VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
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Voice of the People, Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 44309-0640
1973, marking for many scholars of that era the end of “The Sixties.”
As if a military conflict that took the lives of 58,220 Americans were not enough to stain that post-Dallas decade, we were forced to endure the subsequent assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Then 1970 brought us the awful killings of college students at Kent State and Jackson State universities. Then we witnessed the resignations of a vice president and a president.
Much closer in our collective rearview mirror are a few other questionable military engagements, as is our learning to live with school, church, theater and grocery store mass shootings, terrorism, social media’s pluses and minuses, elementary students’ having smartphones, a growing culture of personal resentment toward those who disagree with us, that COVID thing, the climate thing, and on and on.
I still cannot help but feel that a “dark cloud” of some strange and unknown composition has been present over this land since that oh-so-quiet weekend in the fall of 1963. Not that there haven’t been bright periods and many advancements throughout those decades, of course.
Support Biden’s gun control plan
My heart goes out to the residents of Maine after the recent mass shooting. But it is never too late to try to improve the situation.
President Joe Biden recently announced the creation of the first-ever Office of Gun Violence Prevention to combat the epidemic that is tearing our families, communities and country apart. This huge step forward is a testament to Biden’s leadership.
Biden cares deeply about this issue. He has been a leader on fighting gun violence his entire career because he knows how devastating it is to the families who have experienced the worst loss.
He also knows what ordinary families are going through. Our kids are forced to perversely practice protecting themselves during mass shootings. This is a trauma in and of itself, not something we don’t have to accept in our daily lives.
That’s why Biden worked tirelessly to help Congress pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most significant gun violence reduction legislation in nearly 30 years. This law funds red flag laws, narrows the “boyfriend loophole,” requires young people under 21 to undergo enhanced background checks, makes gun trafficking and straw purchasing federal crimes and provides funding to address the youth mental health crisis. The Office of Gun Violence Prevention will be key to implementing this historic legislation. I’m grateful that Joe Biden cared enough to create it.
Ranked choice voting needed
The hatred of our government and the division of our country is a result of our election system. Our choices for representation are limited by a two-party system and monetary influence. Elected officials are winning offices with a minority of votes.
Everyday we hear that competition is good for our businesses, so wouldn’t more competition in elections be better for our country?
With ranked choice voting, we can get a larger pool of candidates to choose from who would represent us better because not only would they have to appeal to a broader group of people, they would not have to have large money donors.
Requiring candidates to get 50% + 1 of votes means that the majority has chosen them, not a minority.
This is just one of the many reasons I support ranked choice voting and would like to see Ohio adopt it.