Letters to the Editor: Keep library staff. Bar exam change hurts incoming lawyers.
Keep library staff
If an organization is going to send 45% of its employees packing then cut the tax money received from taxpayers by 45%, otherwise, it’s going to cash in big-time by cutting expenses and throwing its employees out into the street.
Unlike a privately owned company, the Lexington Public library isn’t going through a sharp reduction in income. The library is primarily paid for via property taxes.
Has anyone ever gone to a library in Lexington and not encountered a helpful employee dedicated to service to the public? I haven’t. Library employees have been there for each of us. I say if the library’s funding hasn’t been sharply reduced then keep them.
If not, then executive director Heather Dieffenbach ought to be the first person sent packing.
Malcolm Stallons, Lexington
Bypass bar exam
In light of COVID-19, states like Utah and Washington have recognized that administering bar examinations in-person is unconscionable, and that postponing or administering them online is equally intractable. So, they have granted diploma privilege to graduates of accredited law schools.
In contrast, on July 9 — a mere 18 days before the in-person July bar examination — the Kentucky Supreme Court took the uncourageous step of cancelling its exam despite past assurances that it would proceed. Examinees received a notice informing them that a truncated replacement exam -- which ironically omits Kentucky-specific law — will be administered online in October, resulting in a shocking three-month delay of applicants’ licensure. Examinees received no information on how the exam would be graded. At the end of the Office of Bar Admissions’ email detailing this unexpected change, the general counsel encouraged examinees to “take a breath,” and keep studying.
Many examinees have been studying upwards of 60 hours per week since mid-May.
This postponement has devastated Kentucky’s incoming class of lawyers, who financially relied on starting their jobs after the July exam. The Kentucky Supreme Court has failed its incoming class of attorneys. The only remedy is to cancel the bar exam altogether and grant diploma privilege to graduates of accredited law schools.
Emily Croucher, University of California Irvine School of Law graduate, and Stefanie Mundhenk, Georgetown University Law Center graduate. Both are incoming public defenders with the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy.
Politics over health
Shameful, dangerous, and divisive. These are the three words that I have for state Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles. On the same day that Cameron joined a lawsuit to protest the measures that Gov. Andy Beshear put in place to control the spread of the coronavirus, Harvard University’s COVID risk tracker found there was accelerated spread in nine Kentucky counties. Cameron and Quarles are objecting to public health measures even as coronavirus cases spiral out of control in Florida, Texas, Arizona, and Oklahoma.
I wonder why Cameron, Quarles, and the other plaintiffs feel that Kentucky’s success in controlling cases, thanks to the governor’s leadership, is a reason to do away with the very measures that have been so vital to the health of Kentuckians. Why, when what we have done has not only worked, but has been reasonable, should we abandon those practices? By all measures, Kentucky should have been hit much harder by this pandemic. Health parameters for Kentuckians are far, far below national averages. As a state, we trend older, sicker, and poorer with less access to health care.
I wonder if Cameron and Quarles truly have the health of Kentuckians in mind. Or if they simply are operating as politicians.
Laura A. Kennedy, Lawrenceburg
Mask primer
The internet is brimming with ads for face masks. Many of these masks are equipped with exhalation valves (small round plastic devices on the mask). I suppose this is to make them look more technical or cooler. They are neither. Such masks are designed to protect the user from dust exposure and are used in industry by people working in dusty environments, spray painting, etc. During an epidemic, the primary purpose of non-medical masks is to prevent a user with the infection from spreading bacteria or viruses to other people. Exhalation valves short-circuit that function entirely. When breathing out, the exhaled air, with any germs, exits through the valve instead of passing through the filter material. Such masks have no place in this pandemic and should not be used. Please protect your family and friends by wearing a standard mask.
Dr. Steve Kraman, Lexington