San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Editorials: Remembering year we’d rather forget
A historic pandemic, a stressed economy, racial strife and political chaos make for a 2020 we only wish we could forget
It’s often being said that 2020 is “the worst year ever.” That conclusion, of course, depends on one’s age and personal setbacks and tragedies in a lifetime. But there is no question this one was consequential — and will be dissected and discussed for generations. It certainly produced no shortage of material for Chronicle editorials.
Evicted in Oakland
As if Bay Area residents needed any more reminders about the extent and human cost of homelessness, none could be more stark than the sight of the Sheriff’s Office’s predawn raid to evict and arrest the Moms 4 Housing, complete with armored vehicles and officers in riot gear breaking in with a battering ram. Jan. 16
City Hall scandal
Mohammed Nuru for years endeared himself to mayors, and instilled fear among critics, for doing whatever he viewed as necessary to produce results on the streets. San Francisco’s longtime director of public works went by the Twitter handle @ MrCleanSF, and neither reports of ethical breaches nor criticism of harsh tactics in clearing out homeless people from doorways or encampments eroded his clout at City Hall. On Tuesday, his reign over the streets appeared to come to an abrupt end. The federal corruption charges against Nuru were striking in both their breadth and their reach into what would seem to be the tiniest opportunity for a powerful public official to glean personal gain from his position. Jan. 29
Trouble ahead
San Francisco and the Bay Area are built on tourism, a freeranging business world and tight living quarters. An outbreak could be devastating and hard to control. That’s why it’s essential that public leaders prep for the worst and inform the public about the consequences if the virus shows up here. Feb. 5
Trump acquitted
Senate Republicans’ dutiful vote to acquit President Trump on impeachment charges Wednesday was not the exoneration the president and his defenders desperately want. Rank partisanship and a sham trial decided the verdict before it was rendered, robbing it of its power to clear Trump of abusing and diminishing his office. Feb. 6
Take it seriously
The coronavirus outbreak has become more than a health risk. It’s also a contagion of fear, ineptitude and economic damage, the containment of which grows harder by the day. Such a crisis demands a firm, clear response, but this country is getting a mixed message. President Trump is dodging the danger by flippantly suggesting it will subside, calling it “a problem that’s going to go away” Tuesday. That’s a lax and irresponsible reading. Feb. 26
Governor takes lead
Gov. Gavin Newsom prudently ordered the strictest statewide socialdistancing measures in the country Thursday to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, taking Bay Area officials’ lead in urging all Californians to stay home except for a few essential purposes, such as food, exercise and health care. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a similar order the next day, followed by his counterparts in Connecticut, New Jersey and Illinois. They should be the first of many governors to follow suit given the threat of the pandemic and its undetected transmission within the country. March 21
Lifechanging order
Offices emptied, classes ceased and shops shuttered. Bridges cleared, trains had seats and cable cars stopped climbing. In a city known for cuisine and carousing, restaurants faced acres of empty tables, and bars echoed with a last call for the ages. As a potentially catastrophic contagion bore down on America and the world, the Bay Area led California and the country in learning a new way of working together: Keeping apart. March 22
Captain Courageous
Capt. Brett Crozier left the nuclearpowered aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt to cheers and applause from sailors he cared about so deeply that he put his career on the line for their wellbeing. His willingness to sound the alarm about coronavirus infections on the carrier — and the need to get the crew out of harm’s way, pronto — led the Navy to relieve him of his command. April 4
Lack of leadership
President Trump has struggled throughout the coronavirus crisis to grasp that the graphs plotting human disease and deaths — in their thousands — are more important than those charting the fluctuations of the stock market and his approval rating. His retreat from a plan to miraculously resurrect the American economy by Easter therefore began a countdown to his next reversion to form. April 11
White House quackery
For more than a month, President Trump has promoted unproven treatments such as hydroxychloroquine for the novel coronavirus. The recklessness of these presidential prescriptions might have been obscured by their status as real medicines long in use for other illnesses. But few subtleties are safe around Trump, who drifted still further into dangerous quackery this week by suggesting Americans might fight the virus by injecting or ingesting disinfectants. April 25
Killing of George Floyd
The rage over the killing of 46yearold George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police officers is well justified. The violence, looting and destruction that erupted during protests is not. To understand the mayhem on display in Minneapolis and other cities is not to condone it. It went beyond the death of one man who pleaded for his life — “I can’t breathe” — as an officer’s knee was pressed against his neck for more than eight excruciating minutes. It was about myriad other times unarmed African American men have been killed at the hands of police. It was about the history of justice that proved so maddeningly elusive, time after time, even in many of the egregious incidents captured on video.
May 30
A racial reckoning
A nation reeling from the worst pandemic in a century and the worst unemployment since the Great Depression of the 1930s now faces the inflammation of an affliction that has betrayed the American ideal of equal justice for all from its founding: the frustration and pain of systemic racism. In cities across the nation, the justifiable rage over the May 25 killing of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police generated huge and peaceful weekend protests that morphed into acts of looting and violence by people who seized on a moment of chaos. Once again, the nation’s unresolved issues of race and injustice that have haunted its history — from slavery to segregation to the myriad inequities that endure — were on full display for the world. The protests veered out of control: costing lives, inflicting injuries, damaging businesses large and small and created a regrettable distraction from a cause that many Americans are reticent to acknowledge yet alone confront. June 1
Perilous moment
Shortly before his instantly infamous staged walk Monday from the White House to St. John’s Church along a path forcibly cleared of protesters, Trump appeared in the Rose Garden to warn states and cities that if they do not quell the unrest to his satisfaction, he will “deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem.” Domestic deployments of activeduty armed forces — not including statebased National Guard contingents — are strictly limited by the postReconstruction Posse Comitatus Act, but presidents can use troops on American soil under a rarely used law from even earlier in the country’s history, the 1807 Insurrection Act. June 7
Defiance of law
Roger Stone, convicted by a jury of seven felonies, should have been checking in to federal prison this week. That Stone remains free is a measure of the contempt the president he protected holds for the principle of rule of law. President Trump commuted Stone’s sentence for crimes that included witness tampering and lying to Congress in an effort to frustrate investigations related to Russian sabotage of the 2016 U. S. presidential election. The upshot could be neither clearer nor more unseemly. Stone broke the law to save Trump’s skin, so Trump acted to save Stone’s, appearances be damned. July 13
Shot at democracy
On Thursday, Trump went after the most sacred attribute of the 224yearold American experiment: the citizenry’s faith in free and fair elections. He tweeted: “With Universal MailIn Voting ( not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” July 31
Kamala’s time
In Sen. Kamala Harris, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden has selected a running mate who has spent her entire career breaking barriers with a toughness to deflect
slights from those who underestimated her, the savvy to course correct from political peril and the persistence and — yes, the ambition — to keep growing and reaching for higher office. As the daughter of a mother from India and father from Jamaica, Harris has always been accustomed to making history from the time she defeated seemingly entrenched San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan in 2003. Now she is a week away from becoming the first woman of color on a majorparty presidential ticket. For Biden, the choice was as pragmatic as it was bold. Aug. 12
Dolittle Legislature
California’s legislative session ended at midnight Monday — not that many will have noticed. Quarrelsome and quarantinecrossed, lawmakers largely failed to address the most pressing problems they faced. They executed their most spectacular faceplant on housing. Sept. 2
No respect for mom
Shame on Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon for rejecting a request by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, mother of a monthold daughter, to vote by proxy at the end of session. The socalled leader’s recalcitrance forced Wicks to drive from Oakland to Sacramento with newborn Elly to work until midnight on the Assembly floor. Wicks gamely balanced her parental and legislative duties — engaging in debates, feeding her daughter — but it was so unnecessary. Sept. 2
Pelosi’s bad look
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seemed to be one of the few San Franciscans unaware that hair salons were offlimits because of the pandemic restrictions. At least that was her excuse for having her hair done at a neighborhood salon Monday. Surveillance video from the shop showed her walking inside with hair wet and mask down. Sept. 3
R. I. P., RBG
In the past few years, as her health challenges proved unrelenting, those who care about equal justice seemed to be cheering along as ( Ruth Bader) Ginsburg’s wit and workouts seemed to be boldly defying the odds in our interest. Her fervent wish was ours. Her legacy must not be undone by ( Senate Majority Leader Mitch) McConnell’s cynical reversal of principle. It must endure. It must be on the ballot on Nov. 3. Sept. 20
Ominous warning
President Trump has put Americans on notice: The constitutional democracy they have cherished — and taken for granted — is in peril. He has spent the past 3 ½ years belittling and undermining the institutions that have defined and upheld the great American experiment for 244 years. Now he is threatening to defy the most sacred convention of all: the peaceful transition of power after a presidential election. Sept. 26
Assault on excellence
San Francisco school leaders are on the verge of a fateful — and damaging — decision to dump Lowell High School’s prized status as a nationally known academic institution in favor of random admissions based on a lottery. The plan would poorly serve students and send parents to the exits. Oct. 14
Great distraction
Wherever a monument to the Confederacy meets a deserved demise, its defenders can be counted on to warn that this is the top of a slippery slope toward a wholesale cleansing of every trace of our history based on the sensitivities of 21st century leftists. It’s a specious, disingenuous argument, but the San Francisco school board is doing its best to prove it right. Wresting its attention away from such trivial distractions as the fact that its schools aren’t open, the board chose this moment to urge 44 of them to think up new names. It seems the San Francisco School Names Advisory Committee found more than a third of the city’s schools to be named after people and places that don’t meet its exacting criteria for the honor. Oct. 20
Fiberfree hearings
The selection of a Supreme Court justice should be an enlightening moment to learn about the judiciary’s role and the candidate’s philosophy. A lifetime appointment should be weighted with importance and understanding. It’s a rare moment when the three branches of government — judicial, executive and legislative — mingle. The nomination of Amy Coney Barrett flunked this civics test. She revealed next to nothing in her empty answers to a Senate panel quizzing her. Health coverage guarantees, abortion rights, church and state: Well, she just couldn’t say. It’s a playbook that most judicial nominees follow, but Barrett’s barren remarks reached a new depth. Oct. 23
Presidentelect Biden
American voters have spoken: It’s time for a White House that reflects the best of our values: a commitment to truth, an acknowledgment of science, a respect for the institutions that define and defend our democracy, a regard for our allies and a disdain for tyrants who abuse their people, and an appreciation for the diversity of this great nation. The election of Joe Biden and vice president nominee Kamala Harris offers genuine hope for restoration of those values after four years of contempt for them under the Donald Trump presidency. Nov. 8
Gavin’s gaffe
Last week, when The Chronicle revealed that he was one of at least a dozen people from more than three households who celebrated a lobbyist’s birthday at Yountville’s fancy French Laundry, the governor allowed that he “should have modeled better behavior.” But he and a spokesman also attempted to defend the dinner by pointing out that it was outdoors and, less persuasively, that it was in technical compliance with the state’s restaurant guidance — even though Newsom’s administration has discouraged gatherings involving more than three households in a single space. By this week, however, Newsom had recognized that the Laundry incident needed another wash. And he modeled a better apology the second time around. “I made a bad mistake,” he said of the dinner during a news conference Monday. Nov. 18
Reopen the schools
The Bay Area and California’s relatively responsible approach to the pandemic, particularly in the context of the worst national response in the developed world, has saved many lives. The success is marred, however, by a glaring failure to educate children. While restrictions on highrisk gathering places have looked more justified as the toll of the virus has grown in places that failed to take such steps, the mass abandonment of schoolchildren has only become more inexplicable. Dec. 4
Legal lunacy
Given questions about Texas’ lack of standing to file such a suit and the appropriateness of doing so directly to the high court, the justices didn’t have to address the nonexistent merits of the case or the absurd remedy it sought, finding simply that the state had “not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections.” That echoed the court’s terse rejection Tuesday of a separate case brought by Pennsylvania Republicans. Sadly, the legal, ethical and constitutional bankruptcy of the case did not prevent it from being backed by a majority of House Republicans. Dec. 12
Hope, at warp speed
It’s the most capable of times and the most incompetent. A vaccine for SARSCoV2, the novel coronavirus, has been administered in California within the same year as the first known American fatality of the virus in San Jose, a recordshattering triumph of science, industry and government. And yet the first doses are being administered to health care workers facing a surge of infections, hospitalizations and deaths that is also breaking records across the state and country, an indictment of one of the world’s worst responses to the pandemic. Until this year, the fastestarriving vaccine in history, for mumps, took four years to develop. Dec. 15