All I got was a trucker’s obscene rant
My teenager and I spent the night in our car on I-71 North in Pickaway County due to an overturned semi July 16 that closed the highway all night.
Construction barriers prevented easy diversion for hundreds of vehicles. We had just flown into Cincinnati — the eight-hour flight from London took less time than our drive to Columbus. My son slept, but anxiety (no bathroom, no water, no reliable information) kept me awake.
There is a Reddit thread that sums up the experience, with both its comical moments and its many indignities.Regarding “Motorists slept on Interstate 71 after semi crash closed highway for hours,” July 17: It surprised me to read that “at 7 a.m. … two troopers were waking up a few motorists who fell asleep during the long closure,” because I saw no troopers all night.
Sitting with a sleeping teen, unable to sleep myself because a) I had to pee and b) the trucker next to me kept bellowing obscenities every 10 minutes, I had time to wonder why state troopers were not directing vehicles to reverse out of the gridlock. The situation remained stubbornly unmanaged.If diversion were not possible, other ways to protect and serve travelers were painfully apparent.
What about cops on bikes or motorcycles handing out bottled water, snacks or just a kind word? Small gestures would have meant a lot, but what we got was nothing.
As police around the country look to improve their image with the public, this incident seems like a missed opportunity.
Emily Strand, Columbus
Voucher programs unravel public school
I wholeheartedly support Judge Jaiza Page’s ruling that Ohio’s EdChoice voucher program is unconstitutional.
Public education is the cornerstone of our democracy because it ensures every child, regardless of belief or income, access to a thorough and efficient education.
When public funds are siphoned off for private schools — often religious, selective and lacking accountability — that promise is betrayed.
Since the 1830s, education reformers like Horace Mann fought to create common schools: publicly funded, non-sectarian and open to all. These schools were more than just learning spaces — they were tools for civic unity, economic opportunity and democratic stability.
Voucher programs like EdChoice unravel that vision. Private schools can reject students, set their own standards and operate with little transparency — while still taking public dollars. This undermines equity and promotes privatization.
Ohio’s constitution requires a “thorough and efficient system of common schools.” Common means shared, accessible and accountable — not selective, siloed or subsidized for private gain. Judge Page’s decision rightly protects this foundational principle.
We should be investing in stronger public schools, not draining their resources. Every child in Ohio deserves access to quality education, not just a privileged few. Join me in advocating for stronger public schools.
Ray Watford, Hilliard
I paid for my private education
I recall being offered EdChoice.
I could choose the public high school where I knew no one; or, as my dad said, “You can get your butt out there and earn the money” for the parochial school that I wanted to attend alongside the grade school classmates that I’d known for years.
That meant getting up at 4 a.m. daily to deliver the Columbus Citizen-Journal, then coming home to get ready for school. Later, it was going home immediately after school to deliver The Columbus Dispatch when it was an afternoon paper.
Subsequently, it was cleaning up a grocery store bakery five nights per week until 9 p.m., and then walking home to start my homework. There was no room for extracurriculars here. Working in the school cafeteria during half of my lunch break saved me the 50 cents that I’d otherwise have paid for lunch.
Attending a private school was a luxury that I had to find ways to pay for, and no one, especially taxpayers, got stuck with the bills. It’s hard to process why anyone would get a free ride on my taxes when I recall all that I had to do for my “choice.”
Steve McLoughlin, Reynoldsburg
The meaning of a nun’s name
I am a dedicated obituary reader. I learn about living that way. I also gain the healthy understanding that we all gotta go sometime.
I do have a couple of obituary complaints. The first is, the good people of central Ohio have stopped dying in alphabetical order. The second involves the good sisters, as my parents called the nuns.
Invariably in obits for nuns, had they a different name as a nun until the religious reforms, it is not mentioned.
I read the recent Dispatch obit about Sister Patricia Knopp. She was in her 71st year of religious life.
I do not know if Sister Patricia was one of my teaching nuns as when I was in school, she would have had given up her own name and adopted a “nun name.”
I attended four different Catholic schools in Columbus. (Perhaps her nun name WAS Sister Patricia, but my guess is it was not. I never see a former nun name listed for older Sisters from that era in the obits.)
People need to list their often colorful, and religiously meaningful, holy aliases into the obit, (i.e. Sister Ronald, Sister St. James, Sister Consilia, Sister Angelica, Sister Regina Assumpta, Sister Clarette) for readers who might only have known her at that time.
Those original names were chosen by these women with much forethought for their future vocations. Old nuns have an AKA. It speaks volumes about their lives.
Patricia Wynn Brown, Columbus
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: We needed trooper help on I-71. All I got was a trucker bellowing obscenities | Letters
Reporting by Letters to the Editor / The Columbus Dispatch
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