Letters to the Editor: ‘Reprehensible.’ ‘Terrorism.’ Readers react to effigy of Gov. Beshear
Be brave. Vote.
I watched Gov. Andy Beshear’s emotional statement regarding the reprehensible event in Frankfort wherein he was hung in effigy. One word he did not use he did not use needs to be publicly stated. That word is terrorism.
Two other words need to be applied to those who participated. Two words that are even more frightening than the word terrorism. Those two words — they vote.
You may think your vote doesn’t matter or that it’s not worth the trouble of registering or going to the polls. You may think we get the same old bums no matter what. But you can be quite sure that those who symbolically assassinated the governor know their vote does count and they will be in the booth bright and early. You can be equally sure that the politicians who were present at their rallies understand that and are ardently courting their support.
Responsible citizenship does matter, and it’s not always a burden. The governor said he will not be afraid; we need to be courageous as well. Be responsible and brave. Register and vote.
John Vance, Versailles
Paul at fault
The hanging of Gov. Andy Beshear in effigy was spurred by politicians pandering to anti-government extremists, according to some of the people interviewed for a recent Herald-Leader story. One respondent said, “This vitriol comes from the top.”
A top source not mentioned specifically was Sen. Rand Paul, who spent much of a May 7 interview on WDRB slinging superheated rhetoric that accused the governor of being drunk with power and acting like a dictator. Paul disagreed with Beshear’s methods, but he didn’t confine himself to arguing the issues. He launched a personal attack on Beshear in an extended tirade that included comparisons to the Soviet Union. It’s this kind of talk that emboldens the kind of people who hang opponents in effigy.
I just want to say that I’ve watched every one of the governor’s televised updates, and I have never in my life seen anyone who acted less drunk with anything. Beshear’s approach is measured, temperate, compassionate, and based on reason informed by science.
A U.S. News & World Report survey in late March ranked the 10 states most satisfied with their leaders’ responses to the coronavirus crisis. Kentucky was No. 1, with 86 percent happy with Beshear’s response.
Lela Stromenger, Lexington
For shame, pastor
Thank you to the unidentified gentleman who had the courage and character in the company of a gun-toting crowd to cut down the hanging effigy of our governor. Shame on the pastor and speaker at the event, who was happy to lead and incite his fellow so-called “patriots,” but defended his part in the incident by saying he left when he saw the effigy being hung. By my reading, this occurred as the angry group was marching toward the governor’s mansion (where the governor lives with his wife and children). The pastor defended “the majority” who were good people, but when one witnesses such a thing but lacks the courage or character to intervene, it speaks volumes about that person’s soul.
Susan Slade, Lexington
No tyranny here
What really gets my goat about the neo-Brownshirt-wannabes and their selfishness parade at the Kentucky Capitol recently is their complete misunderstanding of what constitutes tyranny. There is nothing tyrannical about being asked to follow some simple, temporary public health guidelines. Being allowed to march around in front of the Governor’s Mansion, right up to the door, armed, while holding signs threatening the well-being of the governor and hanging the governor in effigy, proves that these ne’er-do-wells do not live under the oppression of a tyrannical regime. Their claims devalue the experiences of the millions of human beings who have suffered, and do suffer, under tyrants and despots. This whole circus was not about freedom — it was about terrorism. They want to scare you. They want to scare me. They have no ideas that are palatable to the rest of us through normal public discourse, so they turn to fear tactics to get their way. They are not patriots. They are traitors.
Clint Morris, Lexington
Oust Maddox
Republican Rep. Savannah Maddox’s public rants against Andy Beshear must be jealousy. Beshear is being hailed nationally for his calm, careful, informative handling of COVID-19 and saving lives as the projected 100,000 virus deaths by August is being reached soon.
Is there a disconnect between Maddox’s mouth and her mind? Maybe, maybe not. Proudly proclaiming her Christian/conservative values, the Dry Ridge state legislator defies government rules that displease her while she makes “educated decisions.” Announcing her medical issues are private, she outlaws Kentucky women having their private doctor/patient relationship.
Maddox believes God gave the right for gun ownership. I wonder if she would cry out in pain, “Oh, my God,” if her children were in a school shootout.
Maddox was the prize Republicans got with gerrymandering. The voters in the 61st District got snot-slicked. Shame on the Democrats for not challenging Savannah Maddox. Democrat Bill Adkins, Grant County attorney, is a “must” write-in vote.
Excellence is still achievable in Frankfort only if we pencil in our vote for it.
Judy Rembacki, Georgetown
Persuasive images
As a matter of history, the country needs more clearly to memorialize the COVID-19 pandemic and the 100,000 people who now have died. We cannot allow President Donald Trump’s administration to normalize the severity and unprecedented nature of this tragedy, nor forget his failures to respond in a timely manner.
Historians often make reference to how Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in a rhetorically brilliant move, came up with the label “Hoovervilles” to describe and make vivid the hundreds of shantytowns that existed as a result of President Herbert Hoover’s inability to provide relief to hundreds of thousands of Americans during the economic crisis of the 1930s.
What can we learn from this? The challenge for the Democrats and presidential candidate Joe Biden in 2020 is to develop and employ a host of vivid (and hence persuasive) rhetorical efforts to prevent a minority of voters from reelecting Trump. Perhaps part of the strategy might include the use of visual rhetoric (photos of food lines, bodies being stored in refrigerated trucks, and relatives who could not be with their loved ones at the end of life).
Voters might feel the pain that many Americans are suffering and that Trump constantly denies, ignores, and downplays.
Richard Cherwitz, Austin, Texas, professor emeritus at the University of Texas
People, not places
I am urgently, fervently asking each compassionate person in my beloved Lexington to speak up and take action now. The proposed city budget is a moral document. Our neighbors in need should be considered first when any budget is proposed; not golf courses, city pools, Town Branch Trail, police cars, etc. What does this say about our collective priorities? Our very successful Affordable Housing Fund and all other social service agencies at risk of being cut must be restored. Please write, email, call your council representative today. We cannot abandon our sisters, brothers, and children struggling to meet their basic needs.
Judith K. Maxson, Lexington
Mask up
To those who say their constitutional rights are being infringed upon by the requirement to wear a mask and social distance:
You have every right to die unnecessarily.
You do not have the right to put other people’s lives in jeopardy.
Wear a mask. Socially distance.
Carole Boyd, Lexington
Distancing not new
Social distancing is nothing new. It began when we put a smartphone in our hand, and worse, gave them to our children.
The only change is the virus has given us permission to be socially distant. We can now eliminate contact and avoid cordial pleasantries completely. The masks allow us to not speak, smile, acknowledge, or even nod at one another; impolite behavior is accepted. We continue to walk with our heads down looking at nothing but our mind-numbing smartphones.
We have been voluntarily “locked down” from each other for some time. The only difference being the few feet that physically separate us.
Christine McCabe, Richmond
Mitch bipartisan? Nope.
It is difficult to determine the appropriate response to Sen. Mitch McConnell’s recent campaign ads touting his bipartisanship. Should we be astonished, incredulous, skeptical, or perhaps grateful? After all, Moscow Mitch’s concept of bipartisanship is to do it his way. He has never practiced bipartisanship voluntarily. He must be forced to do so. He claims credit for provisions in the stimulus bill he neither authored nor supported. Just like the budget bill, he agreed to the Democrats’ insistence that workers and Main Street be protected or there would be no bill and he and the Republicans would own another epic budget failure. McConnell’s bipartisanship is best exemplified by his refusal to bring over 400 pieces of legislation passed by the Democratic House to the Senate floor for consideration. It is further exemplified by his statement that his ambition was that Barack Obama be a one-term president, supported by his refusal to cooperate with a president twice elected by the majority of the American people.
To demonstrate his commitment to bipartisanship, Mitch could start by allowing the legislation passed by the House to be considered in the Senate as the law requires. For every conservative judicial candidate he nominates, he could nominate a liberal candidate. Or he could retire.
Thomas Martin, Lexington
Honor our flag
I wonder if people have ever heard that it is disrespectful to allow the flag of the United States of America to touch the ground. It is a thing. And it is the same thing for the flag to be draped across a sweaty body. Google “respect for flag” — and stop disrespecting the flag.
Doug Epling, Lexington