It’s been 11 years since my son was killed at Sandy Hook. KY could pass a law to help. | Opinion

Sandy Hook

Dec. 14 marked 11 years since my son Daniel was killed alongside 19 of his classmates and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Conn. As any parent of a murdered child will tell you, every single day of those 11 years I’ve agonized over the question: what could have prevented this?

I ask myself the same question every time another mass shooting happens.

Having a process for Crisis Aversion and Rights Retention (CARR) orders will undoubtedly prevent more parents from having to ask that question. Kentucky Sen. Whitney Westerfield (R-Hopkinsville) has been working tirelessly to introduce a CARR law in Kentucky, and lawmakers were scheduled to discuss it on Dec. 15.

CARR orders allow law enforcement to intervene when someone is going through a crisis and has access to the most lethal means of causing harm to themselves or others. Law enforcement can temporarily remove the person’s firearms while they seek help. When the person gets better, the court cancels the order, and the firearms are returned. The individual retains their constitutional right to own firearms, and communities are kept.

I urge Kentucky lawmakers to do what’s right and move this life-saving legislation forward.

Mark Barden, father of Daniel, killed at Sandy Hook 12/14/2012, Newtown, Conn.

Transgender ignorance

I read with interest Brandl Skirvin’s excellent OpEd piece in the paper recently concerning the Transgender issue. The Kentucky Legislature’s ignorance with the passing of Senate Bill 150 makes me think of a quote from Nelson Mandela (1918-2013): “Our world is not divided by race, color, gender, or religion. Our world is divided into wise people and fools. And fools divide themselves by race, color, gender, or religion.”

James Ware, Lexington

Methane emissions

Day after day this newspaper fails to deliver truthful news to its customers. In the Sunday Dec. 3 edition the “Methane Rule…” article supplied by the Associated Press parroted the fabricated health benefit claims surrounding methane emission rules made by the EPA Myth Makers and their American Lung Association fabulist cohorts in support of the needless and economically punishing changes. At a concentration of 1.8 ppm (that is like 2¢/$10,000), it is medically factual that methane is innocuous and non-allergenic.

The article also makes the fabricated claim that methane has more warming potential than CO2. Methane, like CO2, can only absorb one photon of infrared radiation at a time; there is no potency difference. Both are short-lived in the atmosphere, less than 10 years. More importantly, CO2 and methane absorb at the same wavelengths as water vapor, which is many times more plentiful than both these gases combined, resulting in it absorbing the lion’s share of emitted infrared radiation. Therefore, adding more of these gases will not measurably affect the warming.

The claim that methane is responsible for one-third of planet warming is farfetched. NASA scientists claim that methane, nitrous oxide and ozone combined account for only 5% of the greenhouse effect.

George Tomaich, Lexington

Editor’s Note – According to the United Nation’s Environment Program, and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, methane is a primary contributor in forming ground-level ozone, which leads to nearly a million premature deaths globally each year. Additionally, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, methane is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat within the Earth’s atmosphere.

Humanity ascends

Humanity thrives with love and dies with hate.

In this season where we exemplify our collective will to be generous and to treat others as we ourselves would wish to be treated, we know there are those that will not be any part of this.

There are predators among us, and these have made our world, our nation, our individual lives more fear driven, more painful, more withdrawn into tribal ignorance. They have divided us from our connections with each other; pretending they are superior to those of us that only want to thrive in love and peace.

Let us rebuke these predators and deny their curses upon us. Let us find and keep our humanity and not be beguiled by the fear, ignorance and hate they would oppress us with.

This is the season where we celebrate the faith in our varied interpretations of the cosmos but in each other. It is truly the faithless that do not love and entreat hate.

Let Humanity ascend and thrive in Love. This is my wish and I hope you join me in this gift to one and all.

It needs more than to be a season. It needs to be our lives.

Robert Moreland, Lexington

Pension payment

Inflation has made it increasingly difficult for all of us to pay for groceries, mortgage payments and gas for our cars. Public retirees aren’t exempt from the pressures of higher costs for goods and services.

State retirees participate in a defined-benefit plan that provides a meaningful but modest monthly income. The average annual benefit is about $21,000. For local-government retirees, the average is only $12,000.

The state pension plan was in dire straits a few short years ago. Fortunately, legislators have in recent years provided additional employer contributions to address the solvency crisis. The state pension plan is expected to be fully funded by the late 2040s.

This is scant comfort for today’s retirees. It has been 12 long years since the most recent pension inflation adjustment payment was provided. Real pension income has since dropped by one-third.

In the 2024 legislative session, public retirees in Kentucky will seek a one-time extra monthly pension check to help defray a portion of the loss of real income. Given the record Rainy Day Fund, the new revenue from legalized gaming, and the improving fiscal condition of the state pension program, the time is now for a one-time extra pension check.

Jim Carroll, Frankfort

Hamas support

Michael Smith is wrong to equate advocacy for the lives of Palestinian civilians with standing up for terrorists. Seventeen thousand Palestinian civilians killed by Israel in two months should concern any human. Smith also ignores the long history of Israel occupying Palestine, committing atrocities therein for decades. Extremists are made in reaction to extreme situations. If Hamas’s actions were a surprise, you should look deeper.

J. Evelyn Miracle, Nicholasville

Tipping policy

Quaint little Stella’s restaurant on Jefferson Street has always been a favorite....until recently. After a birthday lunch with a friend, I thought $49.00 and change was a little high for a breakfast, a sandwich, two drinks and two desserts. Then I saw why. Added to the average priced entrees there was a 20 percent surcharge; supposedly to be used to pay all employees $13.00 or so an hour. Then, there is a suggestion of a tip, which, somehow is split among employees. That means the expectation is customers should willingly pay 35 percent or more in addition to the cost of the food.....NOT!

The cost of the food and service should be covered in the pricing of the product. Tips are earned for excellent service. When they are split, there is much less incentive to provide a pleasant dining experience.

Stella’s just lost a customer.

Russ Lay, Lexington

Compiled by Liz Carey