- Sister Jeanette Buehler, CPPS, Coordinator, Community Homicide Prayer Vigils
Our elected officials swear to represent the majority of their constituents defined as “all the residents in an electoral district.” I respect an elected official’s personal stance on an issue, but am more interested in the stance of their constituents and whether or not the elected official is truly voting per the wishes of the majority of their electoral district. We could reduce a lot of the divisiveness in this country by having elected officials back up their for/against votes by adding a simple statement quoting that the majority (51%+) of their total constituents support his/her vote. I, for one, will quit griping if you are truly representing your majority. When the Ohio Governor and my Congressman made personal statements about being anti-abortion, I researched how Ohioans felt. I found that:
- About 61% of Ohio voters agree with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision [gives individual states the power to set their own abortion laws without concern of running afoul of Roe, which had permitted abortions during the first two trimesters of pregnancy], while 32% are against it.
- However, 62% of Ohio voters are against and 39% for the Ohio Heartbeat bill, a recently passed law that bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected [6 weeks], according to a Quinnipiac University poll released July 29, 2022.
So, can you, our Ohio elected officials, please go back and do research among the constituents of your districts to better represent the majority?
- Robin Cox, Anderson Township
Not one month since sports betting was legalized in Ohio and the greedy money trolls are threatening UD basketball players because the bettors lost money on a UD game. Way to go Mike DeWine and the Republican majority led Ohio statehouse... you bowed to out-of-state gambling barons and threw Ohio in the sports betting arena with the lions. College sport was never meant to be a casino game of chance. I lived in Las Vegas for 20 years. Gambling destroys everyone involved financially, ethically, and morally.
- John Barlow, Dayton
I have participated in many advocacy groups over the last three years related to home care funding and the same message about there being no money in the budget or state funds to increase home care wages, yet then I read the article about Ohio’s Rainy Day Fund and I think about the thousands of people across Ohio people with disabilities who cannot access authorized home care and I think about my own struggles while living in Riverside and the lack of ability to recruit workers due to low wages and other systemic failures to the home care system. I think about the two hundred day back up plan I was on in 2021. January is human trafficking awareness month. To raise a little awareness about the care crisis, I want to say that the care crisis is so bad in Ohio that people with disabilities have been affected by human trafficking as a result of a lack of investment in home care wages. I was told to look on Craigslist for caregivers after waiting 17 months to contract one home care worker and an inability to find anyone to work for so little wages I became a victim of human trafficking. It infuriates me knowing we have all this money in our rainy day fund but we have ignored the care crisis and put people in harms way. It is time Ohio legislators and our Governor invest in a home care workforce and utilize some of the rainy day funds to increase home care wages.
- Alicia Hopkins, Columbus
A limerick for you:
We finally have a new speaker,
The old one was a long streaker.
Red or blue,
He is way overdue
In the causus view.
- George Brack, Dayton