Letters to the Editor: High price of returning to school; praise for healthcare heroes
High price
The statement, “Just make it work, you always do,” is the mantra for education and it is nothing new. Educators have had to cope with challenge after challenge from issues beyond their control for decades. The majority want the schools to open. Teachers are outnumbered, by ignorance or people who just do not care about the risks to humans during a pandemic. Science tells us this virus is transmitted days before symptoms and hangs in the air for hours.
While the public points a finger at teachers demanding a “normal school day,” teachers are constantly preparing to straddle between online teaching and face to face teaching.
The public has not taken steps necessary to weaken the virus. Many still are not wearing masks and are taking trips and going to large gatherings.
We will look back and see the avoidable mistakes created during this pandemic. The fingers will not be pointed at teachers. We will wonder why we were so selfish and careless with humanity. How many lives is it worth to open school?
Su Sheridan, Frankfort
Healthcare heroes
This is a time of renewed stress for healthcare workers caring for COVID-19 patients. To all of them, I want to say that their suffering is recognized and their continuing efforts are truly heroic.
As a Navy hospital corpsman in Vietnam I also dealt every day with caring for critical patients who sometimes died in agony without their loved ones there. That was during a war … so is this. They are my heroes because I understand something of what they are going through even though I didn’t have to worry about being infected by each of my patients and potentially passing that infection on to others.
I urge them to please care for themselves, physically and emotionally. Don’t become another casualty.
Richard Betsworth, Versailles
‘The real sinners’
I believe that all life is sacred. I also believe that life begins at conception. Thus, as a pro-life Christian, I feel that abortion is wrong. My first son was adopted, and while he’s now my angel in heaven, I will be forever grateful to his mother for giving me this gift of life. But being pro-life doesn’t necessarily mean I support regulations that outlaw it.
From 2011-2017, the number of abortions declined 19%. This trend was largely the result of fewer teen pregnancies due to affordable healthcare and available contraception, and not restrictive policies. During this same period, the number of abortions per 100 pregnancies declined by 13%. The fact-checking site Snopes reports that “The abortion rate has steadily declined since the 1980s throughout both Democratic and Republican administrations, with a greater rate of decline during the former.” Isn’t that the goal?
I don’t know of a single Democrat who is in favor of abortion. Not a single one. Yet many Christians accuse Democrats of being evil “baby killers” when there are OH SO MANY other morals that Jesus talked about — like the commandment to love thy neighbor, to welcome the stranger, and to feed the hungry.
So who are the real sinners here?
Rebecca Powell, Georgetown
Solar harvest
On the way home from Frankfort recently I noticed several signs placed in the right-of-way near Harrodsburg which advocated “No to solar on farm land.” I would claim that the essence of farming is harvesting sunshine. In my mind a solar array is harvesting more from the land on which it is located than a pig or poultry operation where the nutritional inputs come from somewhere else. While agritourism may help pay the bills and complement farming, it isn’t by definition actually farming. I wonder if the same folks putting up these signs disparaging solar advocate the “right to farm’ for other activities such as confined feedlots or poultry barns.
Ray Tucker, Somerset