Letters to the Editor: Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024

Traffic signal reconstruction at the intersection of Spring Valley Pike and South Main Street near downtown Centerville in 2022. JIM NOELKER/STAFF

Credit: JIM NOELKER

Credit: JIM NOELKER

Traffic signal reconstruction at the intersection of Spring Valley Pike and South Main Street near downtown Centerville in 2022. JIM NOELKER/STAFF

Wouldn’t treating drivers on the road as nicely as you greet visitors in your home be a noble goal? Aren’t we all valuable neighbors in the community? Stress-free driving involves setting cruise control for the speed limit and staying one or two car lengths behind the car in front. If you can’t see the tires on the vehicle ahead at the traffic light, you’re probably too close. It’s become unsafe for drivers who have the right of way traveling north at Dunkin Donuts at the corner of Route 48 and Spring Valley Pike in Centerville. Reckless drivers are creating a made-up lane from the Route 48 exit and cutting straight across three lanes of heavy traffic to reach the left turn lane illegally. Even worse, when the light turns green, drivers are caught sitting perpendicular across two lanes of traffic, trying to turn left (south), causing traffic to come to a screeching halt. Ohio Revised Code allows drivers to turn into the closest lane. Drivers can only change lanes if they have signaled their intention to move right or left during not less than the last one hundred feet traveled. Let’s be good driving neighbors.

- Deborah Mulholand, Centerville

In regard to Gregory Weber’s column on euthanasia, no one has proposed that everyone with a terminal disease be forcibly euthanized. People suffering from terminal diseases most certainly have a right to make their own personal decisions when it comes to treatment and the end of their own life. The key words here are their own life, Mr. Weber. It is their choice as an individual and between them and their God if they believe in one, no one else. There is no comparison between a depressed, otherwise healthy veteran where there is a possibility of recovery or treatment and someone dying of a fatal disease, for instance, Lewy Body Dementia or cancer. If your personal religious beliefs dictate suffering as a redemptive act of love, than by all means follow your beliefs. By saying “we don’t have the right to do wrong” you are not involved in other people’s end of life decisions nor should you be. We do not live in a theocracy.

- Mary Utz, Dayton

In his Aug. 18 column, Ray Marcano writes about the residents of Centerville and Bellbrook fighting a proposed apartment development. These residents recognize that not everyone is as financially comfortable as they are and those less fortunate must live in apartments (or homeless shelters or on the streets). Centerville and Bellbrook residents have no objection to apartments or the people who live in them. They just don’t want them in their neighborhood.

- Vic Presutti, Beavercreek