DeWine should speak up
Vivek Ramaswamy is a liar. Not surprising, given that he is learning his political craftsmanship from the greatest liar of them all, Donald Trump. His political attack ads against Dr. Amy Acton falsely state that she “shut down Ohio” during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Apart from the fact that, at that uncertain time, dealing with an unknown, potentially catastrophic world health crisis, the consensus of medical opinion was that such an action was required, the decisions to close schools and businesses were made by Gov. Mike DeWine.
In December 2025, DeWine stated: “The decisions that were made during COVID, they were my decisions, so no one should blame someone else if they don’t like it. The buck stops with me.”
is anything but a Ramaswamy cakewalk. It's about to get nasty
Further, in a statement reported by the Statehouse News Bureau in April 2026: “I’m the one who appointed her ( Acton). The fact is she worked for me, as all the members of the cabinet do. And decisions that were made, were made by the governor. So if there is a member of the cabinet who issues an order, that was at my direction.”
Wouldn’t it be something if Republican Gov. Mike DeWine aired a television ad correcting this lie in Ramaswamy’s campaign ads? Such an effort would not be an endorsement of any candidate, but would be aired in the interest of helping Ohio voters receive accurate, truthful information in making the best-informed decision possible in the upcoming November gubernatorial election.
Governor?
Mahlon Nowland, Worthington
Kids don't have to understand. That's the problem.
Our K-12 public school system faces widespread criticism regarding academic proficiency in reading and math. Opinions on the root causes are mixed.
As a retired teacher, I too have been thinking about possible causes. Perhaps the problem was recognized and answered over 100 years ago by two transcendentalists, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
Emerson, in his essay "Self-Reliance,"suggests that "The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet."
He implied that intellectual conveniences such as technology weakened our ability to use our natural, innate abilities.
Emerson proposed that societal advancement does not equal true human improvement. As we invent tools to do things for us, we surrender our natural abilities. In the same paragraph, he notes that the modern person has a fine watch but cannot tell time by the sun.
Thoreau, in "Walden," expanded Emerson’s critique of coaches into the rejection of technologies. While Emerson wrote about losing the use of one's feet philosophically, Thoreau explicitly compared taking a train to walking 30 miles to the next town. He noted that the train ticket costs a day's wages, meaning a man must work all day to earn the fare to ride. Meanwhile, Thoreau could start walking immediately and arrive by evening. Thoreau proved Emerson's point: By relying on the mechanical "coach" (the train), the civilized man literally wastes his time and forgets that his own feet are faster and cheaper.
Perhaps they were correct in their thinking. Today’s generation doesn’t need to read. They just put in their earbuds and use Audible to read to them. They do not need to know how to solve a math problem. They just need to know how to use their smartwatch, cell phone or laptop to find the answer.
Gary Rusk, Lewis Center
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Vivek Ramaswamy is lying about Amy Acton and COVID. DeWine, set him straight | Letters
