Letters to the Editor: Pscholka-Gartner, Lucas bond issue, Constitution, DeWine

Pscholka-Gartner has the experience to be the next Domestic Relations Court judge

When I was hired for my first job at the age of 16, I learned what I needed to know through on-the-job training, more commonly known as OJT. Under the careful instruction and watchful eye of an older, experienced coworker, I soon acquired the skills necessary to be a vital part of the team. No doubt many readers underwent OJT in their jobs as well

Although OJT can be an accepted means by which to learn a job, one place where OJT is most certainly not valid is on the bench of the Domestic Relations Court. Richland County cannot afford to have a judge in that court who is without judicial experience. Because Richland County’s men, women, and especially its children deserve a judge who is competent from day one, I support and have early-voted for Kirsten Pscholka-Gartner to be our next Domestic Relations Court judge.

Kirsten Pscholka-Gartner is currently the court’s chief magistrate and has 11 years of proven judicial experience. Prior to that public service, she was an assistant prosecutor with six years of appellate, juvenile and civil litigation experience. Kirsten will need no tutoring or OJT once she becomes judge. She already knows the position inside and out.

Born in Mansfield and graduated from Lexington High School, Kirsten is a lifelong Richland County resident. She has a vision to deliver fair, family-focused results. I have no doubt that she will follow the law and the Constitution with timely, thorough decisions.

Experience matters, and it matters greatly. That’s why Richland County voters should cast their ballots for Kirsten Pscholka-Gartner for Domestic Relations Court judge.

Garland Gates, Shelby

Support for Lucas School bond issue

Lucas needs a new school. Vote for it! Invest in your kids!

I started my school as a preschool student in the basement of the Foursquare Gospel church and graduated 1990 from Lucas. I played sports. I was in the band. I was in academic challenge. My family gave for the school in any way we could. My wife student-taught at Lucas as well. My kids attended there for a time until we moved with the Army. I’m now a licensed professional engineer who works directly for the Army.

My job as public works director is to maintain over 740 buildings for Fort Carson, Colorado. I’ve read the full condition assessments for the Lucas school. I read every page. I’ve seen the pictures. They tell a tale of a building that’s unsafe to occupy, outdated and just plain done. We all drive used cars; mine are currently 245k, 180k miles. I love these trucks, proud of keeping them on the road, but I know there is a time when they are just tired. Done. The high school building for sure is there.

No, I don’t pay taxes in the Lucas district. I pay taxes in another district for other kids, and I support them just as much. I serve the Army as does my son and my dad, and I recognize that there are times we need to put our own comfort and needs aside and do what’s best for our community, our country and most importantly our kids.

Vote for a new school! Support kids the same way we support sports, with our best efforts and wallets.

Joe Wyka, Woodland Park, CO

The 'redding' of the West

Rupert Murdock (with plenty of help) has managed to convince working class folks in the Western countries that they are conservatives. When I was a child (I am 74), all the working class laborers knew where their bread was buttered. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, known as “a traitor to his class,” had delivered power back to the people and workers realized a wealth that changed the world in an unimaginably democratic fashion. People who starved as kids in the '30s became the owners of planes and boats and fine houses in the suburbs. The situation is still the same as it was back then in the crash of the world's economies.

To be conservative means wanting the power of the corporations over the people to remain the case. Capitalism, the greatest wealth producing system in the world, is in constant need of supervision by a strong national government to keep the wealth getting spread to everyone contributing to the system. If the working class is rewarded, the happiness echoes throughout the population generally. For those who find making billions not enough, there is the desire to short the less aware and, consequently, even the more aware who don't have the power of those on top who are unscrupulous. I am not talking about Bill Gates or Warren Buffet. This gets accomplished by convincing the working class that their adversaries are other segments of the working class — whites vs. non-whites; Christians vs. non-Christians for example.

We are set up by our Constitution to ward off the power plays by the one-person, one-vote system, but the evolution of mass media has made developing group consciousness a much easier task for the unscrupulous. How do we solve this dilemma? I am trying with this. We all need to get more involved!

Dave Dewiel, Mansfield

Reasons why DeWine needs to go

Ten days. That’s how long it took Gov. Mike DeWine to implement one of the most extremist anti-abortion-rights laws in the country after the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision. So extreme that a 10-year-old victim of rape had to leave the state to get an abortion. So extreme that it prohibits abortions after six weeks before most women even know they are pregnant. He obviously has no compunction about taking away a woman’s control over her own living, breathing body.

He has refused, again and again, to implement the Ohio Constitutional Amendment voted in by the citizens of Ohio to correct the corrupt gerrymandering in our state which ensures that the party in power stays in power. He has ignored orders from the Ohio Supreme Court to do this. He has taken no stand on the fact that his son sits on the court and that his son refuses to recuse himself from arguments on the case, creating a clear and present appearance of an impropriety and an even clearer conflict of interest.

All indications demonstrate that he remains unconcerned about the FirstEnergy scandal that has made Ohio “the most corrupt state in the country.” This involved a $60 million bribe from FirstEnergy in exchange for a $1.3 billion bailout for their nuclear power operation — reportedly to be paid for by taxpayers.

Despite increasing numbers of random shootings, DeWine signed into law SB 215, more familiarly known as “permitless concealed carry.” This law dumps the previous requirement of eight hours of firearm training and also dumps the requirement that an individual is required to report to an encountered law enforcement officer that he is carrying a gun. The burden has shifted to the officer to ask.

Billie Brandon, Mansfield

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Support for Kirsten Pscholka-Gartner, Lucas School bond issue