Letters to the Editor: Lexingtonians speak for the trees.

’Sad week’

Instead of arresting the brave woman protesting the cutting down of trees on Lansdowne Drive, the police should have gone to the cushy offices of the Kentucky Utilities’ executives and arrested these greedy people who callously ordered the trees removed. In a just world, the protester would have been championed and the KU execs jailed. But the big money KU has showered on the U.S. Congress and the Kentucky legislature over time has made the KU corporate poohbahs invulnerable. The only interest of these environmental destroyers is enhancing their bottom line and lining their own pockets. The public interest be damned. It happens when jaded overseers like those at KU, are safely removed miles from their customers. Take a drive down Lansdowne and try to explain why small trees many feet below the “sacred” power lines were cut down when trimming would have achieved the KU objective. This sorry episode demonstrates how the capitalistic world has gone awry. The voices of reason are impotent and the voices of big business prevail. A sad week for Lexington.

Jack Blanton, Lexington

Bigger problems

While I believe every person has a right to feel passionate about a cause, I find it preposterous that our elected officials have the time and energy to pick sides about trees. Really? Have our elected officials and tree lovers forgotten about the ice storm of 2009 and how pretty those trees were until the city was without power for two to three weeks? Have our elected officials forgotten that Kentucky Utilities has a responsibility to ensure these pretty trees do not grow into transmission lines because they could cause damage to the lines or situations much worse, such as shock or electrocution? Have our elected officials forgotten the city has a homeless issue that seems to be spiraling out of control? Have our elected officials forgotten about the 34 homicides so far this year; many that have gone unsolved? Perhaps if these officials that we have elected to serve the city of Lexington can muster up just a shred of the passion they are dedicating to trees and direct it towards a few of these much more serious issues, we can make great strides into 2022. After all, trees can’t vote.

Robert Hodge, Lexington

Removal pointless

I regret that I was not standing with Laura Zimmerman during the ill advised cutting of trees by Kentucky Utilities in the Lansdowne median. If there had been 500 people standing in opposition, perhaps the outcome would have been different. I wonder if that is what it will take for KU to listen to local government officials who represent the people of Lexington when they make sound, reasonable recommendations regarding tree cutting.

Although KU has a responsibility for maintaining transmission lines to avoid power outages, the Lansdowne debacle was totally unnecessary. The trees that were removed were appropriate for the location and would have never endangered the transmission lines. It will be interesting to see how the trees KU promised to provide as replacements will be an improvement. Our community needs to stand together as we continue the pressure on KU to make reasonable decisions about tree removal.

William Farnau, Lexington

No voice

I spent a morning freezing on Lansdowne Drive in an effort to stop the totally useless and devastating tree removal. I wasn’t alone; there were some well known Lexingtonians there with us. All to no avail. Kentucky Utilities can do whatever it wants. The trees they were taking down were probably 20 or 30 feet under the wires. They had been specifically planted under an agreement with previous KU owners because they were fruit trees which do not grow very tall. The tree cutters put their ugly red crosses on everything that lived, including low lying bushes, which just illustrates the scorched earth policy of this company (which is not owned in our state but is out of state). A representative from KU who was there said “a committee, including arborists” had decided on which trees to cut. When asked for specifics, or to meet with said arborist, he just turned and walked away. Then they called the police to arrest anyone who stood near the trees to prevent the cutting and arrested one of the organizers.

Why on earth is a “public utility” not owned by the public. If that is socialism then bring it on. At least we would have someone in our community with whom we could discuss these things.

Judy Harvey, Lexington

Contact legislators

I have sent emails to the editors of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News asking if Kentucky Utilities’ parent company PPL Corp. has been conducting the clear-cutting campaign in Philly like they are here and to alert them to what’s coming if it’s not yet in force.

I have also sent emails to our local state representatives. They are: Killian.Timoney@lrc.ky.gov, Daniel.Fister@lrc.ky.gov, Phillip.Pratt@lrc.ky.gov, Kelly.Flood@lrc.ky.gov, Matthew.Koch@lrc.ky.gov, RuthAnn.Palumbo@lrc.ky.gov,, George.Brown@lrc.ky.gov, Cherlynn.Stevenson@lrc.ky.gov, Susan.Westrom@lrc.ky.gov.

Set up these names in a draft email once. Then the next time you think it’s too hard to contact your representatives, open that draft, copy the names in the “TO” field into a new email . . . and have at it! Do the same with the names of our state senators. They respond quickly and with interest. It’s our government. Don’t complain if you haven’t exercised the very easy contact option that we have at our fingertips.

Janet Piechowski, Lexington

Cut their pensions

Regarding a recent article by Herald-Leader reporter John Cheves: Past governors and legislatures are the ones responsible for the underfunding of the pension system. And it can only be fixed by our current governor and legislators. Every state, county, and local employee as well as every state police officer and Kentucky teacher knows this. While we can applaud the current governor and legislators’ deposits into the Kentucky Public Pensions Authority accounts, we still need to understand why the legislators retirement system is overfunded. Could it possibly be as simple as “the fox guarding the hen house”? We have had legislators that look out for themselves first, and then worry about the rest of us later. In past sessions they have passed sweeteners to their plan. Therefore, I would like to see a bill proposed in the 2022 session and passed and signed by the governor to either eliminate or stop funding the pension system for legislators until the pension system for state, county, city, teachers, and state police is fully funded. Do I expect this to happen? Absolutely not. But it would be the fair thing to do. All we can do as employees is watch and vote accordingly.

James Jeffrey Coleman, Lexington

Better counterpoint

I wonder if the Herald-Leader editorial staff read the opinion pieces before they publish them. I make particular reference to pieces by Marc Thiessen. Take the recent piece “Three cheers for the new chant of ‘Let’s Go Brandon’”. It is full of what could be Trump rally one-liners.

In general, Thiessen’s pieces lack reasonable argument on issues. He writes that climate change is not a threat. He thinks past injustices toward Black and indigenous people should not be taught in school. The list goes on.

Perhaps the Herald-Leader wants a conservative commentator to balance carrying Leonard Pitts. But please select someone whose main activity is not just doing hack jobs on the Democrats. David Brooks and George Will are conservative commentators that generally offer thought-provoking reasoned arguments.

David Allen, Lexington

Add justices

To protect our democracy, our freedom to vote, our reproductive freedoms, and our civil rights, we need to expand the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Judiciary Act of 2021 would add four new seats to the Supreme Court, bringing the number of justices to 13. It would help restore balance to a court that U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has packed with right-wing extremists.

I’m urging Congress to pass the Judiciary Act so we can create an institution that moves away from partisan politics and represents the good of all Americans.

Leigh Gaitskill, Lexington

CRT alternative

Just for the sake of argument let’s take up the Kentucky Republicans’ stated objection to critical race theory (CRT) for a few moments. Many of them are saying that critical race theory ought to be banned from our public schools because it might cause some students to “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or another form of psychological distress solely because of the individual’s race or sex.” Maybe this concern is earnest on their part or maybe it’s just political spin. If it’s earnest, however, I believe there is another way we can openly discuss our problems of race without provoking such feelings of anguish.

Consider studying our respective tendencies towards tribalism, for good and for bad. Charles W. Mills once described tribalism like this: “You are what you are in part because you originate from a certain kind of space, and that space has properties in part because it’s inhabited by creatures like yourself.” Maybe we ought to study and critique, together, where we have come from psychologically and socially. What I’d suggest to the Kentucky Republicans would be that they publicly affirm the study of the psychology and sociology of tribalism; its good and bad aspects.

Tom Louderback, Louisville