To Sow Discord and Divisions

Our society is still facing enormous challenges. The COVID pandemic continues. Black lives still have to matter. Greenhouse gases are still rising and so are global temperatures. To address these issues successfully, concerted efforts are necessary. We must try our best to control the spread of the coronavirus. We ought to look deeply into the structural, institutional and systemic racism. For our society to avert climate change, we must act together. Yet, Virginia's new governor Glenn Youngkin chooses to sow discord and divisions.

Above copied from
Commonwealth of Virginia 

The following are among the executive actions the new governor has taken:

• End the use of divisive concepts, including Critical Race Theory, in public education.
• Empower Virginia parents in their children’s education and upbringing by allowing parents to make decisions on whether their child wears a mask in school.
• Withdraw from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

It is just day one and the governor has already placed the state in a precarious situation. 

There is a bright side, however. 

• Critical Race Theory is currently not included in Virginia's Standards of Learning.
• Virginia law (SB 1303) requires each school board to provide such in-person instruction in a manner in which it adheres, to the maximum extent practicable, to any currently applicable mitigation strategies for early childhood care and education programs and elementary and secondary schools to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 that have been provided by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Virginia law (SB 1027) directs the Department of Environmental Quality to incorporate into regulations previously adopted by the State Air Pollution Control Board certain provisions establishing a carbon dioxide cap and trade program to reduce emissions released by electric generation facilities. Such provisions are required to comply with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative model rule.

An executive order cannot really address something that does not exist. Executive orders are also not to be used to repeal laws. Perhaps, the only reason why the governor has issued these executive orders is to ruffle our feathers and excite his political base. Nonetheless, the governor sends a wrong message when the problems we are currently facing require nothing less than our cooperation and unity.