Letters to the Editor: Our children have nothing to lose by wearing masks in schools

For the kids

Wearing masks isn’t about government control, and holding on to this position won’t get our community anywhere.

This message is a plea to my fellow Lexingtonians to respect the reasonable recommendations made by people far more educated and who have access to more data than most of us because, like many of you, I want to return to whatever level of “normalcy” still exists.

My children have nothing to lose by wearing a mask in school. It’s not a covert mind control device, and it hasn’t changed who they are. If anything, virtual learning had more negative consequences on my kids than masks ever have. Yet, without some intervention, we’re staring at a return to virtual learning, and I’m vehemently opposed to that — more so than I’ll ever be about masks. And if we want to “let them learn,” then virtual learning isn’t the route to go.

The fearmongering, though, it’s enough. It hasn’t changed minds, and it’s not going to. So whether you’re for requiring students to wear masks or not, let’s stop contributing to the problem and start becoming a part of the solution. Otherwise, we’re going to be having these same conversations every fall for the foreseeable future.

Alex Dixon, Lexington

Pick up phone

Nothin’ much to do now that you feel you have to stay home again to keep yourself safe from the aggressive Delta variant running rampant? Wanna to make a difference? Call your hospital and tell them you are choosing which hospital you’re going to have your knee replacement at and you want to know if they can guarantee that your nurses will be vaccinated. Call your barber shop and tell them you want to get your hair cut only by a vaccinated barber. Call a restaurant and tell them you want to KNOW your waiter or waitress has been vaccinated.

Yes, these businesses’ employees have the “right” to refuse vaccination, but you have a right to decide where you’re going to spend your money. If these places are willing to go no further than, “Well, we strongly recommend to our employees blah blah ..,”then say thanks but you will find another place. That is YOUR right.

The data is beyond clear: Vaccines save lives and greatly reduce the spread of the virus, and the risks associated with the vaccine are minuscule compared to the risks of getting an infection. Now we have “breakthrough” infections being spread to vaccinated people primarily by the unvaccinated. Do what you can to help us all.

Dr. John Clark, Keene

No masks

I refuse to return to wearing a mask after being vaccinated. If our governor wants to stop the spread and new mutations of the COVID virus he needs to make the unvaccinated bear the burden. The best thing he could do is require state employees and visitors to government offices to provide proof of vaccination. Instead he is going to punish those who have done the correct and prudent thing to protect us and end this pandemic!

William Riffe, Lancaster

Help needed

As the COVID rent moratorium comes to an end, I would encourage those of us who have plenty to give generously to the Catholic Action Center at www.catholicactioncenter.net for their work to help those in need either stay in their homes or move safely to other accommodations. Let’s show what compassionate people we are.

Cindy Frase, Lexington

Plan and protect

Expanding development boundaries to make room for growth could be a slippery slope for Fayette County (“Matrix would use data to help decide if Lexington needs to move development boundary” July 22 Herald-Leader). If we allow sprawl to eat up more green space for more homes, how soon until another expansion is needed?

Endless growth — whether for housing, the economy or global population — is problematic. It feeds an extractive, unjust system that often leaves behind the most marginalized communities. Instead of pushing the boundaries, we should invest in using existing space within the city in more efficient, equitable ways.

I applaud those working to make truly sustainable growth policies a reality. Let’s make sure we plan for a future that protects people and the environment so that Fayette County will continue to be a wonderful place to call home.

Kelley Dennings, Lexington

Individuals key

I read recently something that intrigued me: A country’s future could be measured by the honesty of its police force. An interesting thought, but it, like most comments about law enforcement, is aimed at the wrong target. How about this? The honesty of a police force is a measure of the elected officials who have either direct or indirect control over them. Direct control would be the mayors and individual council members who are responsible for hiring, firing, and disciplining, and for approving budgets, policies, union contracts, and such. Indirect control would be the magistrates who approve the budgets for elected sheriffs, and who could, at a minimum, voice disapproval.

It is individuals who make decisions to allow unprofessional law enforcement behavior. An individual may tell you there is a contract or policy which “ties their hands”, but how did that contract or policy come about? It may have come into place before their time, but what are they doing to reverse or modify it?

Individual elected officials make decisions to allow poor behavior, to try to change it (too few do), or most likely, to do nothing. Decisions collectively, on the local, state, and national level, may be one key measure of our country’s future.

Ben Patton, Berea

Rarely used

A recent letter to the editor stated that Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government should stop handcuffing the police in LFUCG’s ban on “no knock warrants”. Per the chief of police “no knock warrants” have been used four times in the last five years.

I wonder if anyone is really handcuffed if they’re deprived of doing something one day out of the 365 days in a year. Let alone once every 456 days represented by the four times in five years stated by the chief of police.

Depriving the police of something they use to assist in law enforcement on a daily/weekly basis would be more consistent with handcuffing the police!

Joe Crouch, Lexington

Dress code

The Norwegian Women’s Beach Handball Team is facing fines for wanting to wear shorts instead of bikini bottoms. The bottoms are not to cover more than “10 centimeters on any sides.” The men’s team wears shorts. The sexualization of female athletes must stop.

Paul Bacon, Hallandale Beach, Florida

Happily surprised

When I opened the Opinion page of the Herald-Leader recently I feared that I picked up the wrong periodical. However, I was pleased. Jay Ambrose’s “Biden confused about Civil War, voting and more” was the honest and conservative type of article that is rarely permitted by the publication. Then, much to my surprise, Joel Pett’s cartoon was balanced in the criticism of the divide in our nation. If the Herald-Leader wants to increase sales and circulation, attempt to provide more balanced opinion coverage such as was done in that paper.

Darrell Cook, Richmond

Road plan

Regarding the Nicholasville Road project, why waste time forming a committee when there already is a plan? Ex-Mayor Jim Newberry ran on just such a plan to correct the Nicholasville Road/New Circle intersection disaster. He won, but we lost. Apparently, there was never a plan.

Bruce McBrayer, Nicholasville

Good for a laugh

There have been rumblings that comedy no longer has a place in television. But it is back —watch President Joe Biden’s town hall gatherings.

William H. Wheeler, Lexington

Paul correct

Sen. Rand Paul is right about Dr. Anthony Fauci. In the beginning I thought Fauci was the expert. When he kept his job under President Joe Biden, he stated that he had not been free to speak his truth under Donald Trump. If he were truly honest, he would have resigned immediately if he could not speak the truth. Of course he did not resign because he craves the limelight and being on TV all the time. I do not believe anything he says; I use fast forward anytime he opens his mouth on TV.

Mae Thompson, Liberty

Halt roundups

An executive order for a moratorium on the federal Bureau of Land Management’s wild horse and burro helicopter removals is needed immediately.

America’s wild horse and burro population are in trouble as a result of roundups, performed at taxpayer expense. A total of 148 out of 174 herds are below genetic viability.

Recently the world famous Onaqui herd lost 61% of its population to roundups. Once wild and breathtaking to behold, a majority of this majestic herd sits corralled in a barren holding facility awaiting “adoption.”

Wild horses and burros have lost 41% of the land legally designated for them since passage of the 1971 act designed to protect them. Currently, they are only present on 14% of public lands.

As the horses and burros are rounded up, ranchers can lease public lands to graze livestock at $1.35 per cow or sheep per month. Many horses find themselves penned for months or in a pipeline resulting in brutal slaughter in Canada or Mexico — butchered for consumption.

Immediate intervention is warranted to prevent further damage to native horse populations as specified in the act of 1971, and to ensure that public lands benefit all American citizens and not private interest.

Deborah Williamson Frankfort

‘Double standards’

It’s no secret that conservatives have long had a diminishing view of higher education, increasingly seeing universities not as places of education but indoctrination. But as a university student, GOP politicians’ recent attack on academia shocks me, because while they work to ban the study of critical race theory I have been reading the literary works of fascists, including Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”, and no one even blinks. These are divisive works seeking to divide people along lines of race, nationality and religion for political gain, and yet no one is seeking to ban the study of fascist thinkers in universities. If divisive content is what worries conservatives so much, my class on fascism should greatly worry them.

If one was looking for evidence of systemic racism it would be the fact that our college students regularly read fascist materials without any complaint, but if there are writings suggesting racism might still be a problem in the United States it’s banned from being taught. Such double standards for what can be taught in our classes cause me to question conservatives’ motivations for banning CRT. Is it really about divisiveness or is it just an attack on speech conservatives dislike?

Payden Alder, Salt Lake City, Utah