New gas plan hardly helps OSU’S sustainability goal

I am surprised to learn about the proposal for constructing a gas power plant on Ohio State’s main campus. As a 2016 graduate of OSU, I had the opportunity to study the university’s energy partnership announcement in my Sustainable Engineering course. While the partnership has yielded progress towards Ohio State’s goal of reducing its energy intensity thus far, their choice to establish a new power plant that utilizes fossil fuels is a step in the wrong direction.

In the announcement, the university used language describing the desire to embrace sustainability across the main campus. The 2015 Request for Qualifications explained that Ohio State was “considering an innovative energy strategy” to “strengthen its sustainability efforts.” Building a new gas plant does not embody that.

As a beacon of higher learning, the university should work with its energy partners to find innovative sources of energy on-site that do not rely on fossil fuels and jeopardize the local environment and air quality. Anything less is disappointing and part of an outdated mindset that needs to be phased out.

Damian O’malley, Rocky River

Those who discount COVID-19 should spend some time with it

Since Ohio State Rep. Nino Vitale, R-urbana, and so many others think that the coronavirus is such overblown hype, I’d like to offer a very simple 30day challenge.

I challenge each and every one of these individuals to spend 30 days working in a COVID-19 intensive care unit. Since none of them feels masks are necessary, then they should have no problem helping to treat patients without any form of protection. At the end of every shift, they are to immediately go home to their families.

Obviously when you have no skin in the game, it’s very easy to criticize and judge the actions of others. When you’ve not personally lost a loved one to this virus it’s easy to lose empathy or compassion.

So what do Vitale and all Fox Newswatching Trump supporters think? Are they ready to put their lives where their mouth is?

Michael A. Thompson, Grove City

All Ohio Republicans in D.C. have proven they don’t care about public

It is very clear that Sen. Rob Portman and various Ohio Republican congressional representatives (e.g. Jim Jordan, Mike Turner, Steve Chabot, David Joyce, etc.) are unwilling to put their constituents’ interests ahead of self-serving silence and/or GOP hyperpartisanship. President Donald Trump’s repeated lying, intimidation of government oversight officials, commutation of a convicted criminal’s sentence and promotion of snake-oil salesmanship over science do not seem to bother these individuals. It appears they just want to remain in Washington at any cost, and they are willing for us to pay the price.

School children are now targeted to be the next ante in Trump’s escalating bluff against the coronavirus pandemic while trying to save his political future. Americans are sick (3.3+ million) and dying (135,000+), and these Ohio politicians are too afraid to speak out the truth and do their jobs. Honesty, integrity, courage and fairness are valuable traits in leadership. Any elected official unable to exhibit these traits needs to be removed from office in the next election(s). Otherwise, how can we hold our elected officials accountable for their actions in Washington or keep our democracy intact?

Alan Masters, Granville

Church leaders who ignore virus threat are dangerously irresponsible

I have decided it’s time to speak out against what I believe is unconscionable: church leaders’ decision to continue to hold worship services and other activities in the midst of the pandemic. I know of at least one local church that plans to return to “normal” activities in a couple weeks. Those activities include choir, nursery, youth activities, etc. Does anyone else foresee a problem here?

Why would such a decision be made knowing that the number of cases is continuing to increase and the number of deaths along with it? Is there no concern for the physical welfare of congregants? God created physical bodies as well as souls. Aren’t both of great importance?

To my way of thinking, the decision to “wish away” and ignore reality at this time is like living at the base of a rumbling volcano and hoping when the lava starts flowing it will stop at your doorstep.

The decision of many church leaders could rightly be identified as “COVID-19 Praise and Worship Party” planning. We as Christians are called to “fear not” and “forsake not the gathering of yourselves together,” yet along with faith and obedience comes the expectation that we use our common sense and heed the wisdom of others. The pandemic doesn’t know one individual from another as it navigates its way throughout the world.

I pray that the leadership of our churches will wake up and realize the influence they have on many whose lives they are endangering by going back to “normal.” I wonder if things would be different if we were battling the bubonic plague.

Douglas R. Cook, Powell

Dewine seems unwilling to take true pro-life stance when difficult

I listened to Gov. Mike Dewine’s pep speech on Wednesday about combating the coronavirus. I say “pep speech” because it only pleaded but did nothing to effect positive change. I suspect he is afraid to make the decisions necessary (mandatory, and enforced, wearing of masks, for example) to get ahead of this virus, to limit suffering and to reduce deaths.

It would seem Gov. Dewine isn’t prolife, just anti-abortion.

Ralph Veppert, Westerville

Kids from poor families need the supports of in-person learning

As a pediatrician who serves the children of central Ohio, I am extremely concerned that Columbus City Schools have chosen to bring K-8 students back to school for only two days per week and high school ages not at all. Due to the higher rates of poverty within the district, we should assume that any “remote learning” in this population means no learning, due to the lack of technology, internet connection and adult support required for remote learning.

In primary schools, remote learning means parents must choose between working or risk hunger and housing insecurity to parent their children. In secondary schools, adolescents with no access to in-person learning will miss out on the skills required for a successful transition to adulthood, including social/emotional skill development, mental health support and mentorship.

Clear guidelines do exist to ensure the safe return to in-person school this fall. It is critical that our communities prioritize the future of our children and our teachers embrace the role of essential worker. Failure to do so will worsen the cycle of poverty that already exists for an entire generation of the most vulnerable population in central Ohio.

Kate Krueck, M.D., Westerville

Hospitals must serve public health by ignoring Trump order on data

U.S. hospitals owe a duty to public health — not to President Donald Trump.

Hospitals must continue to report their COVID-19 data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regardless of what he says.

Facts and science will save us. The Trump administration is where truth goes to die. Apparently Trump thinks that hiding the truth about the death stalking this nation will benefit him — and he doesn’t care what it does to us.

How can anyone call themselves “pro-life” yet leave schools so unsafe and unprepared that parents are being asked to sign death waivers when they send their kids back to class? We need to help schools do better — not cut their funding.

Tracy L. Meisky, Columbus