The November election reminded me how difficult it is to find information about candidates for offices like school boards, township trustees, etc. Ballot proofs from the county Board of Elections and yard signs may be all there is.
Seems to me the Board of Elections could play a larger role in informing the electorate. Such as, requiring intra county candidates to record a short video, 15 or 30 seconds, to be available on the BoE’s website. Restrictions could prevent the video from being a campaign advertisement. The video recorded at the BoE’s office, shoulders and head, in a booth, no hats or caps, no visible messages. The candidate must state full name, the office they are running for, a description of the responsibilities and authorities of the office. The candidate can provide a web address or email address or phone number to be superimposed on the bottom of the video.
I, and I think many, would greatly appreciate something like this to help decide who to vote for or whether to vote on a given office.
- Steward D Ross, South Charleston
Miami University Professor Allan Winkler wrote an article that was published in the Oxford Free Press on Dec. 12, in which he points out some important facts about the fate of the humanities in the United States. He reminds us that the National Endowment for the Humanities, created in 1965, is no longer supported by the current government. This policy promises to have negative effects on society, instead of keeping alive those studies that make us human.
We live in a confusing world that can be attributed in part to a weak spot in our education system. That weakness concerns the gradual disappearance of humanities studies, of which history is one of the main components. This trend has gone on for several decades. Educational institutions have tended to adopt the policy of bowing to social pressure, whatever that pressure is at a given moment.
Currently, the popular view among some educational leaders is that students want course offerings in business and the sciences. As those areas of study demand more attention and attract more students, the humanities gradually fade into the background. The unsuspecting student is the loser in this case, being deprived of studies that relate to our status as human beings. Of course, schools of learning must include training for the twenty-first century. But it seems futile to pass up learning who we are, which is what humanities studies are all about. We should defend the studies that lead us to true humanity.
- Dr. Jerome Stanley, Oxford
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
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