Letters: If Mitch wants corporations out of politics, he should refuse their donations

Who’s the boss?

There he stood in all his senatorial glory as he raised his senatorial finger at the camera and “warned” corporate America to stay out of politics, as they aren’t “designed” for it. Sen. Mitch McConnell has forgotten the main tenet of his job. America doesn’t work for him, it’s the other way around.

Scott Sears, Somerset

Glass houses

Sen. Mitch McConnell should review a list of his major donors before he asks CEOs to stay out of politics.

Too late, Mitch, that ship sailed years ago!

Larry Weigel, Nicholasville

Money talks

If Sen. Mitch McConnell thinks corporations should “stay out of politics”, then he should stop sniffing around them for donations. I’m sure he was a big fan of the Citizens United decision which gave them a voice in politics and allowed them to pour as much money into politics — or withhold as much — as they deemed fit.

Charles Edward Pogue, Lexington

Nix mission location

On April 12, the Lexington Board of Adjustment will consider a request from the Lexington Rescue Mission to turn a stately house on East Fourth Street into a community center. We are talking about a six-day-a-week feeding and counseling center for Lexington’s homeless and hurting population. Even at the risk of sounding heartless, I oppose this application in every way imaginable. The Martin Luther King and the adjoining East End neighborhoods already carry a disproportionate burden when it comes to facilities serving the city’s homeless and hurting population. The last thing these two neighborhoods need is yet another one. The scars of the Catholic Action Center have yet to heal. In fact, if we learned just one lesson from having the Catholic Action Center here it is that these centers do not belong in residential neighborhoods. The Urban County government planning staff has recommended approval of the mission’s application for a conditional use permit. I hope that board members will have the backbone to say 203 E. Fourth St. is not the right location for another homeless center. If the mission was able to find this building, it can find another one, ideally in an area not already overrun with homeless people.

Thomas Tolliver, Lexington

MLB strikes out

It’s time to “take arms against a sea of troubles” and boycott Major League Baseball. MLB disgraced itself by removing this year’s All-Star game from Atlanta, based on its sheer ignorance of Georgia’s recently enacted voter registration law and the lies told about it. Like several private multinational corporations (i.e., Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, JP Morgan Chase & Co., etc.), MLB attacked the Georgia legislature for its belief that the passed legislation would stifle voting and voters rights’ in the state. Nothing could be further from the truth.

MLB and these private corporations have kowtowed to the wishes of a loud vocal minority. Apparently, MLB learned nothing from the backlash faced by the National Basketball Association and the National Football League after these leagues capitulated to the anti-American shows of disrespect to our flag and national anthem. They both suffered in terms of lost revenues and horrible ratings. (Hopefully, the Professional Golfers’ Association is listening).

We need to let MLB know they cannot kowtow to the left without reprisal from that sleeping silent majority. Rip up those season tickets; don’t show up at games; avoid watching baseball on television. People also might want to consider switching to Pepsi, American Airlines, and Wells Fargo.

Stephen Nussbaum, Nicholasville

Right on point

Columnist Leonard Pitts Jr.’s “Jim Crow 2.0” opinion piece nailed it. He accurately assigned both intention and blame to Republicans’ voter suppression efforts. In the short term, they may succeed. In the long term, they will eat Crow.

Carole Boyd, Lexington

All-Star game

Major League Baseball, just as the NBA did last year, lost my business/money by moving the All-Star game out of Atlanta. Ill informed and totally misinformed, they basically are saying the status quo of no identification at a voting precinct is OK: total insanity. And Delta Airlines, I’ll be flying your competition from here on.

J.D. Mackey, Lexington

Gun control red herring

Suddenly, Republican politicians are concerned with mental health reform.

For starters, mentally ill people experience a kind of pain during the course of navigating daily life, which everyone knows can be full of pain anyway. These folks show extraordinary strength by dealing with life and this extra burden of pain.

It is symptomatic when ill people run afoul of police and courts. Police deserve kudos for their kindness with these people. But if you are run over by a drunk mentally ill person you are still dead. I am not sure police should waive charges.

Judge, doctor, and patient meet in secret court — antithetical to our system of open courts in this country. Paradoxically, this action reinforces the stigma it is reasoned to avoid.

But once admitted to a hospital after violating public boundaries set by law, patients have the privilege to decide, using the same diseased mind, to invoke non-disclosure rights. Patients segregate themselves from family, nixing a primary factor for healing.

Mental health care reform? I am all for it. But it might be easier and more effective to register every firearm in this country and require a federal firearms license to own an assault weapon.

Doug Epling, Lexington

Church won’t change

The Vatican and the LBGTQ Community: So here we are again. The Vatican has just thrown another hand grenade into the arena of gay rights. In a recent Herald-Leader op-ed, Greg Bourke eloquently described his lifelong quest to live happily as an openly gay man while still maintaining his Catholic religious identity. St Paul Catholic Church has issued a statement acknowledging that the the Vatican’s reluctance to bless gay civil unions is painful and confusing. I have become inured to the pain long ago. The statement is not confusing. It is consistent with the church’s stance on LGBTQ issues for the last 60 years, if not the last six centuries. Has everyone forgotten Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s epistle of 1987 in which he declared homosexuality an intrinsic disorder of the personality? The church is not going to change its stance on these issues. Their understanding of sexuality is one that is archaic and denies medical science. So why stay? If your spiritual life is centered on the sacraments and ritual I guess you can learn to stomach it. If you can find Christian community in other places, and you can, why subject yourself to this exercise in masochism? I left long ago.

Dominic Martina, Lexington

‘The narrow way’

In Greg Bourke’s opinion piece regarding Pope Francis’s recent statement,”that the church will not bless same-sex unions,” he wonders why the Vatican made this statement at this time.

Pope Francis was responding to German bishops who have been calling for changes in our Roman Catholic Church’s stance on homosexuality. Our church’s teaching on faith and morals come from God, not from the Vatican. The pope’s mission is to protect God’s truths.

Mr. Bourke accuses the church of judging him because it teaches that marriage, as intended by God, is between a man and a woman.

We are all sinners. God’s word (truth) judges us. We are all called to repent, to be transformed by God’s infinite mercy, which He showed us by the death of his only son, Jesus, on the cross.

Mr. Bourke also notes that a recent poll suggest 70% of American Catholics support same-sex marriage. Mr. Bourke says he is waiting for the church to catch up with the world.

The church is the narrow way which Jesus spoke of in Matthew 7:14, “narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Carol Jean Hatter, Lexington

Beshear on ‘’wrong side’

In his decision to veto House Bill 563 (since overridden by the legislature), Gov. Andy Beshear exemplified and embodied the racism which minorities face in the education system.

The measure opens the door for ALL students to receive a world-class education that many, especially minorities, are barred from because of socioeconomic factors. This bill is a step in the right direction for equity in the education system, an ongoing struggle for decades. Finally, underserved minorities will have the opportunity to be better served by choosing to attend better public schools or receiving vouchers to attend private schools. Beshear focuses solely on “funding,” stating that the bill would take money from public schools. What is much more important is that for once, students won’t be forced to go to a subpar school based on their address (many can’t afford to live in better school districts or attend private schools); they will now be able to receive a world-class education that will better prepare them for the future. Which begs the question, why should students be punished based on their address? Beshear is taking the wrong side on “school choice” and showing Kentucky his priority is the funding of a government entity, not the best education for all students.

Luke Glasscock, Bradfordsville

Is Andy kidding?

I was amazed recently to hear Gov. Andy Beshear say how concerned he is for the health and safety of Kentucky children. After a year of carrying the water for the Kentucky Education Association, keeping schools closed when all the scientific data said schools were not a significant problem for COVID-19 spread, he must have been speaking in jest. For all the political liberals’ supposed concern for children of color and those in poor/disadvantaged homes, surely they know that these are the very children who have suffered the most damage during these school closings. Academic loss and social/emotional trauma have all been the tragic results of the governor’s decisions, not the health and safety he supposedly is so concerned about.

Jim White, Georgetown

Keep fighting

In a recent Herald-Leader opinion piece, John Crisp said our nation is losing the battle against climate change. I beg to differ.

While there is a limit to the impact a single person can have, let’s not forget anthropologist Margaret Mead’s assertion that a small, committed group of citizens can change the world.

As a member of Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL), a national nonprofit network with chapters in Kentucky, I am part of a group of citizens working toward a national carbon fee and dividend policy such as the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act in the House, or America’s Clean Future Fund Act in the Senate.

CCL estimates a carbon fee and dividend policy could reduce greenhouse gas emissions – the underlying cause of the melting, droughts, floods, fires, and other catastrophic weather – by 40% in the first 12 years.

This policy would put a fee on fossil fuels, with that money going to citizens in the form of a dividend. The result: a market-driven move to clean energy with extra money to help us pay for the increase in energy costs as companies make the transition.

Let your lawmakers know you support carbon fee and dividends. Find out more at citizensclimatelobby.org.

Sallie Bright, Danville