Letters to the Editor: May 13, 2023

At the recent Holocaust Commemoration, Governor DeWine stated that “teaching future generations about the tragedy of the Holocaust is our duty.” It is duplicitous that Governor DeWine made this statement at a time when his party is working tirelessly to pass Senate Bill 83/House Bill 151, with the intention of obliterating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion education, which often focuses on events like the Holocaust. In fact, Senate President Matt Huffman submitted a video for the Holocaust Commemoration a mere week after saying the anti-DEI SB83 “needs to happen.”

SB83/HB151 bans “specified ideology” that “classifies individuals within identity groups.” Is the expectation that we teach about the Holocaust without mentioning the “identity group” it targeted for annihilation? Further, SB83/HB151 mandates that institutions do “not seek to inculcate any social, political, or religious point of view.” Are we to teach about the Holocaust without condemning it? SB83/HB151 claims to target “controversial belief or policy.” By whose designation? Holocaust Denial is currently on the rise. Does the “intellectual diversity” SB83/HB151 claims to safeguard include protecting Holocaust Deniers in higher education?

It is treacherous hypocrisy to invoke the importance of teaching about genocide while simultaneously working to sensor educators’ ability to teach the realities of history. Anyone who supports SB83/HB151 has no interest in maintaining the integrity of education for future generations. Contact your legislators now and let them know shutting down DEI education is unacceptable and dangerous.

- Kathleen Gish, Dayton

While it is wonderful to contemplate a new mental health facility for kids (with COVID being stated as the cause of so much depression and stress), we might also contemplate the depression and stress caused by school shootings, the atmosphere of hate in our society, the incessant, perpetuated poverty. And then we might reflect on past years when Republican legislators chopped out funding for mental health facilities and shut down many, and who now refuse to enact effective gun control legislation. I find the pious hypocrisy more than annoying, mostly tragic.

- Gloria Doan, Centerville

Bait and switch. The oldest con game in the world. The Ohio General Assembly has just done it to Ohio voters again. The bait is the 60% passage rate for Reproductive Freedom Amendment. The switch is the part about needing signatures from all 88 counties for future citizen-initiated proposals to even get on the ballot. This will allow one county to “;filibuster” the rest of the state and prevent any “checks and balances” to the gerrymandered General Assembly. It won’t even take $60 million in bribes like it did for HB 6 in 2019. What the General Assembly is really worried about is not the Reproductive Freedom Amendment; it’s an amendment requiring a truly non-partisan Redistricting Commission. Even though over 70% of Ohio voted to end gerrymandering with the current commission they can just continue to ignore the Ohio Supreme Court as they did last summer. The critical election is the one in August.

- Margaret Branstrator, Oxford