Worldwide water crisis is a profound challenge

World Water Day will be Friday, and the theme this year is “Water for society – Including all.” This is extremely fitting considering the condition we have reached regarding fresh water worldwide.

We are in the middle of a worldwide water crisis, but the issue has hit a lot closer to home as of the last five years, with problems hitting several areas of the United States.

In 2016, around 750 million people were without clean drinking water and now less than 5 years later, there are around 845 million people without it — 1 in 10 people. There are 2 billion people worldwide without ready access to fresh water. In undeveloped areas in Africa and Asia, women walk on average 3.7 miles per day to collect water. In developing countries, as much as 80 percent of illnesses are linked to poor water and sanitation conditions, and there are more deaths from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war.

Holistic nurses are dedicated to the care of the whole person and promoting better health and wellness. This year on World Water Day, please be mindful and promote a culture of conservation to begin to address this issue of a lack of fresh water globally.

Judy Fasone, Columbus Chapter leader, American Holistic Nursing Association

Living wills help elders make choices known

Families often teach children to respect their elders. I was taught this from a young age, as I’m sure many Ohioans were. With increasing focus on caring for older generations comes added need for protections for our growing elderly population. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have forecast drastic increases in the U.S. senior population, rising from 45 million adults 65 and older in 2015 to 80 million by 2050.

Recently we have seen an increase in abuse targeting the elderly. According to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, more than 3,630 cases of elder exploitation were reported in the 2018 fiscal year. The factors that leave the elderly vulnerable to fraud, neglect and other forms of harm must be accounted for. Our government needs to create laws to support our elders, and citizens must come together to push for this change.

We have seen increases in funding for agencies investigating these elder-abuse cases, but these agencies are still drastically underfunded. We have seen proposed legislation to better protect the elderly in all aspects of life. But many of these proposals have not become law.

As Franklin County recorder, I am proud of the work my office does in ensuring adequate care is provided for Ohio’s elderly population. Through our living-will recording service, all Ohioans, not just the elderly, are given a place to record documents pertaining to their health-care directives. This is a crucial aspect of care, with living wills providing a safeguard to protect Ohioans.

Danny O’connor, Franklin County recorder

Don't assume newly approved drug is safe

Last week, the drug Spravato (esketamine) was approved for treatmentresistant depression. It works differently than medications that currently exist for depression. This may make it attractive to those who have tried several medications without relief.

But in evaluating Spravato’s role in severe depression, we must look to the past for guidance. In the mid 1980s Xanax (alprazolam) was touted as a panacea for anxiety. It was only after it had been on the market some years that we realized its addictive and dangerous qualities.

Another more-prominent example is that of opioids. They were once touted as safe medications to be used aggressively to treat pain. As a result of that marketing, an entire generation of opioid addicts now suffers. The same may be true for Spravato.

Fundamentally, it is a derivative of Ketamine, a human and veterinary anesthetic abused as the club drug "Special K." In spite of the rigorous testing a drug needs undergo before being approved by the FDA, we often will not know its effects until years later.

Simply because it has been Fda-approved doesn’t mean we know the whole story. Given its similarity to Ketamine, people with depression and their psychiatrists should exercise extreme caution in using Spravato.

Dr. Ajay Bhatia, psychiatrist, Columbus

Methodist church is irreconcilably split

I was inspired by the March 10 front-page article on the courage and devotion of Rev. Laura Young in fighting for her denomination. I am a straight, white, privileged Christian male. I grew up in the Methodist church and currently attend Worthington United Methodist Church. It is an inclusive, reconciling ministry, where LGBTQ persons are welcome both in our pews and our pulpit.

I am a devout follower of Christ and a serious student of the Bible, having attended Bible Study Fellowship for 12 years as well as numerous other studies, books and courses. As such, I know that Jesus’ ministry was radically inclusive for his time. He welcomed individuals who were staunchly rejected by his religion (lepers, Samaritans, prostitutes…) He also railed against religious leaders whose focus was on the law over and above our love of God and our neighbors.

He never spoke out against homosexuality, but told us not to judge others and commanded us to love one another. Jesus repeatedly warned against excess wealth, yet I’ve never seen conservative churches discourage or exclude wealthy people as they do with the LGBTQ community.

Sadly, religion has historically been the last bastion of support for slavery and bigotry against women and now the LGBTQ community. I believe that it is time for the United Methodist Church to admit to irreconcilable differences and agree to a split. I am seeking a denomination that follows Christ, not outdated Levitican law.

David Wade, Worthington

Teachers in Columbus are hamstrung by bad bosses

During the 15 years I worked for Columbus City Schools as a preferred substitute teacher, I bumped into too many administrators who are unfit to work in an educational system yet are still employed by CCS. Administrators in key decision-making roles are not knowledgeable. They’re untrained and unsupervised, resulting in irrational policies, misconduct, poor

morale and destruction of the learning environment.

Over time, I’ve come to the conclusion that the organization is upside down. We pay administrators too much and teachers not enough. We allow insensitive, poorly informed, unethical administrators to evaluate and judge teachers while the administrators should be servicing the teaching environment and should be evaluated for their service by the teachers.

Teachers are separated from their classrooms for training they do not need while incompetent administrators are not trained in the skills they need to perform to their job descriptions. Administrators play a part in the education of our students but don’t seem to understand how to collaborate and contribute.

Kenneth A. Spilke, Columbus

Criticism is one thing; Omar’s comments another

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-minn., didn’t criticize Israel. She said that Jews “hypnotize” Americans and buy support for Israel with money. She said that Jews are loyal to Israel and not to America.

Those are classic Jewhating stereotypes that depict Jews as rich, manipulative, treacherous and sinister. It is dishonest and false to say, as Farrell Brody did in his Wednesday letter, that criticizing Omar for being a Jew-hater is just calling all criticism of Israel “anti-semitism.”

Israel gets plenty of criticism every day. But if we don’t want outright slanders of Jews to be heard every day, now is the time to condemn them. To pretend those slanders are something entirely different is a way to nurture the slanders and protect the bigots who utter them.

Fred Baumann, Gambier