Presidential Election
To the Editor:
I support Joe Biden for president. I believe that he will be a strong leader thoguthout the continued public health crisis which we are facing. He will be a champion for all Americans, by creating jobs, by working to promote unity and social jsutice while maintaining order, and by safeguarding Social Security and Medicare. He has a plan to begin reversing global warming and to protect the environment from its devastating effects.
President Trump, on the other hand, has not been the leader we need —throughout the pandemic, the resulting economic crisis, during the throes of political protests or in the aftermath of natural disasters; he is a racist, misogynistic and xenophobic and mocks the disabled. He lies repeatedly. And he has shown a complete disregard for the law. How can we forget that, as a candidate, he bragged that he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and still be elected? He used his power to try to gain information from a foreign government on his political rival. And on multiple occasions he has jokingly alluded to staying in office for 12 years, or for a lifetime, or for another two years as a do-over for his first term. But these quips are not amusing. And in recent days, he has repeatedly declined to say that he will support a peaceful transition of power which is one of the bedrocks of democracy. He has spread false rumors about the dangers of absentee ballots and has intructed citizens in North Carolina to illegally vote twice. He has urged his supporters to watch over the polls, an old and despicable form of voter suppression. He has even asked Attorney General Barr to arrest his enemies.
We all need to think independently, to listen to both sides of arguments, to question what is said and to research it using reliable sources. Then, we need to do our duty and vote. Free elections are equally improtant to the success of our country's government.
Greta Cornell
Gambier
Science
To the Editor:
We are in the midst of a health crisis of immense proportions. Over 200,000 Americans have died as a result of Covid-19 and over a million people worldwide. Whether we have lost someone close to us or not, we are all participating in a national grief that casts a long shadow with no end in sight. In spite of our death toll, the highest in the world, there is still no national commitment to public health recommendations for safeguarding our health. Disdain for science is the reason for President Trump’s failure to take these procedures seriously.
There is a crucial parallel between the president’s imprudent response to Covid-19 and his repeated insistence that there is no scientific evidence for climate change. The proof of the impact of increased temperatures should be very clear to anyone: destructive wild fires and extreme storms are the new norm. In Central Ohio we also have threatening weather patterns. Severe flooding in March caused road closures and delayed planting for farmers. A local farmer recently lamented loss of topsoil in Knox County over the last several years due to heavy rains that caused runoff and lengthy droughts that turn the topsoil to dust carried away by the wind.
It is already too late to stop glacial melt that has raised the ocean’s levels and contributes to the erosion of our coastlines and the shores of the Great Lakes. One million plant and animal species are on the cusp of extinction. Despite our country being responsible for 13% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, President Trump has gutted the Environmental Protection Agency and broken with world leaders. In 2015 the United Nations obtained international collaboration in the Paris Agreement, a proposal to curb greenhouse gasses. When President Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the Agreement, major corporations signed a letter calling for reconsideration, pointing out that developing green technologies would keep American companies in step with the rest of the world. He dismissed their economic arguments. Our exit from the Paris Agreement will happen November 4th if he is reelected.
Ignoring science will continue to have dire consequences for all of us should the current president hold office for another four years. When you cast your vote, please cast it for the lives of your loved ones and yourself, for our country’s health and the health of our planet.
Miriam Dean-Otting
Gambier
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