The Trump administration announced that the prices it will charge foreigners to enter U.S. national parks will be higher than the prices charged to Americans, as was reported in the Nov. 28 news article “‘America-first’ upcharges to be levied on foreign visitors at national parks.” This plan is a continuation of the administration’s incoherent trade policy.
Foreigners who visit U.S. national parks are purchasing an American export: American tourism services. If foreign governments wanted to protect their own tourist industries from American competition, among the tools at their disposal would be tariffs on their citizens’ purchases of tickets to U.S. parks. This protectionist practice, which would indeed reduce foreign demand for an important American export, is one that President Donald Trump would probably denounce with cries of “ripping us off.”
And yet the Trump administration’s higher park fees for foreigners are economically very similar to foreign tariffs on an American export. With these higher park fees, Trump saves foreign governments from the bother of imposing tariffs to protect their tourist industries; he himself is protecting other countries’ tourist industries from American competition.
Donald J. Boudreaux, Fairfax
Name these deputies
The Nov. 28 obituary “Black Power activist known as H. Rap Brown” said Jamil Al-Amin (formerly H. Rap Brown) died in prison while serving time for murdering a sheriff’s deputy in 2000. Yet nowhere in the obituary was the name of the fallen officer, Fulton County (Georgia) Deputy Ricky Kinchen. There also was no mention of Deputy Aldranon English, who was shot in that same incident.
By omitting their names, the obituary erased the human cost of Al-Amin’s violence. Kinchen’s sacrifice deserves recognition equal to the notoriety of the man who killed him. And English’s survival and suffering should not be ignored. That they were not named was a disservice to The Post’s readers and to the victims’ families.
Kinchen’s life and service matter, and he should not be forgotten.
Craig W. Floyd, Alexandria
The writer is founder and president of the nonprofit Citizens Behind the Badge.
Improving railroad safety
The Dec. 1 editorial “Trump mimics Biden’s approach to railroad safety” on automated track inspection misstated the Federal Railroad Administration’s rulemaking and the position of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division-Teamsters (BMWED). It left an inaccurate picture of what the agency is considering and why inspectors are raising alarms.
Automated track inspection is permitted under federal regulations. The petition now before the FRA is not a request to adopt ATI. It is a request to cut back the human visual inspection frequencies that form the backbone of track safety. Arguments about “archaic regulations” that ignore this distinction do not reflect the record.
BMWED does not oppose ATI. We have supported FRA efforts to require the railroads to run ATI three to four times per year. Additionally, since 2018, we have worked to engage the Class I railroads in evaluating whether visual inspections could be safely adjusted without compromising track safety. But the railroads are now pushing for a 72-hour inspection delay, which is well outside the bounds of safe practice. Technology should supplement human inspection to enhance safety.
The docket contains sworn statements from qualified inspectors, defect photographs and data documenting hazardous conditions that ATI failed to identify. The claim that our union is trying to preserve “dues-paying members slogging around on the tracks” is false and dismissive of the people who protect the American public. Our members live in the communities where these trains move. They see where automation performs well and where it misses defects that can lead to derailments.
The question before the FRA is not whether ATI should be allowed. It is whether the country will reduce the essential visual inspections that catch what ATI misses.
Roy L. Morrison, Washington
The writer is the director of safety for the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division Teamsters.
Columbus, Ohio, shows how to bring down crime
It is commendable that The Post recognized declining crime rates across the nation and the human impact of such drastic decreases in the Nov. 21 front-page article “5 cities help explain why homicide rates are falling across U.S.” One city that merits inclusion in any list of significant crime declines is Columbus, Ohio. In fact, when compared with the cities highlighted in the article, it had the sharpest decline in homicides so far this year relative to the same period in 2021.
Based on the data, Columbus is the safest it’s been in more than a decade, even with steady growth in the metropolitan area at nearly 15 percent during that time. The city attributes this progress to a combination of strategies: expanding youth mentorship programs, right response practices, data-driven special operations and investments in community initiatives that strengthen trust between residents and law enforcement. Columbus is also modernizing its police department through its recruitment practices and mental health support for officers. Municipalities nationwide can learn from the modernizations underway in Columbus.
Kate McSweeney-Pishotti, Columbus, Ohio
The writer is the municipal director of public safety.
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