Letters: Columbus area bridge 'looks scary.' Time to speak against anti-LGBTQ rhetoric
Our silence, their hate
We do not yet know the motive behind the murder of five people at the LGBTQ nightclub, Club Q, in Colorado over the weekend.
We do not yet know why the suspect walked into the bar and opened fire right before Transgender Day of Remembrance.
More:Columbus Transgender Day of Remembrance to honor lives taken in anti-trans violence
But we do know the inflammatory words so many Republicans and their supporters shout out. We do know that legislators across the country have filed a record number of anti-LGBTQ bills this year.
We do know that right wing groups like Moms for Liberty are working overtime to silence and erase the words and experiences of LGBTQ people.
We do know that governors like Florida's Ron DeSantis are bullying trans children. And we know that our silence encourages these actions. It is past time to speak out.
Mark Hiser, Dublin
'That bridge looks a bit scary'
Have a close look at the excellent photograph on the Nov. 20 Metro cover captioned "The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission is sticking to its forecast of 3 million central Ohioans by 2050, in part because of the relatively easy commutes" by Courtney Hergesheimer.
Pay special attention to the condition of the highway bridge shown there.
More:What is the best time to leave for work in central Ohio?
Road salt has almost completely rusted through the lower flange of that support I-beam, and there is a fascinating network of cracks through that concrete pillar.
Bridge and building inspectors have likely issued their reports on this and all our other old bridges, and I thank them for saving our lives every day.
But that bridge looks a bit scary, and the only solution will be to spend more money than we have to repair/replace this and the dozens of others in similar shape.
Mark Kinsler, Lancaster
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Age is just a number
"If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you" go the opening lines of the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling. It describes President Joe Biden as he reached his 80th birthday.
I must honestly admit I was one of those concerned about Biden running for a second term, but he is the right man at the right time.
Syd Lifshin, Columbus
Will payment just go to 'tyrants, thugs, and outright thieves?'
The Nov. 20 AP article "Talks yield deal on disaster fund" reported that delegates to the Sharm El Sheikh Climate Conference tentatively approved a motion for wealthy capitalist nations — primarily, I suppose, the U.S. and western Europe — to pay "loss and damage" claims from other nations around the world allegedly harmed by the wealthy nations' profligate use of fossil fuels to gain their lofty economic spoils in the first place, over nations that have not much contributed to the global excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The contributions of wealthy nations to the alleged carbon dioxide excess may or may not be capable of reasonable estimation, but that's another discussion.
What I find wrong with this possible agreement is that too many of the nations asking for such reparations are governed and controlled by tyrants, thugs, and outright thieves.
I foresee the reality of these payments inflating the Swiss bank accounts of those people, rather than being used to mitigate the alleged climate harms.
If this dubious proposal ever becomes reality, I suggest that any disbursements for mitigating projects be directly controlled and managed by the donor nations, with appropriate other safeguards and stringent auditing.
Mike Howard, Westerville
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Letters: Will 'tyrants, thugs, and thieves' benefit from climate deal?
