Fulfill promise of Moccasin Bend park
I was pleased to see a strong and politically balanced rejection of the recently announced plan to pour more than $270 million into an attempt to prop up Moccasin Bend Hospital.
Rarely do we see agreement from both the liberal and conservative editors of our local newspaper, but in this case both said don't do it.
Long ago it was realized that the local mental health facility was a relic of the old "out of sight/out of mind" philosophy of dealing with mental illness and that perhaps it needed to be replaced with something more effective and accessible to families of patients. I can clearly recall how the thinking evolved over the years until it was finally realized that the hospital is the wrong thing in the wrong place and it just might make more sense for intake and treatment to be located somewhere like Erlanger, where individuals are often taken in times of mental crisis.
Reaching back, efforts have been underway since 1954 to preserve the entire Moccasin Bend peninsula as a national park. In a related matter in 2013 we came very close to resolving another incompatible land use by moving the police firing range off the Bend. Eight years later we are still waiting, but that wait could be insignificant if the unwise decision is made today to invest in Moccasin Bend Hospital at its current location.
Ron Littlefield
Mask up, get a shot for 'general welfare'
Those who are against vaccines or masks should review the preamble to our Constitution. It starts with, "We the people." It does not say "I the individual." It further states, "promote the general Welfare" not your personal welfare or the welfare of a select few. It ends with, "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity," not the blessings of liberty for the individual.
I was not enthusiastic about getting a shot but did it for the welfare of all. I also hate wearing a mask, but it promotes the general welfare and so I wear one.
As a saying from a sermon by the 17th-century author John Donne says, "No one is self-sufficient; everyone relies on others. In other words, no man is an island."
Richard Volkwein
Harrison
Country needs more Democrats to run
The commissioners were awfully fast ramming through the redistricting map. Were they afraid some of us (people they represent) might not agree?
Republicans are gerrymandering districts, repressing voting rights and following Trump. May God have mercy on us all.
Truth has become alternate truth - only the truth will stand when hell freezes over. The Republicans who have forgotten that they are there to represent you and me are too busy following party lines, which are not our values or beliefs, since they have changed.
We need more Democratic candidates running in our elections. More young people taking notice of what is going on around them. More people need to be aware of what our government is doing. And may God help us all.
Blanche DeVries
Soddy-Daisy