Letters to the Editor: Questioning legislators’ actions, motives in coronavirus fight
End the session
I’m feeling gobsmacked. While watching last week’s Kentucky Educational Television’s coverage of the legislative session (because I can’t be there in person), still being held during this devastating COVID-19 pandemic, I noticed that during a recess my Sen. Damon Thayer and others of his caucus were standing close together with little regard for public safety. There was no respecting the six-to-10-feet rule to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
I wonder why they are still meeting in large groups, and how they can justify their behaviors that put many Kentuckians at risk of illness and even death. The health of Kentuckians must be paramount. Our well-being must be front and center. When the pandemic subsides, then economic growth can be on the General Assembly’s agenda without the public being shut out. Dipping into the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System fund which teachers paid into is wrong and will cost Kentuckians much more down the line.
Legislators, please adjourn and plan to use the safer and healthier choice of videoconferencing to complete the budget and relief package only.
We need elected leaders that represent our best interests, not that of special interests.
It’s a matter of life and death.
Rosanne F. Klarer, Georgetown
On politics, judgment
Herald-Leader opinions columnist Linda Blackford cites students going on spring break during a pandemic, coronavirus-positive Sen. Rand Paul voting against a relief package over an unrelated issue, victims refusing to self-quarantine, and churches holding mass meetings despite all warnings.
She could add Kentucky Rep. Savannah Maddox (R-Dry Ridge), who wants to let Kentuckians sue their governor over the state’s emergency measures, and U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), whose antics forced scores of his fellow House members to put their health at risk to pass the relief package.
I wonder what could account for all this.
Well, perhaps America’s recent attack of political insanity, during which people once called fringe figures went mainstream and turned us against the established authorities, including respected journalists, scientific experts, and our own government.
To say you’re going to choose your beliefs and arrange your affairs in whatever way your infinite wisdom deems best, in defiance of the consensus and regardless of the majority, is to risk falling victim to the Dunning-Kruger effect, in which people’s judgment becomes so bad they can’t tell they have bad judgment.
Politics will do that to you.
Lela Stromenger, Lexington
Quash Maddox bill
House Bill 322 threatens to limit the scope of our governor’s executive orders issued during a public emergency, which would be a grave mistake as COVID-19 continues to spread through our communities. We need to do everything in our power, as Kentuckians and as Americans, to stop this virus in its tracks, and Gov. Andy Beshear has done an admirable job of communicating this as well as taking reasonable steps to curb the infection rate in our state. I understand these are frightening times for some folks, but we cannot muzzle those who are trying to keep us safe. As a scientist, I believe that this is not the time to encourage fear-mongering and spread dissent along political lines with the actions described in this bill. I urge legislators to vote against HB 322. Governor Beshear needs to be able to act swiftly and make decisions based on credible information sources to protect our people.
Dany Waller, Lexington
A team effort
Legislation (House Bill 322) filed by Rep. Savannah Maddox (R-Dry Ridge) to restrict Gov. Andy Beshear’s power to issue executive orders during the coronavirus crisis is ill-conceived and ill-timed. To let businesses damaged by the necessary shutdowns sue the state in an effort to politicize the pandemic is divisive and would divert necessary resources and precious time from meeting the extreme challenges to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic. Short of the timely development of a miracle vaccine, with the scientific community working day and night to accomplish, the only weapons we currently have are the frequent washing of hands and social distancing (requiring the temporary closing of many types of business).
Now is the time for “Team Players Working Together!” It’s the time for living the mascot/motto of my old Carlisle High School Musketeers of “One for All and All for One;” and, restated by the ending thoughts of the popular “The Red Green Show” airing on Kentucky Educational Television, “Remember I’m for you, we are all in this together!”
Don Dampier, Georgetown