Millions for billionaires
Regarding “Columbus shouldn’t have a shelter for over 800. Of course feces was on floor” (June 23): Sorry, but yours and your children’s situation of walking through urine and feces and dodging insects in a homeless shelter simply isn’t relevant. You are poor, and our benevolent Ohio Legislature members can’t tap you for campaign donations.
Their purpose is to serve the rich and privileged who, oh, I don’t know, own multibillion-dollar sports franchises, for example. They desperately need a handout from the State, like $600 million to help them build a gilded temple for worshipers to watch millionaires throw a little brown ball around. And they’ve considered directing $400 million more to fix up another Ohio coliseum down by the river, for the welfare of more millionaire owners and players.
There are billions of unclaimed dollars lying around, just ripe for the picking for special interests. They naturally would never consider directing this windfall to something as unrewarding as putting a roof over someone’s head (uh, affordable housing). That’s never going to help them get reelected.
That’s just how it is, Amanda. The “haves” and “have-mores” don’t even need to be aware of you and the suffering of those like you. Because it’s obvious that to them, you simply don’t exist.
Steve McLoughlin, Reynoldsburg
Politicians failing our public schools
The quality of public education in Ohio is abysmal and in dire straits. The bottom line for this is it’s illegal and unconstitutional financing both according to our state constitution as well as the national constitution. This fact has been written about again and again in the Dispatch. The reason for this sorry state of affairs lies, of course, in the politicians who occupy our Statehouse on Broad and High and the lobbyists who finance their election campaigns.
Public education needs to and should be financed statewide by income tax and not by property tax — it’s the only way all our kids get an equal quality education.
Then there is the constitutional law of separation of church and state. It appears that our legislature is suddenly illiterate when it comes to reading and understanding its meaning.
When it comes to guns, however, they can suddenly read and thump the tables with the constitutional right to carry. OK, I think this can be honored by allowing anyone who wants to pack and carry to only obtain and own the kinds of firearms that were used when our founding fathers wrote the Constitution.
I suggest that our legislature be required before every session to read out loud both the Ohio as well as the national U.S. constitutions — they can do their prayers before coming to chambers.
Margrit Ballard, Columbus
No need to cancel Oktoberfest
Regarding “Should we cancel Oktoberfest?” (June 29): I respond to Steve Abbott’s letter, which he goes to the extreme. He says that I suggested that we cancel certain ethnic events, such as the Irish Festival or Oktoberfest. His comments do not include all the cogent facts.
What I was commenting on was the statement that the Statehouse event was a holiday “for all Americans.” I failed to see that was true with no evidence of our nation’s flag or National Anthem — or hardly an ethnic cross-section of our community in attendance.
As for the long term with any gathering promoting an overarching theme, I would suggest bearing in mind the axiom, “moderation in all things.”
Don Denton, Westerville
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Legislature too busy making rich richer to help the homeless | Letters
Reporting by Letters to the Editor / The Columbus Dispatch
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