Postal Service is essential and deserves financial support

The U.S. Senate should vote to include substantial funding for the United States Postal Service in the latest COVID-19 relief legislation. The Post Office is an essential service, founded by Benjamin Franklin, who knew the importance of access to information. It is especially critical in this time of COVID-19 in order to provide safe and secure health information and voting capabilities to our citizens.

Monies should be available for this public service to allow for hiring more staff, pay for needed overtime and provide adequate safety measures for these crucial, dedicated and essential workers.

Millions of Americans depend upon a timely Postal Service. It should be supported by government, not undermined or used as a political pawn.

The Postal Service is not a business, but an essential necessity to a free society. Vote to ensure that this vital service remains fully functional for the people of this great democracy.

John Dirina, Upper Arlington

Injustice of George Floyd’s death doesn’t justify destroying buildings

I never owned any slaves and neither did my German ancestors. There isn’t a living Black person in the United States that was ever forced to pick cotton.

George Floyd’s death at the hands of that white cop was terrible, but it did not justify what followed it. If Floyd had not been misbehaving, the cops would not have arrested him. The destruction of federal and state buildings and private businesses and the desecration of monuments are terrible, causing great harm to people who had nothing to do with any of this.

If these BLM people had jobs and worked for a living like the rest of us common people, they would not have the time to create this chaos.

I noticed on TV that the state of Ohio is now under a mask mandate. I have farmed, worked in the oil field and have been a timber cutter for 50 years. I am not afraid of COVID-19. You have to wake up in the morning wanting to live rather than hiding at home behind a mask waiting to die.

I am afraid, however, of an overreaching government. What is next? Make us kneel down and drink grape Kool-aid?

I would rather die standing up fighting than on my knees drinking the governor’s Kool-aid.

Louis L. Litzinger, Somerset

Mask-mockers tell me that some people have no empathy at all

Recently I visited my local store where there were two young male individuals without a mask laughing at my mask. I videotaped the two for proof. Forget the seven months of isolation I’ve been practicing, forget the care I’ve taken for others and forget I can’t fly to Europe. All this boils down to idiocy.

Plainly, I have discovered that America has no value for me, and I served this country. So, I can’t walk outside anymore. I’ll end up living in my apartment and restrict my life to 850 feet of living space. I’ll let the rest of you figure out if your empathy is for humans. This is one example of numerous interactions with people who don’t know what human is.

Gordon Hitt, Reynoldsburg

Kuebler is being persecuted for speaking out against powers that be

Big Brother is active in the persons of “Moe” Ginther, “Larry” Klein and “Curly” Hardin. There is no evidence of wrongdoing or even that he violated the city’s or Division of Police’s social media policy. But Deputy Chief Ken Kuebler is being investigated by the thought police created by Ginther and funded by Hardin and his toadies.

So much for Deputy Chief Kuebler’s constitutional rights. Klein refuses to carry out his oath of office by not prosecuting those who committed criminal actions during the recent “protests.”

It appears that freedom of speech only applies to the city’s non-leaders and those disrupters with an anti-police agenda.

The city and county machines make their own rules and woe to those with the courage to “tell it like it is.”

John Row, Columbus

Exaggerated fear of virus is making other problems worse

Regarding the article about teachers protesting schools reopening, one of their slogans is “One dead child is one too many.” Does that only count if it is from COVID-19? What about the children who are committing suicide or the ones dying from drug overdoses? What about the children becoming drug addicted because of anxiety and depression? Don’t they count?

This idea that we can be “safe” is completely fictional. There is no such thing in this world. If you let your child get in a car, they are at higher risk. You cannot live in this world without risk, and so you carry on taking the sensible precautions that you can. You don’t hide away from life out of fear and create ever-growing problems out of this fear.

Ann Barnes, Columbus

Professionals of the FBI deserve thanks for Householder probe

During this unprecedented, unsettling, seemingly unending and certainly unhealthy time we are experiencing, we have been thanking our first responders and essential workers in so many thoughtful ways: fire, police, healthcare workers, restaurant and gas station workers, janitorial and cleaning companies, and many others.

One group that has not been thanked is the FBI. The FBI Field Office in Cincinnati and the Resident Agency in Columbus are made up of incredibly professional men and women who have been working nonstop since the COVID-19 pandemic started. There was no shutdown, furlough, quarantine or extra family time for them. Most of them cannot work from home.

They are passionate about their mission and they do their jobs quietly, with no recognition or expected thanks. They have continued to investigate human trafficking, gangs, kidnapping, missing children, violent crimes, terrorism, counterterrorism, pornography, the color of law (investigating police officers as in the tragic case of George Floyd), and scams, including those new coronavirus scams taking advantage of vulnerable people.

Recently, we learned about the Public Corruption RICO (racketeering) case involving the speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives and several top lobbyists who have systematically committed fraud on the people of Ohio involving money laundering, bribery, pay-to-play and more for the past twoplus years.

As president of the Cincinnati Citizens Academy Alumni Association, I and Barbi Crabill, vice president for the group in Columbus, speak for all of our members in sending this incredibly special “Thank You” to each person in our Cincinnati FBI Office and Columbus RA who has worked on this two-year, incredibly complicated investigation.

Susan B. Noonan, West Chester

Maybe he didn’t mean to, but Householder cleaned house

We can all agree ex-ohio House Speaker Larry Householder’s actions were dishonest, corrupt and very selfish. But maybe we should also thank him. Because without his actions, we would still have him as speaker of the house, HB 6 would still be a certainty and the Ohio House Republican Campaign Committee would still have access to millions of Generation Now’s dark money to fund Republicans’ reelection campaigns.

So I say, thank you, Larry, for almost singlehandedly putting an end to the unscrupulous actions of Ohio’s GOP. You have, inadvertently, made Ohio a better place.

Steven J. Sewell, Columbus

Uplifting family racing photo was a breath of fresh air

What a welcome relief on Sunday’s Metro section front: actually a happy picture of breast cancer survivor Patti Gilligan and her family, all smiles. After many months of doom and gloom pictures and articles, we are happy to see an uplifting picture.

Hope there are many more to come. Donna Brown, Gahanna