Memorial Day should be more than a mattress sale

I appreciate it when you thank me for my service, but what I’d really like you to do before going to that picnic or mattress sale on Memorial Day is go to a ceremony at a cemetery to remember and honor our true heroes who did not come home. Let the 21-gun salute and the 24 notes of Taps touch your heart to a profound appreciation for those who were the tip of the spear and died hoping to preserve freedom for people they didn’t even know. DENNIS SINGLETON, DAYTON

Per a May 24 article in Inside Higher Ed, U.S.

News is changing how they rank colleges and universities. In the new methodology, U.S. News will give higher weight to how many students an institution graduates from diverse backgrounds. Killing DEI in Ohio via SB 83 will cause such students to rethink where they go, thus Ohio institutions’ rankings will plummet and competitive students from all backgrounds will opt for other states’ colleges. SB 83 is destroying Ohio’s long history of highly-ranked universities.

Furthermore, recent testimony from sponsoring Senator Jerry Cirino (R-18) indicates that the free speech element of the bill leaves space for things like Holocaust denial as warranting equal weight in the classroom as accurate historical information.

This bill is dangerous to Ohio’s economy, students, college faculty and staff, and the very concepts of truth and empathy. KATHLEEN KOLLMAN, DAYTON

In his May 22 column, Thomas Suddes writes about the 60% rule, abortion and the Aug. 8 election. Currently in Ohio it takes a simple majority to amend the state constitution. Over 50% of Ohio voters favor abortion rights and so under today’s rules abortion could soon become legal in Ohio. It is not likely that 60% of Ohio voters want abortion legal so moving from a simple majority to a 60% requirement to amend the constitution helps the anti-abortion people. While Republicans historically hate expensive special elections they have decided we will have an Aug. 8 election to determine if we should switch to a 60% rule. Their thinking is that not many will vote in an August election, but more pro-lifers are likely to vote than those who are prochoice, and as a result the 60% rule will be passed and abortion will not be legal in Ohio. In order for the majority who are prochoice to prevail, we must not skip the Aug. 8 election. VIC PRESUTTI, BEAVERCREEK

Suggestion to the newspaper and internet: Instead of talking about the national debt in words of 4.1 trillion and 31 trillion, why not show the actual numbers? How does $4,100,000,000,000 look to you? Does $31,000,000,000,000 appear feasible to the average breadwinner?

Does a debt of $94,000 per person to the 333,000,000 United States population strike you as something you can manage. How about the estimation of the debt increasing about $25,000 per second!

If all the billionaires in the U.S. would donate $10,000,000 to alleviate the debt, it would still not amount to a hill of beans. Do the math. Where do we go from here? I didn’t intend this as support for the conservatives in the Republican party, but, Joe, lets be clear about this. JAMES L SCHUMACHER, WEST MILTON