians including aid workers is intolerable, and this senseless attack is a breach of International Humanitarian Law,” the group's chief executive, Inger Ashing, said in a statement.
Thumbs up to a proposal to link by sidewalk Danbury’s downtown with Danbury Fair mall. A continuous sidewalk on Park Avenue would allow people to walk the two miles from the Danbury Library to the Danbury Fair mall in 45 minutes, members of a task force said. It’s the kind of connectivity more Connecticut communities should try to make, and making roads safe for pedestrians is an important priority in all corners of Connecticut. Downtowns are often about foot traffic and malls are built for cars, but there’s no reason why we can’t do better.
Thumbs down to the end of a football tradition. Derby
and Shelton, whose downtowns face each other across the Housatonic River, announced the end of a century-long tradition of playing each other in high school football on Thanksgiving, with each side holding out the possibility the rivalry could resume in the future. Shelton and Derby high schools have gone in opposite directions in the past few years, with growth in Shelton and Derby fielding one of the smallest teams in the state. In that sense, it makes sense for the teams to move onto new challenges.