Letters to the Editor: Make every vote count. Election shows we need to listen more.
Count my vote
I voted for president. That made some 16 times for me, proudly, always. One person, one vote is the American mantra. But my vote didn’t count. I voted for the non-winner in the Kentucky election. In the end, all of Kentucky is voting for Trump, no matter what. The Electoral College will make sure of that. To my friends who didn’t vote for Donald Trump, your vote doesn’t count either. It is time to change the Electoral College system. Either do away with it (my choice) and count total votes nationwide, or select Electoral College voters in each state based on the number of votes for each candidate (like Nebraska and Maine). Yes, it takes a constitutional amendment, and Kentucky can take the lead. This has nothing to do with political parties, but if I have to endure unsolicited months of politicking, or deliberately dedicate quality time to study the candidates and the platforms, I just want my vote to count, win or lose.
Harry Clarke, Lexington
Start listening
If this election has proven anything it is that Americans have forgotten how to listen. We don’t have discussions. We talk at each other in foreign tongues that only those within our circles understand. This has to stop. Americans must learn to speak to one another, to listen to one another. We have to strive to understand each other, or we’re never going to be able to work together.
I’ve pored over articles discussing the damage created by labels. Liberals. Conservatives. Socialists. Libertarians. They are all shorthand signaling to whom you should listen. All critical thinking halts the moment we’ve pigeonholed the other. If you aren’t a socialist, you don’t know who they are, you just know you aren’t one. But we shouldn’t be looking at it that way. We don’t have to be enemies. We need to be cocreators. Coworkers.
We aren’t that different in our goals. Most Americans want a fair, just, and thriving society, regardless of what circle they’ve been drawn into. We can work together. We just have to learn to talk to one another. We have to listen, to hear what the other is saying, and figure out a way to do the best thing. That is how we get through this.
Chastity Hunt, Lexington
Principal’s post
Winburn Middle School Principal Mike Hale’s ability to be an educational leader must be seriously questioned after his recent post. It has been my experience that leaders traditionally set the tone and establish the culture for the institutions they lead. He demonstrated graphically why one of most important abilities — critical thinking — is lacking in our educational system. Perhaps the heat of the moment or his lack of professional judgment guided his reaction. In either case, it raises serious doubt regarding his commitment to ensuring the institution for which he is responsible is delivering to the students of Fayette County Public Schools the needed educational skills and tools to be able to engage and cope for their futures, thus doing them a great disservice.
Charles Myers, Lexington
Leadership vacuum
It is clear that the excuse of safety for students and teachers is really not the “issue” with Fayette County Public Schools not opening up schools. It is clear that a failure of leadership is why they aren’t opening.
The lack of leadership that kicks the can down the road, that is reactive not proactive. The lack of leadership that tells us 70% to 80% of students and staff will return to school, only to walk that back. The lack of leadership that claims they’ve been preparing to open since late summer, yet have no concrete plan. The lack of leadership that ignores guidance from the state and the Centers of Disease Control and makes decisions on what “might” happen with the case counts. The lack of board leadership that isn’t meeting weekly, with a sense of urgency to open schools, and is turning a blind eye to kids suffering mentally and academically across the district..
No one is asking for virtual school to completely end. But those who wish to return are being ignored and are being strung along with empty promises and meaningless dates.
This leadership will go down as one of the greatest failures of our community, and the repercussions will be felt for years.
Courtney Turay, Lexington