Letters to the Editor: After enabling a con artist, McConnell should work with new president

Dream team?

Sen. Mitch McConnell was not only an enabler for the con artist, cult leader, liar and criminal that was in the White House, he was the controller as he was much smarter. He got the tax cuts for the rich and the ultraconservative judges he wanted, especially three for the Supreme Court. Hopefully he has cleansed his soul and will help rather than try to destroy our new president. He is smart like our new leader, so working together it will be amazing how they together can repair the damage the last leader did to America.

Robert Ray Lillie, Georgetown

Not just numbers

Eunice “Sis” Cornett was always around when I was growing up. She came to our house every now and then to get my mom to write letters for her, because Sis’s mother would not allow her to go to school after she learned to count money, and she never learned to read and write. When Sis was a teenager, she wanted to marry John Bedwell, but her mother said no, that Sis was needed at home. After her mother and brother passed, Sis got in touch with me to take her to Garrard County to find her lost love, John. She found him living in squalor, and convinced him to come back to Perry County to live with her. Before they could marry, John died from heart disease and Sis buried him in her family cemetery. Sis eventually put herself in the nursing home, where she died from COVID-19 on Dec. 21. She left instructions to be buried next to the love of her life, John. Please remember that the people who are dying in this pandemic are not just numbers. My hope is that Sis and John are living in bliss for eternity. God knows they deserve it.

Pamela Brashear, Viper

Justice has no party

I have been an ordained minister/pastor for 50 years now. I have yet to understand why Christians (or spiritual minded people of any sort) think and/or act like justice is a political concept that has little to do with faith. To say it one more time, justice is not a liberal or conservative concept. Justice is not the property of one political party. Justice is about speaking truth and doing the right thing (in so far as we can figure those things out). Countless passages from the Hebrew prophets and the recorded words of Jesus and Paul make this abundantly clear. Why is it when we talk about racial justice or fairness to sexual minorities or behaving like good neighbors to people of other countries and cultures or challenging our government to create economic policies that do not reward greed but instead create opportunities for the poor that frequently the response is a railing against mixing politics and religion? It is not. It is spiritual. And now we once again have a president whose strong faith and concern for justice informs his politics. How can that be bad for this country?

Ken McCullough, Lexington

Find solutions

State leaders have recently criticized slow vaccine rollout in Kentucky, but Fayette County officials maintain that they’re getting the shots into people’s arms as quickly as possible.

Even so, Lexington may not begin Phase 1B (over age 70) until February. The excuse used is “Fayette County has over 20,000 health care workers”. This is not a recent phenomenon.

I wonder why the state didn’t recognize this and allocate a greater vaccine supply for this area. What is being done now, to correct this travesty? People are dying unnecessarily.

Has Congressman Andy Barr been contacted to assist in getting a greater number of vaccines for Lexington? What has he accomplished?

Has the governor reallocated current supplies?

What have the local leaders done to rectify this problem?

Michael Adams, Lexington

Op-ed ‘naive’

So after being grossly ignored by our local newspaper here in Northern Kentucky, mostly because it’s a Cincinnati publication, I have recently subscribed to the Lexington Herald-Leader. So forgive me if I’m wrong but is Tres Watson a child? His op-ed was right that Republicans are now either Trumpsters or GOP. However, to say that the Republican Party believes in the good morals of all and that Democrats believe citizens are inherently bad made me spit my coffee out. Who wrote this, an eighth grader? Seriously, talk about a naive oversimplification of a country at odds! Good lord. Maybe I made a mistake and should go back to the Enquirer. If I want middle school opinion, I’ll tap the kid who cuts my grass.

Laura Taylor, Fort Thomas

More precise definition

I found it interesting that while many letter writers in the Jan. 17 Herald-Leader were appalled by University of Kentucky basketball players taking a knee during the national anthem to protest racial injustice, they were noticeably silent about Donald Trump supporters physically assaulting members of the Capitol police with the American flag.

Also of note in the same edition was an op-ed by Tres Watson. While I agree with much of what he wrote, one sentence needs an asterisk: The Republican Party has been “a loose coalition of people bound more by a desire for government to leave them alone … .”*

*except when it comes to access to abortion, gay marriage, marijuana use, and anything else they don’t personally like.

Howard Stovall, Lexington

So sad

In January of 2017, I joined hundreds of thousands in the Women’s March in Washington D.C. We were not allowed to have sticks on our signs, for they could be “used as weapons.” Get that — we could not put a stick on our sign to hold it up higher in the air because it could be used as a weapon. The pictures of the mob on Jan. 6 show pitchforks, guns, and hockey sticks, and so many had on backpacks (which could be carrying anything). We had thousands and thousands of troops in Washington D.C. to protect the Capitol, the Congress, and the inauguration. There are people with assault rifles walking around our state Capitol. This has got to end. How sad is this? All propagated and incited by Donald J. Trump.

Jessie Bollinger, Lexington

Come on, Cal

University of Kentucky men’s basketball Coach John Calipari doesn’t like to play 4 star basketball players. He doesn’t believe that their “hearts” matter. Calipari plays Brandon “BJ” Boston no matter how often he turns the ball over. He plays Boston no matter how many times BJ runs up the middle and throws up an ill advised shot.

Yet, Dontaie Allen refuses to take an ill advised, bad shot and Cal pulls him so that Boston doesn’t lose his heart.

This makes no sense.

A good coach plays the guys who give the team the best chance to win. Cal plays those whom he believes will make it to the NBA and sign big contracts.

This is a fool’s errand. It doesn’t win games.

Kentuckians want to see wins. Better yet, they want to see wins led by Kentucky players. Cal has the tools at his disposal to make that happen. Instead, Cal chooses, in the age of COVID, to steal the joy from the hearts of Kentuckians by choosing to lose with his 5 stars over winning with his 4 stars (Jacob Toppin and Allen).

I’m almost to the point that I want to put “For Sale” signs on Cal’s front yard.

David E. Kaelin, Lexington

Sit down

How could anyone play basketball, or for that matter walk a straight line when sober as a judge, with a seemingly crazed professor or coach, running like a wild man up and down your field of vision screaming at you, and frantically waving his arms and in general flailing about. How could one chew gum with that going on, let alone shoot from 30 feet at a basket? Coach Cal, flail and scream in practice, sit and watch the fruit of your hard work on game day, and let the players play. Please.

Leonard Wright, Winchester

Powerful reminder

It is honorable and poignant to kneel before the U.S. flag during the national anthem to acknowledge the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The players surely appreciate that many people who follow them revere both the flag and the anthem. But please consider what other cherished symbols, present that day, the kneeling remembers.

Inspired by years worth of encouragement by Donald Trump, the Confederate battle flag (Southern Cross) was there. The Three Percenters militia flag was there. A noose, gallows, and a man with a “Camp Auschwitz” shirt with the inscription “Work Brings Freedom” was there. National Social Club stickers adhered to helmets and “MAGA Civil War January 6, 2021” T-shirts were worn. If you are not familiar with these symbols, slogans, and groups, then please do research to improve your cultural literacy.

Most of the University of Kentucky players are Black and at the Capitol on January 6, white supremacy was heavy and proud.

Trump’s final gift to the country, rooted in the Big Lie that he won the election, relies on naked bigotry. The Lie inspired the assault on the Capitol and the UK basketball team should be commended for reminding us.

Todd Kelly, Lexington

Tread carefully

The old grey mare and the Grand Old Party ain’t what they used to be for those “always a Republican” voting a straight GOP ticket. Approach your next vote as you would a disturbed rattlesnake, i.e. domestic terrorism.

The GOP is now the Party of Trump, gone to POT. It isn’t hard to spot POT members/supporters in Congress, statehouses, judiciary, law enforcement, military — mostly white males who intend to keep their power, no matter what.

They neither resemble nor represent the majority women, minorities, or commonwealth workers in the country. They never have. They claim history — his story — as covering all our stories. It’s called white male privilege and, at its worst, white male supremacist nationalism including power and prosperity religious nationalism.

Longtime GOP campaign strategist Stuart Stevens writes, “Burn it to the ground and start over” in his book: “It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump.”

A recent letter from a 90-year-old woman concisely concluded: “Goodbye, Grand Old Party.”

Yep.

Choosing sides, democracy vs. violent insurrection, is a trap. Rather, it’s about all of us being inclusive humans with our best truth, facts, evidence, sensibilities and sensitivities.

Here’s to us/US ...

Ramona Rush, Lexington

Don’t generalize

The unlawful storming of the U.S. Capitol can never be repeated. Blaming a political party serves little purpose and fuels more division. Blaming innocent Republicans who had nothing to do with the attack is outrageous. One cannot, must not, ever generalize the acts, traits, behaviors, or crimes of a population of lawless groups to an individual, simply because an individual belongs to the same political party.

Julie A. Tackett, Lexington

This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 10:38 AM.