LaRose’s dishonesty, paranoid gun owners and more | Voice of the People

LaRose’s dishonesty clear

Ohioans of all demographics support having the voices of the people, not big money, heard in citizen-led initiatives. That’s why an April 12 guest column by Secretary of State Frank LaRose caught the attention of so many Ohioans. LaRose wrote that “Larry Householder and FirstEnergy almost got away with a scheme to amend our constitution and keep control of the Statehouse for 16 more years.”

“Imagine what they could have done,” LaRose said.

LaRose would like us to imagine what corrupt politicians and big money special interests could do if given the chance to amend our constitution. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing since reading the April 28 article “GOP megadonor Richard Uihlein bankrolls push to make it harder to amend Ohio constitution.” Uihlein, a billionaire from Illinois, has dumped $1.1 million into the newly created “Save Our Constitution PAC.” The PAC has begun airing ads warning of “big money” trying to bypass Ohioans and lawmakers. That’s right: An out-of-state billionaire is funding ads pushing the passage of legislation that will make it nearly impossible for ordinary Ohioans to amend our constitution, while warning us that our constitution can be “bought” by special interests.

So, yes, powerful, well-funded special interests are trying to amend our constitution. They’ve already spent $1.1 million to subvert “one person, one vote” in Ohio by pushing for the passage of House Joint Resolution 1, which would give 40% of voters the power to make decisions for everyone else. Legislators plan to put this attack on voter rights on the ballot in an August special election.

But bipartisan opposition to this attack on voter rights is mounting. Please tell your Ohio representative and House Speaker Jason Stephens that you oppose it, too.

Sherry McMillen, Cuyahoga Falls

Paranoid and armed

We are no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave. We have become the land of the paranoid and the home of the armed.

Four recent incidents illustrate that clearly.

• A Kansas City teenager was shot twice after going to a wrong home to pick up his younger brothers.

• A woman was fatally shot when her group looking for a friend’s house in upstate New York arrived in the wrong driveway.

• In Texas, a man shot two cheerleaders outside a supermarket after one of them mistakenly got into his car thinking it was her own.

• A North Carolina man shot a 6-year old and her parents after children went to retrieve a basketball that had rolled into his yard.

These incidents cut across race, social standing and geography. We consider anyone we don’t know a potential threat and are encouraged to “stand our ground,” not just in our home, but any ground on which we stand. We have abandoned the basic trust and civility necessary to a functional society. It is killing us.

Several factors contribute to this issue, a few critical ones are: our indulgence in conspiracy theories and hatred spewed by some “so called” news networks, social media sites and politicians; and misguided “stand your ground” and permissive gun laws by elected officials. Remember we own the most guns per capita (~120 guns per 100 people) and no other nation has more civilian guns than people.

We need to restore trust in people who do not look like us. The question is what one can do at an individual level to accomplish that. I suggest the following: Rather than being glued to your smart device, go out, walk around your neighborhood and talk to a diverse set of people. In particular, make a genuine effort to expand your understanding by getting to know at least one family of different race in your area and listening to their experience. It’s likely you will realize that some misconceptions arose from lack of mutual understanding.

Every spiritual teaching says — treat others as you like to be treated. Let’s work to make it a reality and minimize unnecessary suffering in our society.

Susan Handa, Fairlawn

Corruption rules in Ohio

Sadly, Ohio residents have become accustomed to the duplicity of the Republicans in Columbus.

We have a fresh example of their double dealing in their response to recent Democratic legislation that would close "dark money" loopholes intended to influence elections and prevent U.S. companies with foreign decision-makers from contributing funds to campaigns. These loopholes are the foundation of the recent Republican “pay to play” scandal that involved $60 million in payouts from FirstEnergy to corrupt legislators.

Democrats want to bring honesty and high ethical standards back to the Ohio legislature by passing the Ohio Anti-Corruption Act, but the unprincipled Republicans don’t want to see the firehose of secret money turned off any time soon.

Call your representative. Tell him or her that they’re either on the side of honesty in government or they’re on the side of corruption. As we’ve seen in Ohio, there’s no middle ground here.

Nancy McDowell, Akron

Anti-democratic push hurts Ohio

Ohio Senate Republicans recently passed S.J.R. 2 and S.B. 92. Together, they would place a proposal on the ballot this summer in a costly August election to raise the approval threshold for citizen-initiated constitutional amendments to 60%. Doing so would enshrine minority rule in our state’s foundational document and allow 41% of voters to block proposals supported by the majority of Ohioans, such as the initiative to protect reproductive freedom that is likely to be on the ballot in November.

This is not the first time something like this has been proposed. Previously, I served on the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission, a bipartisan committee tasked with reviewing and identifying ways to strengthen our state constitution. In 2017, we considered a proposal to raise the threshold for passing citizen-initiated constitutional amendments from 50% to 55%, which was packaged with other changes intended to update and streamline the process of passing citizen-initiated statutes.

However, despite being paired with protections for initiated statutes, the idea of even moderately raising the threshold to approve citizen-initiated constitutional amendments generated such opposition that the bipartisan commission voted to table the package.

Now more than five years later, Ohio Republicans have introduced a more extreme version of this deeply unpopular and unwise proposal. Hastily enshrining minority rule into our constitution to preemptively stop popular ideas contrary to one party’s agenda serves neither Ohio nor our democracy.

State Sen. Vernon Sykes, Akron

GOP’s double standard

It seems that the Republicans are happy to do a complete U-turn on the budget whenever they don’t hold the White House. During the last administration, they happily voted to raise the debt ceiling three times even as the national debt was soaring. Now, with a Democratic president, they’ve suddenly decided that huge cuts in the national budget are needed.

In fact, this dishonest double standard has been a part of the Republican playbook for a long time. As reported in the Washington Post, 65% of House Republicans and 74% of Senate Republicans voted for debt ceiling increases under Republican presidents. Under Democratic presidents, only 24% of House Republicans and 20% of Senate Republicans vote for the same increases.

Americans are tired of seeing their jobs held hostage to Republicans’ failed efforts to “stick it to the Democrats.” Tell Sen. J.D. Vance that we expect him to put the health of the nation’s economy over his own party’s narrow interests.

Faith Greer, Stow

Save old buildings, help STEM

While reading the Akron Beacon Journal of April 28, I was struck by a confluence of community needs. Akron Public Schools is in need of a home for a STEM middle and high school, preferably located in a central location and near the University of Akron. The search for space is occurring while the historic ABJ building is being considered to be razed for a parking lot.

Our community needs to learn to find the will, the courage and creative funding to repurpose our historic buildings. The same-old knock-it-down mentality is dull and shows a lack of vision and creativity. Such flat-footed policy will not bring new blood to our city or keep new graduates around.

Another frustrating aspect of the convergence of these two stories is why the University of Akron would not step up and give the schools a permanent home.

While the good old boys’ idea of leadership is to choose a mayor to keep everything status quo, it would be rejuvenating if something new, innovative and forward thinking, like repurposing a historic building for public school children, were to get those millions of dollars in donations.

Jodie M. Grasgreen, Akron

Canfora deserves a statue at KSU

I think it would be nice if there was a statue of Alan Canfora at Kent State University.

After he was shot by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970, he worked to keep the truth known about the shootings and helped hold the commemoration each year until he died in December 2020.

He was a leading critic of the war in Vietnam on campus and a symbol of the anti-war movement in the country.

I would like to see the statue look like he did in the famous photo by then KSU photojournalism student John Filo, waving a black flag at the national guard as they aimed their M-1 rifles at him and the crowd on May 4 near Taylor Hall.

One website I looked at said a bronze life-size statue could be made for between $10,000 and $100,000.

It could be placed where he was standing in the picture, near the May 4 Memorial or maybe inside the Student Center.

The effort could begin with a fundraising campaign. Perhaps the university could contribute as well.

Jeffrey Andrasovsky, Lakewood, Kent State graduate

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Letters to the editor: LaRose’s dishonesty, paranoid gun owners