Letters to the Editor: What we should do or not do about Ukraine.
Wake up World!
World leaders (and private citizens of every country across our globe),
Of course, we are all afraid of World War III, but why wait until international and personal losses push us over the brink and into an all-out war? Yes, war is frightening, but watching and waiting while Putin tightens his strangle-hold on Ukraine is senseless, dangerous, and plays perfectly into Putin’s hands.
The world must immediately stand united against Putin’s unlawful and outrageous aggression and demand two things:
#1: An immediate cease-fire with daily bilateral diplomatic negotiations with Putin.
#2: The creation (with Putin) of a workable exit for Russian forces.
If Putin does not immediately respond to these demands, then armed resistance by a united world is necessary and unavoidable!
Clear evidence that the world united stands ready to engage Putin on the battlefield must be shown to Putin now!
We are all, individually and collectively, the world. There is no longer any island of security tucked away in hiding. We cannot close our eyes and ignore our responsibility to be united in enforcing the rule of law for our world.
So, wake up World.
Unite, and save our planet now!
Or all is lost.
Ross Brown, Lexington
Child Poverty
Ask Congress to extend the 2021 Child Tax Credit (CTC). After congress expanded the CTC to all low-income children and sent the money as a monthly payment, 3 to 4 million children in the US were kept from poverty each month. In Kentucky, 66,000 children under 18 were lifted above the poverty line. In December, 51 Senators let these changes expire. In Kentucky, 929,000 children under 18 would benefit if the expansion were put back in place. We are all feeling the effects of rising food, rent and gas prices. I am sure this has caused more Kentucky families to have even greater difficulty making ends meet. We need to ask our Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, and Rep. Andy Barr to reinstate CTC. Reducing poverty has been shown to benefit future health and educational attainment. Reducing child poverty is a smart investment we can make as a country.
Rita Egan, Lexington
Tammy Faye’s Swindle
Even with the hindsight of being taken in by Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Heritage USA grift, Paul Prather is blind. Tammy Faye Bakker Messner was a swindler who begged for money on TV. Jim is still at it and Tammy would be if she were able. Prather fails to reconcile Tammy’s ‘love of God’ and her years-long fleecing of gullible viewers and visitors to Heritage. Must be another example of the unfathomable divine. Prather writes that Tammy showed kindness to a person suffering from AIDS and displayed humility as a result of a well-deserved mocking. He mischaracterizes mere decent behavior as God’s love and transcendent mercy. Tammy’s religious conversion may have been genuine and is perfectly compatible with her later chronic deceit. Faith, hope, and charity precede Christianity and are sufficient unto themselves - sufficient without asking us to abandon reason for the many poisons of religion.
Todd Kelly, Lexington
Healthcare mandates
I am writing to convey my deep concerns regarding House Bill 457, and respectfully ask for people to reach out to their State Representatives. Managing the costs of health insurance is a very big challenge for employers of all sizes in Kentucky. Affordable healthcare coverage is an essential workforce recruitment and retention tool. HB 457, as introduced, will remove the ability for insurers and employers to utilize important strategies and flexibility in managing their prescription drug benefits. These are critical in keeping out of pocket costs and premiums affordable for Kentuckians. Mandates placed on employee benefits restrict insurers’ and employers’ ability to control costs, inevitably exacerbating the already troubling workforce crisis. Please oppose HB 457 and other healthcare mandates that prohibit free market solutions in providing healthcare benefits to the workforce in Kentucky. In short, HB 457 will directly impact our clients and many individuals and businesses across the Commonwealth. Please call or email your State Representative.
Mindy Farnsley, Louisville
Police Downtown
So now we need more police presence downtown? Two years ago, certain groups in Louisville and Lexington were spitting on cops, rioting and demanding defunding. How ironic that this overworked, underpaid, harassed group of public servants are now needed again. In my view, single rare incidents with police have been blown way out of proportion to push an agenda and it’s disgusting. Now, crime rates rise, and we demand safer streets. Honor the people in uniform and let’s get behind those who answer the call.
John Mackey, Lexington
Shooting is key
Coach Cal acknowledged on TV that it was a mistake to cancel the “shoot around” on Saturday morning before the semi-final game with Tennessee.He seemed to imply that some practice was all that was needed, but the problem was more complicated. It was obvious during the first few minutes of the game that the eye-hand coordination of UK’s key shooters was diminished by fatigue resulting from the intensely close contest with Vanderbilt Friday night. A “shoot-around” would have revealed that. But then, how to remedy it? In contrast, UT’s players had hardly broken a sweat in their Friday rout of Miss State. I think the soon as the second “rim clang” the UK starters should have been replaced from the bench and given ice packs for their heads. Basketball is, after all, a physical sport, and the difference between a “rim clang” and “nothing but net” is in millimeters. Clear heads help.
Charles F. Haywood
Defend Ukraine
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has gone from a tenacious Democratic leader to a hero who won’t run away, becoming a global superhero against Russian President Vladmir Putin’s humiliating military failure.
The KGB guy (Putin) is looking like the comedian and the comedian has become one tough, determined Commander-in-Chief in a war for freedom and survival.
World leaders are debating Putin’s mental state: Is leaving Ukraine a bloody wasteland of death and rubble through anger, revenge, killing and destruction Putin’s only goal or does he want more?
How much murder, terror and devastation are NATO and the European Union leaders willing to legitimize for Putin? When does it become a humanitarian act for the “engagement of military conflict” to protect and defend a peaceful, democratic nation from the hostile, deadly aggressions of an evil tyrant?
Judy Rembacki, Georgetown
European problem
Desiderius Erasmus, a Dutch Renaissance theologian, once wrote, “War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it”. I wonder how many of the D.C. elites, who now try to push us into war, have any experience with war. I can tell you, very few. The tragedy of Ukraine is more than heartbreaking and we all pray for a quick end to the loss of life and the destruction of a country. It’s a crime against nature itself but it’s not our fight! America since 1900 has bailed Europe out of numerous wars, like the Boxers Rebellion, World War I, World War II, Suez Canal, and the mess in Kosovo. While America has expended billions picking up the bill, the Europeans have pushed the luxuries of socialism. It’s time for Europe to defend their own community for a change and step up to face their own responsibilities. America is broke! Yes, we should help the people of the Ukraine, but Europe should be the directors of it. American citizens have paid for 70 years and we’re tired. I wonder how many Washington elites would send their sons and daughters to fight.
Robert Adams, Lexington
Retiring Clerk
Thank you, Austin Horn, for your wonderful tribute to your grandmother, retired Martin County Circuit Clerk Carolynn Horn. I was honored and privileged to both practice law and serve as District Judge in Martin County during Ms. Horn’s tenure, and although you chronicled her attributes well, I would like to add my observations.
I worked with some excellent Clerks during my time in office, but Carolynn Horn is in a class by herself. Any time I conducted business, either as an attorney or Judge, everything was in order. There was never a lost file, every document and exhibit was properly in its place, and the office was run professionally and efficiently. She expected perfection from her deputy clerks, just as she did from herself, and that showed in the quality of work from her office. That being said, Carolynn’s greatest gift is her generosity toward others. I venture to say that there are few citizens of Martin County who have not been touched in some way by her love of the people. I am so proud to consider myself her friend and colleague, and am so glad she has been recognized for her contributions to her community.
Susan Mullins Johnson, Ft. Myers, Florida
Tax cuts
Mayor Alan Keck of Somerset is deliriously happy with the “vision” of an income-tax free Kentucky. He poses a series of questions he says Kentuckians have been asking for years: “how to fund pensions....how to support our educators and law enforcement officers and how to improve our near-bottom health and educational rankings.” His answer: slash the state’s income by 40 percent. Our educators, leaving in record numbers, will be sure to feel supported.
We can cut income tax now because although Keck bemoans the fact that we are the “fourth most federally dependent state,” this year we have all that extra federal money. What better use of it than to give our richest taxpayers a break?
Keck’s true agenda is revealed in the contempt he aims at the 50 percent of Kentuckians too poor to pay income tax. It’s time for them to dig deeper and pay their share. Perhaps this added burden on people barely getting by will get them “incentivized to work more, and harder.”
In other words, one’s moral depravity is evidenced by one’s poverty. In Kentucky, under Republican rule, if you want to matter, get rich. You’re only poor because you don’t work hard enough.
I hope the senate does what a senate is supposed to do: reflect. We have so many problems. We don’t need to slash our way into another one. Our hard-working poor don’t need to dig deeper. That hole they’re in is already deep enough.
Joseph G. Anthony, Lexington
Voter suppression
So called “conservatives” often allege that the left is taking away freedoms from the American people. They claim this without providing examples. But here are two instances that show how hypocritical they are in their assertions.
In Georgia, Republicans have limited the freedom of American citizens by making it illegal to hand out water bottles on a public sidewalk to people waiting in line to vote – those lines that have been created by the “freedom fighters” to make it hard to vote.
Closer to home our Republican legislature is considering banning skill games in local establishments. Why? Because gambling is immoral? That can’t be it – that would mean that the lottery is immoral. They want to take away the freedom of proprietors and patrons to have the sorts of games they want because the government (Kentucky Lottery) wants to force all dollars collected for such activities to go to it. Freedom is apparently unimportant to Republicans when they can use their corrupt power to unfairly extract money from citizens.
Michael Kennedy, Lexington