Letters to the Editor: Voter suppression in Kentucky primary? Independents say yes.

Voter suppression?

Was there intentional voter suppression in the commonwealth of Kentucky on June 23, 2020?

Every registered independent voter in Kentucky will answer “Yes”.

Independent voters are denied their constitutionally guaranteed right to vote in every primary in the commonwealth.

The only reason to deny independents a vote is to secure two-party control.

In states where independents are allowed to vote in primaries, legislators know they better represent their constituents better than by toeing a strict party line because independents will vote them out.

As to last Tuesday’s possible increased voter suppression: In an attempt to contain the spread of coronavirus our state tried to get as many Kentucky voters to vote by mail or early.

Voters had plenty of time to do so.

Voters also had plenty of warning there’d be few polling stations open.

If it’s proven that mail-in ballots overwhelmingly didn’t go out to minorities who requested them, then yes.

If people chose not to vote by mail because President Donald Trump claims it’s bad, remember he lies constantly and votes by mail himself.

Instead of complaining about lack of open polls, people should contact their county clerk and let them know they are available to work at a polling station this November.

Robin Osgood, Lexington

Wear a mask

I have heard the remark that requiring us to wear masks is taking away someone’s freedom, that “This is the USA not China.”

I’m confused. We are required to wear seat belts when riding in a car. We are required to wear shirts and shoes to enter restaurants and stores, so what’s the difference?

No shoes.

No shirts.

No masks.

No service.

Is this so hard to show your patriotism and love for your neighbors?

Ellen Prince, Salt Lick

Listen to experts

I am getting sick and tired of these so-called governmental leaders (all Republicans) and their followers who complain about having to stay home or wear a mask for a few months. I served two tours in Vietnam and did not have a hot shower for 17 months until I “hit” the Philippines on my way home — no complaints.

All soldiers have sacrificed greatly so Americans can enjoy the, until recently, greatest lifestyle in the world, now one that is merely great.

We wore flak jackets, not only to protect ourselves but our fellow soldiers. I wish we only needed to wear a simple little mask to ward off the bullets but that would not equal the reality of the situation.

Americans, please listen to the scientific and medical leaders instead of snake oil salesmen politicians. These professionals have trained and devoted (much like the U.S. military) their adult years to fight this stealthy enemy that comes without pretext or discrimination.

So my fellow Americans, let’s all lift up our boots straps and work the problem (pandemic) rather than worry about individual “rights” being violated.

Robert Hoeller, Lexington

Just breathe

My last eight months have centered around one word.

Breathe.

Last fall, when my dad was in the hospital struggling with acute necrotizing pancreatitis, he sometimes needed help breathing. He hated the CPAP machine. Sometimes I stayed up all night to make sure he kept it on so that he would get the oxygen he needed. In his last days, I listened to his breaths become slower. When they stopped, the silence was more than I could bear.

In March, our nation faced the reality of COVID-19. The ICUs filled up as doctors sought ventilators to keep people breathing. I found myself grateful that my dad was ill when we could be by his side as he took his last breath.

In April, we were asked to wear masks to protect the vulnerable. As many complained about how they “just couldn’t breathe” in those masks, I found myself getting angry. Their discomfort was meant to protect folks who might not survive if they got the virus. Who would struggle for their last breath connected to a ventilator in the hospital.

Now the phrase “I can’t breathe” is being chanted because of the more insidious disease of racism. The images of George Floyd fill my newsfeed and my mind.

We take breathing for granted. But if this year has taught me anything, it’s that life is fragile. We all need to take a collective breath so that our nation can finally heal.

Jacque Adkins, Lexington

Feed our children

The COVID-19 pandemic has yielded devastating consequences across Kentucky, especially for children. According to new data released by Save the Children, Kentucky ranks 32 out of 50 states for child food insecurity rates and 16.2 percent of kids growing up in Fayette County are food insecure. Child hunger is not an isolated issue and adversely impacts all aspects of a child’s development, from their education to increased health risks. And, since COVID-19, this issue has only worsened. I encourage Sen. Mitch McConnell to support and quickly enact policy solutions that ensure kids don’t continue to go hungry.

Tackling this challenge requires policy changes. One way to do this is to temporarily increase Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits by 15 percent in the next federal coronavirus relief legislation. This would ensure that families have the resources they need to put food on the table while also helping stimulate our economy by increasing spending at neighborhood grocery stores and other local businesses.

Ensuring kids can eat during this uncertain time should not be a partisan issue. Every day that goes by without real, substantive action is another day that an innocent child goes to bed with an empty stomach.

Minda Adkins, Lexington

Moving backwards

I have lived in three centuries. My great-great grandfather, John Storm Edwards, moved his family into southeastern Pulaski County around 1850 (the 19th century). Our way of life changed little until 1950 when Lake Cumberland brought us roads, electricity, and telephones and we entered the 20th century. Twenty years ago we entered the 21st century. Now it seems that we are back in the 19th century where people die of disease, wear masks, carry guns, hang out in the streets, and move big rocks.

Bob Edwards, Lexington

Stop the slaughter

When People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) learned that a worker at C & W Meat Packers ineffectively shot a cow in the head four times while she cried out and attempted to stand, we urged the slaughterhouse to make changes, including by livestreaming footage to help prevent workers from abusing animals, or preferably stop killing farmed animals altogether and switch to butchering only wild animals killed in collisions. (“Central Kentucky meat plant cited, penalized after cow shot in the head 4 times,” June 22).

Slaughtering animals has never been pretty. Even the best regulated slaughterhouses violently kill sensitive, intelligent animals who were denied everything that was natural and important to them. Everyone can help stop such suffering simply by going vegan.

Animals are individuals with personalities and feelings. Cows, for example, form lifelong friendships and mourn when they lose a loved one. They feel pain every bit as much as humans do, and are afraid to die. They go to great lengths to escape from slaughterhouses, as they value their lives, just as you and I value ours.

Colin Henstock, assistant manager of investigations, PETA, Norfolk, Va.

Germs self-sufficient

Give those germs some credit. They have been evolving diseases for centuries that are harmful to Homo sapiens.The evolution of those diseases is always sped up when large groups of people gather in crowded, unsanitary slums, the conditions present in a lot of cities in China. Chinese flocked from the countryside to the cities to work in low wage jobs in sweatshops, making goods for Americans like the clothing lines of Ivanka and Donald Trump.

This century both SARS and MERS evolved from incubator slums. That is why President Barack Obama left a pandemic response plan for President Trump. Trump of course fired the team to cut costs and threw away the plan.

But now conservative conspiracy theorists need to make up a story to blame the pandemic on the liberal leftist agenda because that’s what they do. They want to claim that COVID-19 is man-made and released deliberately. The real story is that those germs are very competent at making diseases by themselves. American consumers created the problem by choosing to buy cheap Chinese goods from sweatshops rather than slightly higher priced goods made in the USA. The incompetent, conservative Trump administration is no match for those germs.

Kevin Kline, Lexington

Get ready

A lot of people have talked about COVID-19 as a once-in-a-century pandemic. Even Bill Gates, who tried years ago to get us thinking about pandemics and defending against them, has said it looks like a once-in-a-century pathogen.

Sorry, Bill, but that’s way too optimistic. COVID-19 is a “zoonotic”, an endemic animal disease that mutated to be able to infect humans. Two of its cousins, SARS and MERS, mutated the same way within the last 20 years. Luckily for us, they’re a lot less infectious.

The problem is that as our population grows, we keep expanding into areas where the animals, with their own endemic diseases, have until now had little contact with humans. On top of that, we destroy their habitats, so they’re forced to spread out looking for new places to live. The opportunities for new zoonotics just keep getting better. And our living conditions keep getting more crowded, offering more opportunities for disease to spread.

COVID-19 isn’t a once-in-a-century disaster. At the rate we’re going, equally deadly pandemics are likely to appear every few years. We need to be ready.

York Dobyns, Lexington