Baltimore needs a place to honor COVID’s victims

I am reflecting on the five-year anniversary of the declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic and the lockdown spring of 2020. I’m reflecting on the several million (undercounted) Americans who died, in unimaginable pain and discomfort, isolated, alone, struggling to breath and everything the rest of us sacrificed to spare ourselves and our vulnerable loved ones from that fate.

The lockdowns are often remembered now as ill-advised because of the discomfort we feel at having been so vulnerable and afraid: Many more people died in 2021 than in 2020. What we did, when we were doing it, was a sacrifice, and it is worthy of remembrance (“Five years ago, COVID gripped the world in fear. Now scientists, doctors warn Trump’s policies are weakening public health,” March 13).

Baltimore needs a memorial. We need a place for the thousands of Baltimore victims — numbers far exceeding even our gun violence victims in those years — to grieve and for the rest of us to reflect. I urge city government and civil society organizations to think through how they can contribute to any sort of plaque, statue, sculpture, piece of public art or any other physical memorial.

Learning from pandemics is hard. Thinking about them is hard. Making the necessary investments to prepare for the next one is hard.

And without proper remembrance, the same respect we give to victims of war and violence and genocide, I would argue that it is impossible.

Narratives matter, and we need to think now about how that narrative is written in our city.

— John Preston Ford, Baltimore

Hey, give the frog a chance to speak

Well, let’s wait and see what Kermit the Frog has to say at the University of Maryland graduation ceremonies (“A frog is Maryland’s commencement speaker?” March 29). After all, this kindly amphibious gentleman has had a long and stellar career of making contributions to our nation’s literacy.

The longtime Muppet will likely be much more engaging than most commencement speakers elsewhere that week in May. Heck, he might even serenade us with that wonderful little tune, “Rainbow Connection.”

— Linda L. Meyer, Catonsville

What feeds Trump’s beef with higher education

In case after case, President Donald Trump has claimed that his assault on U.S. colleges and universities is justified by the institutions’ failure to do enough to protect their Jewish students and staff from antisemitism (“Trump administration to review federal funding for top colleges over antisemitism,” April 2). That’s a laudatory goal, but it is not why President Trump is acting out against U.S. higher education.

Trump has made it clear that he is seeking revenge against those educational institutions he perceives as breeding grounds for his enemies. As for the Jewish community, we take care of each other as we have for millennia. We don’t need your help, Mr. President. Find another scapegoat to rationalize your assault on the crown jewels of American progress — our colleges and universities that until now have attracted the best and the brightest from our country and all over the world.

— Benjamin Rosenberg, Baltimore