Letters: Some thoughts on Congress, primary elections
Our news seems to be a large part political, which brings to mind a couple of thoughts. First, why do our elected officials get paid by the federal government rather than the states that sent them to Washington? Our tax dollars go to pay people that we had no voice in electing.
I am referring to members of both parties who don't understand what retirement is and who have a problem with both physical as well as mental issues. If Kentucky wants to send a man to Congress that has the "deer in the headlights" look during a news conference, let them pay his salary. If California wants to send a woman to Congress who is absent for three months, let them pay her salary. Too many elected officials seem to be there because they want to collect a salary most of their constituents only dream of, and to make a name for themselves rather than to humbly serve our country.My next thought is about primary elections. All states have the presidential elections on the same day. Why don't all states hold presidential primaries on the same day? If all states held primaries on the same day, perhaps Indiana voters might feel that they actually had a voice, rather than seeing the party over before we get there.
Richard Hopkins
Winamac
'The elephant in the womb'
The many articles and opinions The Tribune publishes in favor of a woman's right to choose abortion sadden me. While I honor women and want what is best for them, the one person left out of these articles and opinions is what we might call "the elephant in the womb:" the tiny baby. Too small to be much noticed at first, yet each one a unique human being with its own life to live. That person deserves our respect and nurturing, not our destruction! Please widen your view to include the precious child.
John Boughton
South Bend
Democracy is messy
I have read "This Book is Gay." I stayed till the end of the library meeting. I spoke to the divergence between porn filters and putting books in different sections of the library. Don Wycliff’s Viewpoint, “I showed up for a discussion about book banning. I found something else" ( Sept. 6), begs for civility for its own sake. This legitimizing is more dangerous than just minor disputes over library books.
Moral panics — Puritan witch hunts or fear of “Muslim terrorists” — are constructed hysteria. We are currently living through a moral panic. Where queer representation is equated to pedophilia. The St. Joseph County Public Library exemplified this moral panic. One attendee raised a book with an illustration of a vagina. A "psychologist" told the tragic story of a 14-year-old girl who was assaulted, connecting it to books about LGBTQ families.
Democracy is messy; there can and should be anger. It’s deciding between whether my aging grandparents get medical care or my neighbor's children get reading support in their schools. Fixing every whim of moral panics distracts us from the issues that are truly at stake in the city: a growing mental health crisis, rising gun violence and homelessness. Pursuing civility merely for its sake detours us to a worse-off path.
Dane Sherman
Notre Dame
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Letter writers on Congress, abortion, democracy
