Letters: Cheers on election bipartisanship. Jeers for corrupt open records changes.

Best of bipartisanship

Thanks to Gov. Andy Beshear and Secretary of State Michael Adams for coming together again for Kentucky voters with the signing of the future election voting bill. I appreciate their working with each other for Kentucky voters instead of against someone just because he is of the other political party. The respectful way this bill was negotiated is indeed a model for the country.

Linda Penn, Richmond

Legislators ‘corrupt’

For several years in the 1960s and 1970s, we lived and worked in Middle East and North African countries. As Westerners, we were sometimes privately critical of corrupt local government officials. We were also often a bit smug, believing that we were from an essentially corruption-free country. We have recently been searching for a word to describe elected Kentucky lawmakers who have passed a law exempting themselves from the commonwealth’s open records law. We have found it. Corrupt.

Carole and Douglas Boyd, Lexington

Cal had orders

I have been disappointed to see all the negative hoopla that the media keeps trying to create between the Kentucky fans, Coach John Calipari and the University of Kentucky men’s basketball players. We have to remember that Calipari was doing exactly what Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart wanted. And this highly paid, money producing (not fan friendly) athletics director was apparently doing exactly what UK President Eli Capilouto wanted him to do. Build a gold chest.

I have not watched pro basketball since the days of the Kentucky Colonels and Dan Issel. So it is no surprise that one and done was not my forte. Neither did I agree with Cal’s constant reminder that he was here “to further those individuals’ careers.” In my humble opinion a coach is there to work for the necessary values to create pride for our state university in all the students, players, and citizens of the commonwealth of Kentucky.

It is those former players that thrill you to come into contact with them walking down a street in Lexington; former players who are still investing in our state and will forever be part of our memories. I can hardly name those from the Cal years. I do know that some of them have been very successful. I just wonder if they ever think about Kentucky?

Cal is a good coach, the players did their best and I was proud of their effort. However, they came here with dollars in their eyes (through no fault of their own) assuming it would just happen.

C. M. Hancock, Frankfort

False equivalency

I find it unfortunate that Herald-Leader contributing columnist Paul Prather, in his recent column about declining church membership, chose to engage in both-sidesism by equating “liberal churches” with white evangelical churches that parrot increasingly repressive and discriminatory Republican Party talking points. How awful that these “liberal churches” get so caught up in “social do-goodism” and community action — gee, for the life of me, I cannot think of a major Christian figure in history who would have ever done such polarizing things!

Aaron Kruse-Diehr, Lexington

McConnell puzzling

I was mystified by Sen. Mitch McConnell’s argument that users of infrastructure, but not corporations, should pay for infrastructure improvement. The last time I looked, manufacturing corporations received their raw materials and delivered their finished products by road, sea, rail, and/or air. Financial corporations and light industries conducted much of their business by the internet. People who purchased from the corporations used roads to buy in person or internet connections to buy online. Employees, whether working in person or remotely, used infrastructure to do their jobs. If Senator McConnell can identify a single corporation that uses no infrastructure, I’d be glad to excuse that corporation from paying for upgrades. But to suggest that corporations don’t use infrastructure is disingenuous, to say the least. Our former secretary of transportation could perhaps bring her husband up to speed on businesses and transportation.

Meg Upchurch, Lexington

Plan dishonest

There are two sides to the debate concerning the administration’s proposed $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan. One side is deceptive and the other is valid.

On the deceptive side, the bill aims a mere 5% ($1.1 billion) of the money to what most of us view as infrastructure – roads and bridges. The rest does lots of things that don’t make the headlines but seem to deserve a mention: opens the door to increased federal control of schools ($100 billion), local water lines ($100 billion) and pedestrian safety ($20billion); sends large sums to transit and Amtrak ($165 billion); includes subsidies for electric vehicles, and the most deceptive of all – Medicaid and new social benefit programs, as well as big dollars from a historical tax increase on all of us given to favored industries such as the Green New Deal.

The free-market economy makes jobs and money, the federal government consumes money and builds bureaucracies without accountability. The track record of the federal government acting as a venture capitalist is dismal – OUR good money following bad just as lemmings march to the sea.

If you trust this administration to be honest with you, look deeper and hold onto your wallet.

Tom O’Connor, Lexington

Rights and obligations

Of course President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan ruffles the feathers of Sens.Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul. So many of the companies in America that currently pay little or zero income taxes (and have been for quite a while) contribute heavily to each of our senator’s political action committee funds. Those contributors want to stop President Biden from rebuilding our rundown and faltering roads, bridges, ports, airports, drinking water systems, electrical grid, schools, hospitals, and federal buildings along with securing supply chains and investing in future oriented research and development because President Biden wants these very same corporate spongers to realistically contribute to the future of America. The freeloaders are putting the full court press on McConnell and Paul to “just say no,” and McConnell and Paul are very happy to oblige to stand in the way of much needed repair and progress. Kentucky’s senators owe the slackers big-time. Indeed, we all have a right to enjoy the benefits of American democracy; however, we all have an obligation to pay our fair share for those rights. We need to support Lady Liberty rather than sheepishly hide behind her skirt.

Gene Lockhart, Lexington

Repay student loans

Why does President Joe Biden wish to use our taxpayer dollars to reward those who owe student loans a total “forgiveness” of their debt? Let’s get back to basics: a borrower promised to pay back a certain amount of money in a given time. A legal contract. Should Mr. Biden’s wish come true, his action will nullify the contract. A few questions I would like to see answered: First, how will this action affect future student loans? Will they also be forgiven? Second, to ensure fairness, will he return the monies obtained in previous loans to the former students? Third, what kind of message does this send to the common taxpayer who always repays their loans, of any type? Many students, myself included, worked our way through college and lived a meager lifestyle. For the government to forgive these loans is not only an unsound decision, but typical of the current administration and decisions which show little thought to the future. This decision, like the border crisis, is typical of a president who is being led by a bunch of hedonistic, unprincipled surrogates. Seemingly, the only reason these actions are being taken is to ensure a one-party system of government.

Darrell Cook, Richmond

Leave Afghanistan

When President George W. Bush ordered the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan nearly two decades ago, he said, “The oppressed people of Afghanistan will know the generosity of America and our allies.”

Since then, over 50,000 bombs have been dropped on this small country. Over 100,000 Afghans have died. Millions more have been injured, many permanently disabled. At least 26,000 children are dead or maimed.

Every president since Bush has promised peace, yet they have continued to drop thousands of bombs, deploy more troops, and kill more Afghan men, women and children. Thousands of U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan and six U.S. bases occupy the Afghan people’s land.

U.S. foreign policy has been beholden to Wall Street and Western corporations.

President Joe Biden promised an end to the “forever wars” during his campaign. The peace deal signed by the previous administration with the Taliban, calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021, is an important first step. People in the United States need to demand Biden hold to this agreement. The people must demand an end to the U.S. government’s wars on oppressed people in Afghanistan and around the world.

Kevin Thomas, Lexington

Solar option

The Frankfort Plant Board has a win-win opportunity before it: A proposal developed by Apogee Climate and Energy Transitions would build a solar facility to serve Frankfort schools and government buildings, cutting annual energy costs in half, and saving taxpayers over a million dollars annually. Further benefits include economic development, and reduced emissions linked to climate and health costs, e.g., the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that replacing fossil fuels with the amount of solar proposed would save $500,000 to $1.2 million dollars annually in health care costs.

Most schools and local governments in Kentucky have limited access to solar energy because of restrictions that protect monopoly, investor-owned utilities. Municipal utilities do not have these restrictions: they are free to allow third party ownership of solar panels through power purchase agreements, and allow virtual net metering that distributes credit for energy fed to the grid among multiple users of one installation.

The Frankfort Plant Board can be a model for the rest of the state in clean, healthy, and economic energy planning. Contact the board at https://fpb.cc/customersupport/ telling them you support this plan. They should seize the day!

Catherine Clement, Lexington

Grateful to VA

I am a transplant from South Mississippi. Because of the superb treatment that I have received from the Lexington police and fire departments and due to the level of expertise of the personnel at the VA Medical Center here, I have decided to make Lexington my lifelong residence. These are some VA personnel I would like to single out for special recognition: Doug Wachs who is my employment advisor, my psychiatrist Dr. Courtney Markham-Abedi, my psychologist Dr. Chris Kidder, my psychiatric nurse William Lowe, and my social workers, plus all of the great doctors and support staff.

I would also like to single out Bill Klingenberg, a member of the VA peer support team who stepped in to give support when I very much needed it.

I don’t consider myself to be a hero. I just did what my dad told me to do when I was nine years old. My dad, who was a Marine, told me and my twin brother he wanted us in the military when we turned 18. The above mentioned people are the true heroes.

U.S. Army SPC. Jerry A. Windham, Lexington