Letters: COVID-19 restrictions too ‘draconian.’ COVID-19 restrictions not tough enough.

Unwelcome present

The governor’s gift of layoffs and unemployment just keeps on giving apparently. As his draconian state shutdown measures continue (without merit and without cause in most cases), he seems to not grasp the mental and emotional toll that is taken on school kids struggling with online learning, parents out of work and depressed, and all manner of restaurants sliding into permanent closure. I have a suggestion: Let Governor Andy and his staff forfeit their government checks in unity with the thousands of people he has put out of work and those scraping by on unemployment. I say go back to early summer and make it retroactive.

How easy it has become to put people out of business and school as you draw a comfy paycheck/salary.

JD Mackey, Lexington

Don’t reopen yet

It is unfathomable that the word “plateau” has surfaced again. The percentile rate is worthless when the number of cases and deaths are continuing to rise.

I can’t believe Gov. Andy Beshear is opening up inside restaurants soon. I wonder what he thinks Christmas and New Year’s will bring — excessive drinking at bars and restaurants. When the vaccine comes out, there goes the masks, no matter what the ramifications are.

I feel like I’m losing my faith in the governor as the leader of our great state of Kentucky.

Gail Burton, Lexington

Follow Ky motto

There is an old joke about the ship captain of the “greatest ship of the seas”, who challenged a lighthouse to move over in the darkness of the night. That is us when we challenge the COVID-19 to “move over”. As a citizen of our state, I sleep much better knowing we have a governor and staff who are working diligently to attempt to protect our lives from the effects of the pandemic.

The Holy Scriptures caution that God is more impressed when people of religious persuasion practice mercy among those who are hungry rather than offering ceremonial offerings in worship. Could the 11 a.m. hour on Sundays during this pandemic year be just as profitable if we spent that same hour offering our mercies to our hurting neighbors instead?

Makers and keepers of the law would impress me much more if they would practice the state motto: “United we stand, divided, we fall” by helping the governor in his attempt to protect life and health of all of us in this pandemic, rather than to exercise power for power’s sake. We are not in the lighthouse; we are in the ship heading to the lighthouse.

Mike Chamberlain, Park City

‘Shameful’ position

The American Medical Association’s statement that Gov. Andy Beshear’s order closing schools is based on “sound science” is shameful. It lays wide open the truth about the AMA. It is not a scientific organization representing the interests of patients and physicians. It is a political organization more interested in money and power than actual science. The AMA is not the voice of physicians in this country. The AMA represents only about 12% of practicing American physicians. This is down from approximately 75% of practicing physicians in the 1950s. Most physicians refuse membership in the AMA because we abhor its bloated bureaucracy, its manipulation of the media, and its self-interested goals. I hope these words show Kentuckians that most physicians are against the AMA. Additionally, many if not most Kentucky physicians believe a statewide, executive controlled school closure cannot be simply boiled down to “sound science.”

Dr. Anthony Dempsey, Nicholasville

Right action

As I have followed the news during the pandemic, an interesting and disturbing characteristic has become more and more obvious among those that oppose masks, closings, and social distancing as methods to combat the virus. Incredibly, it seems to manifest itself most strongly in the self-identified God-fearing Christians and their schools and churches. It is selfishness. Pure simple selfishness. Gone is any pretense of loving your neighbor or doing unto to others as you would have them do unto you. This is not new, of course. Christian hypocrisy like the Republican lie of caring about working people has been rampant for years. Personal responsibility, the clarion call of all things Republican, also includes being socially responsible and doing the right thing. Respect, courtesy, and caring for your fellow citizens is the right thing.

Thomas Martin, Lexington