Book sheds light on recent rise in homicides among young people

The recent increase in homicide among our city’s young people, including a 2-year-old on Wednesday, has left me increasingly heartbroken. In 2009, Ohio State University professor Randolph Roth published the best historical examination of interpersonal violence, titled “American Homicide.” Its main lesson is that increases in homicide are higher in environments with the following traits: political instability; a loss of government legitimacy; a loss of kinship caused by racial, religious or political antagonism; and a loss of faith in the social hierarchy.

Given this information we can hopefully begin to understand why communities with traditionally higher rates of youth violence are spiking in a summer where COVID-19 is further fracturing them politically, economically and physically.

Solutions remain elusive, but this book is a powerful tool.

Zane Jones, Columbus

Nicknames complimentary to this part-native American

The Aug. 9 Dispatch article “Nicknames draw scrutiny” about the young lady in Canal Winchester got under my red skin.

I'm from an era where choosing a school mascot was done with great pride. Your school mascot said something about who you were. I'm part Cherokee Indian and I don't take offense to these references. In fact, I like remembering from whom I came. I do not wish to have the memory of my ancestors erased from society.

So kudos to all those who wish to be known as Tribes, Warriors, Indians, Braves and Red Skins. And kudos to those who are brave enough not to give in to an overly sensitive generation.

As to the person cheering, "Scalp 'em", well that's just bad taste and is already addressed under the umbrella of being "politically incorrect."

Brenda Oty, Gahanna

PUCO chairman is like the fox guarding the henhouse

I have been watching the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio appointments for quite some time and threw up my hands in disbelief at the appointment of Sam Randazzo as chairman in February 2019. He is a veteran lawyer and lobbyist on behalf of heavy industry.

For a tutorial on how some politicians operate, see “How a longtime critic of clean energy became Ohio’s top utility regulator” by John Funk on the Energy News Network. As it turns out, the

Householder network of corruption involving Firstenergy has ties to Randazzo’s company, Sustainability Funding Alliance of Ohio.

Citizens such as the Ohio Consumers Power Alliance are now asking for Gov. Mike Dewine to remove him from the PUCO.

As we consumers sit helplessly on the sidelines, paying inflated prices for utilities, drugs and you name it, others profit shamelessly by buying politicians with their dark money. Is the scandal involving Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder just an example of so much more we need to uncover?

Thank you to The Dispatch for its continuing investigative journalism.

Susan B. West, Athens

Grouping 2 seasons of football is presumptuous, dangerous

Weeks before the Big Ten/14 announced the cancellation of all fall sports on Tuesday, I knew there would be a huge problem with playing football in the spring, as many are now demanding. It’s called spring practice and the 2021 schedule.

If I am making the call, it would be to shut down the season for good, then start back up next spring, as usual, when the incoming freshmen begin joining the team, assuming COVID-19 has been contained by then. If giving players an extra year of eligibility (if wanted) would cause problems with scholarship limits, the NCAA could grant schools a waiver, gradually reducing the number of scholarships down to the maximum allowed limit.

If the powers that be presume the solution is to play two seasons next year, they aren’t thinking very far ahead. Nor are they thinking of the well-being of their student-athletes.

Steven Spring, OSU, Class of ’87, South Charleston

Bill restricting agency’s power would threaten Ohioans’ health

I respond to the Cincinnati Enquirer article “Bill would give local officials power over health orders” in the Aug. 8 Dispatch, concerning Senate Bill 348 presented by Republican Sens. Tim Schaffer and Kristina Roegner.

This bill wants to diminish the Ohio Department of Health’s ability to issue orders during a health crisis by letting the 113 local health boards reject or amend those orders as they see fit.

I would like to point out that Ohioans travel throughout Ohio, so their local practices affect our local practices, and that is why we have a state health department.

Schaffer and Roegner need to take politics out of the equation when it comes to the safety of our residents. I urge senators on both sides of the aisle to say nay when it comes to passing the mentioned bill.

Leo Timm, Delaware