Ban diversity? Jail more people? Loosen child labor laws? Frankfort’s full of bad ideas. | Opinion

DEI legislation

As a child I used to sing the song ‘Jesus Loves the Little Children’ on the way home after church. It teaches that Jesus loves all children whether they are red, yellow, black, or white. State Sens. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield; Gary Boswell, R-Owensboro; Dr. Donald Douglas, R-Nicholasville; and Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, have proposed S.B. 93 which states, a “school shall not advocate for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.” Didn’t Jesus advocate for diversity, inclusion and belonging? Aren’t they going against their Christian upbringing?

Are they going after churches next?

Joe Crouch, Lexington

HB 5

House Bill 5 passed the Kentucky House and has moved to the Senate. This bill criminalizes and extends penalties on many different issues under the guise of “keeping Kentucky safe.” It does not acknowledge that crime has actually decreased. It simply puts more people in jails and prisons. It puts the most vulnerable at risk by criminalizing homelessness, which is a problem our local area is struggling to address. More than 100 Kentucky groups and organizations have signed a joint letter to oppose HB5.

I particularly want to raise the issue of how much this bill will cost (while not making us safer). It is enormously expensive to put people in prison, more expensive than providing drug counseling or mental health counseling or housing assistance. How many more jails and prisons will we need to build to house all the new criminals created by this law? Currently Kentucky is spending $29 million just to study building a new prison. How much will that prison eventually cost?

Contact the Senate to oppose this bill. Call the Legislative Hotline at 1-800-372-7181 and leave your message asking to vote NO on HB5

Dan Nolet, Danville

Child labor

It appears the Republican party in Frankfort has done it again. A bill that would loosen child labor restrictions and limit Kentucky’s top labor officials from setting standards on child labor that would exceed minimum federal protections has been introduced by Sen. Phillip Pratt, R-Georgetown. Hmmm. Who would benefit from this law and who would make the decision of what the minimum standards would be? Could it be the owners of companies that would hire teenagers at a lower rate and not have to offer benefits? For example, if a teenager worked for, let’s say a lawn care company, and got his or her foot cut off, who would pay the medical bills and pay for rehabilitation? Have Republicans introduced any bills recently that would profit the general public and not just a chosen few?

And before you offer the trite statement “Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.” Yes, but that was then is this is now.

Republicans need to start working for the people — all of the people of Kentucky, not just a chosen few.

Catherine Ferguson, Lexington

Mansion meeting

Recently, a meeting was held in regard to a construction project on Versailles Road at Mason Headley Road. Representatives of Fayette County Public Schools, LFUCG Traffic Engineering and State Transportation District 7 were present. None of our At-Large Council Members — James Brown, Chuck Ellinger or At-Large Vice-mayor Dan Wu — attended.

The property, Duntreath Mansion, sits on 35 acres of heavily wooded land and will be converted to a STEM Academy for Girls. An additional school may be built in the future. Soon, the mansion will be demolished, the pond filled, and a good many mature trees will be removed to build the school and widen Mason Headley. What is now essentially a private nature preserve will be altered for a magnet school.

Many have wisely said, “It could have been worse. It could have been another gas station.” Truer words were never spoken when it comes to Versailles Road development.

Such is the state of planning and development that we must be satisfied with mediocrity. If developers are taking one of our neighborhood’s assets, please give us something in return: lower speed limits, safe sidewalks, protected bike lanes, and street trees.

Yes, it could be worse. But it could be better.

Paula Singer, Lexington

Electoral College

America is a republic and a democracy. A republic because we elect our leaders and a democracy because the people, not a monarch or a totalitarian leader, control the government.

The Electoral College is part of the Constitution. Each state receives votes based on two senators and the number of its representatives in the House of Representatives. The minimum number of votes allocated is three. The distribution of votes is based on the U.S. Census, which counts all people in each state. Some argue non-resident immigrants should be counted, which would give some states an edge over others. Some say non-citizens should have no say in our country and should not be considered when Electoral Vote distribution is done every 10 years.

Why do we have the Electoral College? It prevents more populated states, through a straight majority vote, to “bully” less populated states. We are the United States. No group of states should have more control over elections than others.

There is no threat to democracy unless the measures that protect the less populated states and their citizens are removed. We pride ourselves that every voice is heard; Electoral College protects our voices.

Lauranne L Williams, Lexington

Democratic Republic

The coming presidential election is about one thing: Do we care about continuing as a democratic republic? Period.

No matter what diversions are promoted—the economy, Christian nationalism, education, health, abortion, immigration, “woke-ism”—the only thing that truly motivates the billionaire campaign donors is expanding their wealth/power. “Increase our income, give us even more tax cuts, and we will go along with anything else, for now, that will earn your vote.”

It is difficult to understand why people who claim to worry about income, jobs and health care get excited about voting for the party that fights against raising the minimum wage and similar measures that would help unwealthy citizens, and promotes deregulation of business (in tandem with disregard for democratic norms and the constitution).

Excitement and passion for the return of the would-be dictator is real, though—a puzzling reality. It might be thrilling for some, for a few months, to have a president who constantly blusters insults, fawns over dictators and has no affinity with the truth; but totalitarian governments—even those wedded to a particular religion—never serve the people for long. It soon becomes all about solidifying power and knee-capping any dissent.

William Trigg, Frankfort

Trump and McConnell

While I respect Scott Jennings, I was amused by his recent commentary regarding U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s, R-Kentucky, “extraordinary career.”

His comments rang as a noble attempt by a friend to start spinning Mitch’s obituary narrative in a more favorable light. That’s what friends do. I doubt that he will be very successful.

History will more accurately document Mitch’s legacy as one of self-service, obstruction, fear mongering, party-before-country gamesmanship. By connect the dots of Mitch’s career: his work with Former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes creating false narrative attack ads; his full-throated support for Citizen’s United to open the floodgates of dark money into politics; and his packing federal courts with activist, Federalist Society judges, one can draw a line straight to our current divisive and putrid state of politics.

It was the decades of Mitch’s handiwork that allowed a candidate as flawed and obnoxious as former President Donald Trump to flourish and wreak havoc. Indeed, had Mitch fulfilled his duties and conducted a “fair and balanced” second impeachment trial, he could have easily proven guilt and banished Trump from ever holding elected office again, but of course he just kicked that problem to others to resolve.

Scott Brady, Lexington

CRT response

I love how people who get “canceled” always cry about it on big platforms. Take, for instance, J Larry Hood’s recent “old man yells at cloud” rant about how CRT is a “pagan insistence” of power relationships. It’s absolute nonsense, but he gets a column. Meanwhile, critical thinkers with empathy have to submit 200-word replies to the letters editor.

Here’s the truth: “Cancel culture” exists but NEVER affects who we’re told. That’s because people whose voices are silenced and whose access to platforms is removed are marginalized people. I’ve seen countless YouTubers have their videos removed, delisted, or demonetized because they defend LGBTQIA issues. But channels that spread hate speech also buy ads, so they get a pass.

Hood represents a generation of privileged, entitled people never hearing disagreement because they held power over those listening. Once this kind of person logs into social media and sees their ignorant opinions questioned by strangers, they feel attacked, even when it’s just a light criticism. Seriously: these people just don’t want accountability.

He also said other things I’d love to refute, but I’ve reached my word limit. Guess I’m getting “cancelled” by the Herald-Leader’s online submission system. (Insert “eye roll emoji” here.)

Bronson O’Quinn, Lexington

Headline news

As I picked up a recent copy of the Herald-Leader to recycle it, I groaned again at the front page headline and decided to say something about it. In today’s news world, what makes our former president’s “railing” about something, almost anything, worthy of a lengthy story, let alone a front page story, never mind an above-the-fold headline? Aside from fawning over anyone who kisses his imaginary ring, railing is pretty much all he does!

He feeds on any and all news exposure and this front page story amounts to a windfall vote of relevance from a journal with a reputation for valuing newsworthiness. If Arby’s used this as a template for their ads, their slogan would be “We have the fillers.”

I also noticed another Associated Press story, about historic United Nations hearings, was pushed to page five. Please consider that “news” is derived from the word “new” and not from the words “again” or “constantly” and edit accordingly. Also notice that while “his” name is the first word in your headline, I don’t mention it at all. I don’t need to – because it’s not news.

Glen White, Lexington

Woods’ career

Someone please remind Brendan Ryan that the opposite of “grit” is “quit.” See how far that gets you in life. Yet another weakening of the American spirit. And how can he say that Tiger Woods’ career was ended prematurely? The man is pushing 50 and won a major title at the age of 43 which is quite rare.

Doug Reed, Lexington

Election insanity

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” is attributed to Albert Einstein. I suspect Einstein would not have any difficulty in adding electing the same individuals over and over due to partisan redistricting and incumbency is another definition of insanity.

Charles Myers, Lexington

Compiled by Liz Carey