Letters: Don't make Ohio a Humpty Dumpty. No on Issue 1 will protect children who have been failed.
Keeping simple majority will help protect children
My heart goes out to the July 26 letter-writer "Protect parents' rights" who is concerned that one person’s vote could deprive parents of their rights in regard to minor children’s medical decisions.
To her I say: I know that sounds frightening, but please look closer.
There is already one and only one person who can exclude parents from such decisions, and that is the child themselves.
Letters: Rep. Bob Young was way more than 'inappropriate. Is Issue 1 about power or parents?
Parenting is hard. And it is so much harder when a child does not conform to the thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors that we expect from them.
If our child excludes us from important life decisions of any kind, it is likely because we have failed to parent with understanding, courage, and unconditional love. If we have failed to give our child what they need and they are too frightened to even discuss their problems with us, then it will not be a law that has deprived us of inclusion, but our own parenting failures.
Thomas Suddes: Think Ohio lawmakers are out of control now, they'll have near-monopoly if Issue 1 passes
One person’s ballot in this matter is mostly inconsequential. But a simple democratic majority will continue to preserve the self-governance that our society needs to care for any of our children who have been failed by us as parents.
Martha Sanders, Columbus
Save Ohio from Humpty Dumpty's fate
Remember when Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, and all the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again?
More: House minority leader: Issue 1 about 'drunk on power' liars and their well-documented deceit
Well, Ohioans take note if you value having a voice and vote in how you live your life.
Protect majority rule by showing up between now and August 8, to vote "no" on Issue 1. Just like with Humpty Dumpty, democracy could take a great fall and none of us will be able to put it back together again.
Susan B. West, Athens
We don't need another outerbelt
An open letter to the New Albany Co., the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Council, and all planners and builders in central Ohio: Please, please, please, stop building more twentieth-century suburbs in the twenty-first century.
More: The start of a second outerbelt? Planners eye bypass around Johnstown to connect 70 and 71
We need walkable neighborhoods with affordable housing at all income levels, services, groceries, restaurants, and links to mass transit so that households are not required to own automobiles.
Any "second outerbelt" should only be built in conjunction with new mass transit allowing people to travel without individual cars. I ask you to think, dream, plan, and build a new future for our community.
Larry Trover, Columbus
Check your polling location
To all who want to vote in the August 8 special election, please check your polling place location through the Franklin County Board of Elections.
More: More than 66,000 Franklin County voters will need to go to different polls for special election
I did and was surprised to learn that ours had changed for the first time in 30 years. We have received no official notification of this change whatsoever so it's up to the individual voter to confirm the location. The August vote is turning out to be special in more ways than one.
Lynda McClanahan, Columbus
More: How to submit a letter to the editor for The Columbus Dispatch
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Voting 'no' on Issue 1 will protect not harm Ohio children
