Letters: Indiana needs to do away with sales tax on used items
I thank God every day that I live in the United States of America. And, being a Christian, Indiana is a good conservative state for people like me.
I do have a complaint and that is that we have a sales tax on used items. That is excessive taxing and it is wrong. I don't remember being asked what I thought about this issue, and I don't remember voting on it.
What we need is a champion. We need a legislator to stand up and do something about getting this tax removed. They could be a Republican or a Democrat. How about it?
Jeff Stine
Kokomo
We can stop tuberculosis infections
The halting stop of the status quo produced by the COVID-19 pandemic serves as a reminder of the undeniable power that infectious diseases can hold over populations. We saw how quickly a disease went from a national to an international problem, but now we have the opportunity to stop the next pandemic before it gains the chance to become a public health crisis, a national security threat or endangers the stability of the global economy.
Approximately one-quarter of the global population is dealing with tuberculosis (TB). Despite it being preventable, treatable and curable, TB currently stands as the second deadliest infectious disease, only after COVID-19, resulting in 1.6 million deaths this past year, according to The Borgen Project, a nonprofit focused on tackling global poverty.
Thankfully a solution is right in front of us. The End Tuberculosis Now Act, a bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey, and Todd Young, R-Indiana, in February, aims to utilize the unique position of the United States as the global hegemon to emphasize the importance of providing resources to diagnose, prevent and treat TB. If passed, this legislation will increase assistance to the Stop TB Partnership and the World Health Organization’s END TB Strategy.
Casey Collins
Carmel
Let's be clear: Hate and bigotry don't belong in Indiana
The Hamilton County chapter of Moms for Liberty quoted Adolf Hitler in their inaugural newsletter. The original pages of the newsletter had a quote that Hitler used in a Nazi rally in 1935: “He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.”
No group that quotes Nazis should have any influence in our community. Six million Jews lost their lives because of Hitler’s rhetoric and ideals. Now we have a local group infusing those sentiments back into our community.
As members of the Jewish faith, we are outraged by the actions of Moms for Liberty. Chapters have also aligned themselves with extremist groups like the Proud Boys and have advocated for the removal of education curriculums of sex education, LGBTQ+ issues, mentions of systemic racism, discrimination and “critical race theory.” Quoting Hitler, censoring Anne Frank books and targeting the LGBTQ+ community shows us who Moms for Liberty really is — an extremist hate group.
The actions of the local chapter of Moms for Liberty should be yet another wake-up call to us and serve as a road map in which community leaders, elected officials, parents and caregivers speak up and act. We won’t stand for hate and bigotry.
Robert Goodman
Zionsville
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyStar Letters to the Editor
