Need is greater than ever to feed our community

For all of us, these are unsettling and confusing times — but especially so for our neighbors who are struggling to make ends meet. Because of the pandemic, uncertain economy and loss of jobs, many central Ohio residents are having a hard time paying their bills and putting food on their tables — some for the very first time. Trying to figure out where to go for help can be a challenge all its own.

Hunger has always been a concern for our community, but in the midst of COVID-19, Ohioans find themselves facing unprecedented hardships and turning to local organizations for basic needs.

Since the start of the pandemic in March, the Mid-ohio Food Collective has experienced a 33% increase in food distribution compared with last year. Nearly 35,000 new families (about 104,000 individuals) throughout the collective’s partner agency network have been served — families who have never asked for food assistance prior to COVID. Our community has a rich history of generosity in providing support to those in need. But now we have challenges we haven’t seen before, requiring an even greater level of community caring.

Even as the brightest scientific minds in the world race to find a vaccine, the hunger crisis will not go away overnight. The residual effects from COVID impacting displaced workers, seniors who are isolated and children who don’t have regular access to nutritious meals will need our help in the coming months and likely in the coming years. As a community, it is incumbent upon us to ensure we don’t let people slip through the cracks and that no one goes hungry. That’s why we’re asking community leaders to remain diligent in the fight against hunger and dig deeper to ensure we are taking care of our neighbors in need.

Please join us by volunteering, donating and advocating on behalf of the already 600,000 individuals seeking food from the Mid-ohio Food Collective, and help raise awareness of the very real need right here in our own backyard.

Matt Habash, president and chief executive officer, Mid-ohio Food Collective

Community lost its voice in city’s major issues

Imagine a world where the issues most critical to our community were not left in the hands of appointees who so frequently act against the majority agreement of our community. Where, if an official so blatantly disregarded the wants and needs of its city, we wouldn’t need to gather 15,000 signatures in the middle of a pandemic to just get yet another system-appointed official we’d have to beg and plead to listen to us all over again.

Is it not possible to conceive of a Columbus wherein great issues are decided by our great people, rather than a corrupt system of undemocratic representation so pervasively in disagreement with its constituents even the NAACP has criticized our at-large system as fundamentally racist and broken?

I propose an alternative that’s far from new, wherein the need to address the use of chemical agents banned in warfare against Columbus’ own residents isn’t kicked down the line indefinitely, but where we had a week during which every citizen would be able to cast a vote in favor or against, and we would simply enact the stated will of the people. Wherein the need for affordable housing isn’t left to a chair either unwilling or unable to raise these concerns in even long-running negotiations like the proposed development at King and High.

Why, in a country that so rightfully glorifies democracy, do we resign ourselves to elected officials so blatantly contrary to it?

Let’s get our power back.

Isaac Bean, Columbus

Remember the good old days when pollution didn’t matter?

Ah, the good old days. I remember when that ridiculous Affordable Care Act didn’t exist. Medical bills could routinely bankrupt people, insurance companies didn’t have to cover preexisting conditions and could charge higher premiums to people with health problems.

That pesky EPA didn’t interfere with our commerce. We could entertain ourselves by watching the Cuyahoga River burn and could see what mountains looked like after strip-mining without restoration.

We could throw our trash out of our car windows with no thought of eyesores we were helping create and compare the smog in our cities. We regarded water pollution as just a necessary consequence of industry.

The “little woman” knew her place. We didn’t have convenient, reliable birth control, sparing pharmacists from having to refuse to sell female customers the pill or morning-after pill if the pharmacist didn’t believe in it.

We didn’t have safe women’s clinics, so family planning consisted of a woman praying every month that she wasn’t pregnant.

If a woman faced a pregnancy that she couldn’t afford for financial, medical or personal reasons, she could try to abort with a clothes hanger.

Companies didn’t have to promote — or even hire — qualified women.

On second thought, I don’t want to return to the “good” old days. I’m going to vote for people who will improve our lives.

A.J. Rainwater, Pataskala

Carbon bill would encourage alternative energy production

As I write this, Tropical Storm Beta is dumping heavy rain on Texas. It follows hurricanes Isaias, Laura and Sally this season. Each has caused major property damage (at least $25 billion so far) and sadly, more than 120 people have died. This is unusual, even by recent standards.

What is going on? Climate researchers tell us that warming oceans are contributing to both the increased frequency and intensity of tropical storms. Warmer air holds more water and contributes to the extreme rainfall and flooding associated with these storms. We can’t afford to ignore this problem, it will only get worse until we control our carbon pollution and reduce carbon dioxide levels.

We need to act quickly. One great first step would be to put a price on carbon pollution, creating an incentive for all of us to wean ourselves from fossil fuels. Such a step, like the bipartisan HR 763, will collect a fee on carbon sources and return the money to American families.

The fee will level the playing field for sustainable energy sources such as wind and solar. The dividend will help us cope with increased prices for carbon-based energy until we can make the switch to renewables.

Richard Bradley, Delaware

Both parties have used same tactic with vacancy

With the open seat on the Supreme Court we’ve heard the following:

“The Senate will need to fulfill its Constitutional responsibility by considering, debating, and voting on the nominee.”

“I plan to fulfill my constitutional responsibilities to appoint a successor.”

“Failing to fill this vacancy would be a shameful abdication of one of the Senate’s most essential Constitutional responsibilities.”

Have Sen. Chuck Grassley “step up and do his job.”

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? These quotes are from 2016, and the vacancy on the Supreme Court was when Justice Antonin Scalia passed away. The first is Joe Biden; following Biden’s quote, in order, President Obama, Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton made these statements. These same angry politicians oppose President Trump doing what Obama/ Biden did in 2016.

The Democrats and their media friends are going around like their hair is on fire, in their attempts to make Sen. Mitch Mcconnell look like he flip-flopped.

I would suggest these same Democrats enter the Olympics and compete in gymnastics in 2024. The opening on the U.S. Supreme Court provides President Trump an opportunity select a Supreme Court justice. It’s good to see he intends to take the advice of these prominent Democrats in 2016.

Jack Kananian, Brecksville