Pro-gun law no problem if you don’t provoke
For those who oppose the “stand your ground” measure signed into law by Gov. Mike Dewine, I have an idea. Don't give that person a reason to stand their ground. I never understood why, if I am the one being threatened, it is my duty to retreat.
Brad Strominger, Etna
East Side violence is unacceptable
I respond to Theodore Decker's column last Sunday, “Welcome to Columbus, land of the lost.” As I was pumping my gas, I was wondering who may have died where I was standing and who may be the next victim to be gunned down on the East side of Columbus. It also occurred to me that there was there no justice for these two young men who passed away in this fatal shooting.
These two young men died so tragically with their whole lives ahead of them and it was cut short but yet nothing was said about it at all.
Why is there not more that can be done on the east side of town to stop the violence? We need to clean it up and be proud of our community and not let it become the Wild West.
We all need to be pitch in to make this happen with the assistance of the of the city of Columbus. We all deserve a safe place to live, work and help our children grow up.
Pam Wolfe, Columbus
Electoral College allows minority rule
Sarah Fennell of Columbus (”Electoral College serves a good purpose,” last Sunday letter) defends the Electoral College system on the grounds that it is crucial to the prevention of mob rule. She is wrong about this. The chief characteristic of a republican form of government is that office holders in both the legislative and executive branches stand between the people and those institutions that create and enforce the law.
Representative government is the antithesis of mob rule. The Electoral College is not only redundant, it is itself inconsistent to any form of legitimate republican democracy. Remember those salient first words of the Constitution “we the people ... do ordain and establish this constitution...”. The people bestow legitimacy to the government.
Under the Electoral College system a Congress and a president can be elected with a minority of the popular vote. No government that permits such a system has any right to legitimacy and its very existence is suspect. One of America’s bedrock political norms is the idea of equality — my rights are to be respected just as much and no more than your rights are to be respected.
I have a right to vote and my vote should count as much as your vote. Wyoming has about 582,000 people and gets three electoral votes. California has more than 39 million people and gets 54 electoral votes — that’s one electoral vote for every 772,000 voters.
California deserves to have the same ratio of population to electoral votes as Wyoming, which would mean more than 200 electoral votes for California. Our Electoral College system fails to respect the equal rights of voters in all states except Wyoming. We are victims of systematic voter discrimination.
It’s the moral equivalent of voter fraud, where the voting rights of a majority of the population are made to disappear. Fennell thinks this form of ballot-box stuffing is entirely legitimate when the minority does it. It is only when each vote is given equal weight and respect that the result is considered mob rule.
Robert Test, Columbus
Family planning is important factor
The Dispatch editorial “Time to recognize role of racism in infant mortality”) published last Sunday certainly identifies a significant social and moral problem. That Black women have poorer outcomes for pregnancies than other demographic groups is established fact.
However, this editorial is shortsighted and short-reaching. As a student, I completed a senior seminar in health economics in which a major requirement was an original research paper. I chose the topic of poorer outcomes for Black births in the United States. Using data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and accepted statistical methods, I found two things.
First, the idea that race is a factor in poorer health outcomes for births is virtually incontrovertible. However, determining potential co-factors was more difficult. One that emerged, and that the Dispatch editorial tiptoes around, is the role of family planning in birth outcome.
Planned pregnancies mean that by definition the mother is seeking prenatal care; the doctor can help the family understand health decisions and changes before conception. Unplanned pregnancies obviously miss this crucial period. I discovered a considerable consensus of research by well-qualified health and economics professionals to support my admittedly undergraduate level of research.
Family planning means the decision of both whether and when to have a child. All women need equal access to family planning counseling and any necessary medications, including birth control.
I believe, as Rep. Emilia Sykes alludes, that better training of our health care workers will lead to better results.
Still, in the absence of appropriate family planning, I fear that we will continue to see what is truly a health care and moral crisis in this country.
Ron Kincaid, Upper Arlington