Letters to the Editor: McConnell’s ‘mean-spirited’ approach to COVID-19 relief

Waiting for McConnell

It’s inexcusable that Sen. Mitch McConnell sent the Senate home while a staggering number of Americans continued to file for unemployment and the HEROES Act, a coronavirus economic relief package, has not yet been debated.

Since McConnell has been dragging his feet, 63,000 Americans have died due to COVID-19. While McConnell had the Senate on a recess/vacation, the virus didn’t take a holiday. It is a nonpartisan killer.

Meanwhile, as the pandemic wreaks havoc across the country, laid-off workers have yet another burden to face: the end of the $600 weekly unemployment benefits provided by the CARES Act.

This stipend, which expires at the end of July, has literally meant life or death for millions of America’s families. It’s given families the ability to pay for their rent or mortgage, make car payments, or afford groceries and prescriptions.

Let’s be clear: Nobody wants to be unemployed. A job is about more than a paycheck — it’s a source of dignity. Millions are out of work through no fault of their own.

Unless the Senate passes the HEROES Act, which would continue these payments into January, Americans will needlessly suffer. Our economy will continue to spiral downward and any recovery will take longer.

Jeffrey Wiggins, Frankfort

Honor the heroes

Tens of millions of Americans are on the verge of financial disaster as their federal $600 unemployment benefit ends. Top that with near-historic income inequality, higher unemployment than the worst month of the Great Recession, and possible depression coming. The solution? Americans simply need “one final boost,” according to Sen. Mitch McConnell.

With so much at risk, the majority leader must go with the true solution, the proposed package of paid sick time, personal protective equipment (PPE) for all workers, expanded unemployment insurance, and access to healthcare. True to the bill’s name, the HEROES Act would also provide much-deserved essential pay for essential workers and employer tax credits.

Our nation’s workers do their jobs heroically. Now McConnell needs to do his by honoring their sacrifices with a real HEROES Act, not a pittance “final boost.”

John Thacker, Lexington

Partisan grinch

Why does Sen. Mitch McConnell have to be hard-hearted, mean-spirited, defiant, stubborn, and partisan when it comes to legislation that will support the interests of common, tax-paying Kentuckians and the small business person?

Thousands of Kentuckians will lose the unemployment relief they have been counting on if the senator gets his way. Right now, Mitch has no plan to extend these benefits, even as the COVID-19 crisis worsens. There is a decided silence from Senator McConnell and his supporters.

And this is not the worst Senator McConnell has to offer Kentuckians and hard-working fellow citizens.

There are over 400 congressional bills supported by the House in a bipartisan fashion that linger in the senator’s office, parked but hopefully not lost or forgotten.These bills may well positively affect the average Kentuckian as well as small businesses.

Perhaps Senator McConnell has other priorities such as those of monied donors, large corporations, and special interests groups.

Donald Mills, Lexington

No good choice

I certainly appreciate the difficulty the members of the Fayette County Public Schools board of education have in reopening schools, and recognize the politically easy choice was made. I’m afraid they’ve selected the worst of two bad options, however.

Keeping students at home means parents are faced with a devilish choice: go to work to pay the bills and watch their children rapidly fall behind in competency, or stay home to help their children and eventually lose the ability to pay their bills, leading to eviction, food insecurity, and mental health concerns.

The argument I’ve not heard elsewhere is this: If parents can’t pay the bills, there’s no property/utility tax collected. Without taxes, the schools have no funding. This means, even in a post-COVID-19 environment, the schools are forced into either continuing online instruction to save funding; dramatically increasing FCPS’s debt burden; cutting programs and staff, or increasing class sizes for years to come. All are devastating to the long-term education of our community.

The damage from COVID-19 in schools is potential, but unproven; the damage to our children from lack of school is guaranteed, but as yet, unquantified. I hope the board returns students to the classroom when they reconsider in September, and preferably before.

Barry Saturday, Lexington

Gimme shelter

President Donald Trump’s threat to defund schools not conducting full-time in-person classes shows there is no limit to how low he will sink. He doesn’t care that millions of children may contract the virus and pass it along to vulnerable age groups. With this action, he hopes to coerce governors into keeping economies open in hopes that the economic numbers will get him re-elected. Of course all presidents want to be re-elected as a validation of their first term. However for Trump there is another and more important reason. That is a Justice Department policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Re-election lets Trump “shelter in place” safely for another four years. A president willing to use his country’s citizens as human shields in order to avoid any responsibility for his actions.

What a proud moment for America.

Jay Hopkins, Frankfort

Berry’s voice

I am writing in support of Wendell Berry, my close friend for more than 60 years. I also wish to declare my full-throated concurrence with Travis Kitchens’ objections to Bill Turner’s characterization of Mr. Berry’s work as “superficial.” Mr. Turner’s ill-considered and intemperate attack notwithstanding, Mr. Berry remains Kentucky’s most important literary spokesman of our time, and I am profoundly and eternally grateful for both his friendship and his reasoned voice in this troubling controversy.

Ed McClanahan, Lexington

Target the problem

The White House descends on Frankfort on a Sunday. On Monday, Gov. Andy Beshear folds.

Singling out bars and restaurants is not a fair, logical, or imaginative attempt at problem-solving; it’s a knee-jerk reaction — this time from that implausible sideshow masquerading as leadership in Washington.

Instead of shutting down bars and restaurants again, consider this: fund a team of inspectors, assign them to city and county health departments, and give them the power to enforce compliance with state guidelines. Shutting down again affects for the most part small businesses owners and throws thousands back on unemployment for two weeks — not enough time to file for, much less receive a check.

Set the rules. For those not compliant, issue a warning. If they fail a second inspection, fine them and shut them down. Do not punish those who have been conscientiously following the rules. Focus on the problem instead of another knee-jerk reaction.

Governor Beshear hired hundreds for contact tracing and hundreds to facilitate unemployment processing. If bars and restaurants are a COVID-19 problem, hire inspectors to punish the offenders. It would lessen contact tracing, cut back on unemployment processing and keep a weary public and workers from suffering another lockdown.

Dean L. Henricksen, Lexington

Make violators pay

I’m thinking about the businesses in Lexington that wanted to reopen and stated they could do so safely, but obviously failed. Those businesses that chose not to follow guidelines set by our governor and backed up by our Supreme Court should be held liable for losses of other businesses who are now forced to close due to negligence of the few, even while they followed the laws and guidelines. Many want to sue our leaders who are doing their best to keep us safe. Why not sue the ones who have no regard for proper guidelines and who hurt the many for short-term gain out of greed for themselves. We are all in this together. We all suffer when businesses close.

Evelyn Griffin, Lexington

Follow the rule

Gov. Andy Beshear has issued a mask mandate, but it is a pointless exercise. Beshear said to contact the local health department if you see a violation. I contacted the health department about a business whose employees and some customers had no masks on, The business has already been called out five times, and still there is no compliance. The health department says there is no way for them to enforce the mandate. These people are endangering so many others with their selfish actions over a little thing like wearing a mask. The state needs to shut them down to protect us all.

William Riffe, Lancaster

AG dawdling

The eyes of the nation are on Kentucky and the delay of justice for Breonna Taylor. The answer is apparent. State Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s handling of the case shows no urgency. If this is the best effort from the attorney general’s office, a special prosecutor should be assigned to handle this egregious crime. Daniel Cameron’s focus seems to be on a different, less important agenda.

Cheryl Keenan, Lexington

‘Tragic accident’

I am sick and tired of hearing people saying that Breonna Taylor was murdered. Her death was a tragic accident, but it was definitely not murder. Those police officers were serving a lawful warrant on her apartment when they were fired upon, with one officer being struck. Of course they are going to return fire; I wonder if people just expect them to just get shot at and do nothing in return. The only thing that those officers are guilty of is having bad aim, and the only punishment they should receive is 40 hours of remedial training on the shooting range. I feel deeply for Breonna Taylor’s family for their loss, but politics is no reason to ruin the lives of our brave law enforcement officers, who did absolutely nothing wrong in this matter.

Chuck Andrews, Richmond

Proof lacking

In his column about Adoph Rupp and Rupp Arena, the Herald-Leader’s John Clay almost gets it. He offers examples strongly suggesting Rupp wasn’t a racist, yet equivocates on the question of Rupp’s name being on Lexington’s basketball venue.

The worst indictment Clay can muster against Rupp is, notwithstanding that he willingly coached a number of African American players in high school, on all-star teams and the U.S. Olympic team, he coached only one black player at Kentucky. That he was not a “leader” in the field of integration and was known to have used the N-word.

Clay then notes that Tom Payne, UK’s first black player, played for Rupp a year before Bear Bryant integrated Alabama football. Given where and when he grew up, (yes, a man’s times must be considered when judging him) Bryant was as likely, if not more likely, than Rupp, to have been racist, and yet as he coached a number of African American players over his latter years, those sort of accusations faded away. Rupp retired shortly after the one year Payne played at Kentucky and had no more opportunities to coach black players.

Without overwhelming proof of Rupp’s racism, it would be wrong to remove his name from the house he built.

Joe Hacker, Lexington