From trapped refs to Urban Meyer’s dance
Columns focused on justice, political and cultural issues were among the pieces read most often this year
From police shootings and political strife to COVID and critical race theory, our opinion pages proffered a wide range of topics and perspectives.
Even the much-maligned armyworm had its moment in the spotlight.
As 2021 comes to a close, we have compiled a list of the opinion columns, editorials and letters read most often on Dispatch.com.
Below are excerpts of the Top 10 most frequently read opinion columns, with rankings based on digital pages views.
10. A plea on behalf of armyworms
“In defense of armyworms. They aren’t exactly the scourges of lawns.” by David J. Tomashefski, Sept. 17
Tomashefski is a research associate at Ohio State University’s Soil, Water, and Environmental Lab.
Ever since hearing about the fall armyworms I have actually been hoping to find them at the garden, and to know that the space I’m taking care of is helping Ohio wildlife in another, unexpected way.
If anything can soften one’s heart to the fall armyworm, it’s gardening for wildlife.
9. Life after a COVID death
“‘My husband died of COVID,’ former reporter says. ‘Don’t talk to me without wearing a mask.’” by Connie Schultz, USA TODAY, Sept. 21
USA TODAY columnist Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize winner whose novel, “The Daughters of Erietown,” is a New York Times bestseller.
Julie Wallace — a former reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal, now managing editor of The Chronicle-telegram in Elyria — and her daughter Mallory Dunlap are taking medication for anxiety and depression, and they don’t care who knows. Their grief is a testimony to Lewis Dunlap, to their love for him. It also telegraphs to the world what happens to a family when you lose someone to COVID-19.
(Julie) can describe what she wants to hear from people after they discover Lewis died of COVID-19: “I want them to say, ‘We don’t want to lose any more, so I will do the right thing.’ That’s all I’m asking. Please do what you can to protect one another.”
8. Comedian Dave Chappelle’s LGBT remarks
“‘Too smart’ Dave Chappelle has fallen for ‘old right-wing political device’,” by Kenyon Farrow, Oct. 14
Farrow is a Black gay activist and writer based in Cleveland Heights. He serves on the board of the LGBT Center of Greater Cleveland.
“In comedian Dave Chappelle’s mind, transgender people, and the LGBT community at large, is white.
Lots of Chappelle’s material in this special is directly tied to this idea that queer people didn’t experience chattel slavery, Jim Crow segregation or racial violence ... Chappelle, the child of academics, is too smart to not know this.
7. Ohio Redistricting Commission failed voters
“Disingenuous Ohio Republicans disregard will of people to maintain dominance” by The Dispatch Editorial Board, Sept. 24
How silly of us to think that the state’s top elected officials would compromise on a map that would fairly divide state House and Senate districts.
It is only what constitutional amendments overwhelmingly approved by the people require.
We were fooled once, and we will likely be fooled again, when the process for dividing up congressional districts begins soon.
Voters, let’s not hold our breath or let the egg dry. Flood the commission members with your thoughts on this.
6. The Urban Meyer bar video controversy
“When Urban Meyer ‘makes a bad decision’ women pay big. Why should he get to keep his job?” by Genessa Eddy, Oct. 13
Eddy is a philosopher, feminist, and gender theorist affiliated with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Urban Meyer is just the latest highprofile man in our society that repeatedly makes bad decisions when women are involved and unfortunately we respond to the situation in the same tired way ... The women receive much harsher punishment than the high-profile man.
5. Golfer Jon Rahm and the price of not being vaccinated
“Take it from golfer Jon Rahm, not being vaccinated can be costly” by Sheldon Jacobson, June 7
Jacobson is founder-professor of computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-champaign.
Jon Rahm, the third-ranked professional golfer in the world, was informed that he had a confirmed positive test for COVID-19 after completing the third round of the Memorial Golf Tournament (at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin).
If Rahm had been vaccinated, this situation would have been averted, and he would have played the fourth round at the Memorial, likely cruising to a victory, the large financial winnings, and the No. 1 ranking in the world.
4. Referees barricaded in Grove City locker room
“Referees trapped after confrontation with coaches say more must be done to protect officials” by James Kakos, Christopher
Mccaleb, Ronald Wilson, Keith Dalton, Nathaniel O’neal, Gregory Moore and D’juan Hammonds, Oct. 5
Kakos, Mccaleb, Wilson, Dalton, O’neal, Moore and Hammonds are high school football officials. The crew’s nickname is Soul-patrol.
We went through the observation and our postgame review. Afterwards, we attempted to leave and discovered the locker room door was barricaded shut. It took a great amount of force by violently banging the locker room door against the vending machine to create a wedge to escape, and we were unable to do so for an amount of time that placed in an urgent fear that should an emergency such as a fire occur, we may be trapped and face certain death.
3. How the Dispatch decided to publish the Ma’khia Bryant shooting video
“Video of police shooting published after deliberation, with context” by Dispatch Editor Alan D. Miller, April 22
There are many layers to consider when making these decisions: What is our journalistic purpose in publishing some or all of the video? How could it affect those who see it, including the family of the dying person? Could publishing the video spark protests that could lead to violence? If published, would the video stand on its own, or would it require explanation or warning?
2. Should police be abolished?
“Ma’khia Bryant, George Floyd point to why police should be abolished now” by Sean Hill, April 25
Hill is a law professor at The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, and a former Steering Committee member of Law4blacklives.
... voters and politicians alike should confront how often policing reforms have been pursued without success, and should familiarize themselves with abolition as an urgent and needed solution.
1. Mitch Mcconnell faces consequences for actions
“Finally, Mcconnell pays a price for obstruction” by Jason Sattler, Jan. 9
Jason Sattler, a writer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a member of USA TODAY’S Board of Contributors.
Mcconnell’s Senate majority in 2015 instantly formed a blockade of President Barack Obama’s court appointments, leaving the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s Supreme Court seat and more than 100 other federal vacancies for Trump to fill and the Senate to confirm. And confirm them Mcconnell did, obsessively, even as a pandemic raged and Congress had passed only a fraction of the money states needed to distribute COVID-19 vaccines.
To achieve this ambition, Mcconnell abetted Trump just about every chance he got — from restraining a bipartisan response to Russian attacks on our elections in 2016, to making sure Trump escaped conviction and removal in a Senate trial last year after he was impeached.