NASCAR in CBUS
I applaud the recent efforts by local law enforcement to enforce traffic laws on sections of Interstate 270. However, one-shot efforts, while having some success, are not enough. Sadly, things are back to normal, and NASCAR lives again. I rarely see any enforcement presence now.
We must have a consistent effort, not highly publicized, massive one-time shows, to get the job done.
Larry Smith, Columbus
Ohio needs a senator who listens
Have you ever written to your senator?
The first time I ever sent an email to my senators was when Donald Trump nominated Robert Kennedy Jr. to be secretary of Health and Human Services.
I wrote to senators Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno, begging them not to vote to confirm this nominee because I felt he was so
incompetent for this position. Of course, they both voted to confirm him.
I never received a reply from Moreno. Husted sent me a form letter that did not even address the issue that concerned me.
Conversely, my very first letter to the editor of the Dispatch was concerning the Capitol insurrectionists. I received a handwritten note from Sen. Sherrod Brown telling me I wrote a good letter.
Do we want a senator who listens to our concerns and acknowledges them, or one who sends a form letter and ignores the issue that concerns you? That is why I will be voting for Sherrod Brown in November.
Marilyn Hansen, Dublin
Send them packing
Nightly news reports of extreme flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, fires and heat waves seem to be nature’s judgment on Washington.
Our elected representatives, however, fund major tax cuts for the wealthy, back using taxpayer money for Trump vanity projects, let Medicaid lapse for millions, argue there’s too much waste and fraud in government programs, and ignore the corrosive corruption within their own ranks.
Constituents’ priorities are to address those floods and fires (both scientifically and humanely) and to get back to the social contract essentials that bind us together as a nation.
Government mostly works if it attends to the basic needs of those living on Main Street. What those in power tell you are problems don’t survive a raging fire burning down your house or a flood sweeping your children away. The only answer is not to give those people authority if they are unwilling to solve the difficulties we actually face. Let’s make our representatives accountable to our real needs.
Send them packing in the midterms, Main Street’s answer to term limits.
Bev Graves, Westerville
Husted's hands aren't dirty?
Against all evidence, Sen. Jon Husted claims that Sherrod Brown, a former senator, hasn’t represented Ohio well during his years in Congress.
As soon as Husted was appointed to fill JD Vance’s Senate seat, he hired a big-time energy lobbyist.
That lobbyist worked for companies that made millions from the Republican legislation at the heart of the energy bribery scandals in Ohio. (That lobbyist had represented a company that was forced to pay millions to settle claims that it had negligently distributed vast amounts of opioids in addiction-ravaged Ohio.) That lobbyist is on Husted’s staff today.
Husted hopes that we’ll forget that he himself lobbied energetically for the utility bailout that hurt Ohioans’ wallets.
He’s eager to distract us from the fact that the company that paid $60 million in bribes to get that utility bailout passed into law was the source of $1 million of dark money that went to a group supporting his primary cause for governor in 2017.
At a time when rising prices and a slow economy created by Republicans are hurting Ohio families, Husted shows us that he’s only interested in lining the pockets of wealthy energy and utility companies.
We’re not going to be fooled come November: Husted doesn’t represent Ohio families.
Susan Tomci, Stow
Rerigging the system
Re "2 reform measures could be on ballot," Aug. 16: Reading Dispatch reporter Jordan Laird's article, all I could think about was when the current city council converted us into a ward system a few years ago.
At that time, instead of letting the residents of the ward elect a person from that ward to city council, they made the election a citywide count for each seat. And now, again, they are trying to rig the system.
Council President Pro Tem Rob Dorans wants to continue the rigging by adding additional seats to the council. That would effectively reduce the local ward's impact on the council and diminish the representation that the ward system is supposed to allow.
There is probably only one reason for this desire to add additional seats. The current party that is in power wants to retain power and is afraid that, if a completely ward-driven City Council was created, they might lose a bit of their power.
I have lived in Columbus all my life, with only my military service as a break in that string of years. Columbus has grown and become a very diverse city, with people from all races living together. And each person has the right to express their thoughts through our voting process.
Democrats or Republicans, it doesn't matter. We all live in this great city. A straight ward system would help strengthen our city.
Currently, the party in power is opposed and lists a myriad of reasons why it will not work. All of them sound like excuses and a fear that the current party line might fail once in a while.
Increase the number of wards, with each ward representative living in that ward. A seat or two might be lost, but you would have a system where discussion and ideas from different sides would be prevalent, and we would get a better result than just a straight party line.
Keith Eaton, Columbus
Pointless sanctions
It’s getting harder and harder to believe our government’s sanctions on any country actually do anything.
This has been shown to be the case as Russia continues its war in Ukraine, and Iran continues to send more missiles into neighboring countries and at ships in the Strait of Hormuz. All of this in spite of our government’s previous sanctions and the threat of new sanctions.
There seems to always be a workaround for any sanction the U.S. can levy.
Chet Ridenour Sr., Worthington
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: NASCAR 'lives' on I-270. Where are the cops? | Letters
