The Comedy Revue (better known as the 2023 Legislature) is back in Frankfort | Opinion

Thayer partisanship

Every time Ky. Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, opens his mouth, I’m reminded of what I try to forget: the Peter Principle condenses in Frankfort. Without an atom of shame, Thayer admits his political philosophy. He says, “...the best way to inform them is to tell a person what party you’re a member of when you’re on the ballot.”

If I have to explain the stupidity of this creed, I would not have the heart to finish the letter. Please read the Lexington Herald-Leader Jan. 3, 2023 piece for a fuller dose of Thayer’s prescription for Kentucky’s ills.

Increasing partisanship in Kentucky politics is important for Thayer. Is there any better reason, for the sake of an informed electorate, to make him an ex-Senator after his next campaign?

Todd Kelly, Lexington

Legislative session

Well, I see the Comedy Revue (better known as the 2023 Legislature) is back in Frankfort. It will wipe out all the joy we experienced celebrating Christmas!

I find it laughable that the Kentucky GOP Chairman J. McCauley “Mac” Brown and Kentucky Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer (R-17) say that the people of Kentucky have spoken by electing politicians through gerrymandering, moving voting sites and telling their voters to just pull the Republican or Democratic lever.

Former President Donald Trump and other GOP leaders say they want voters who are low-income and low-educated. They have hit the motherlode in Kentucky. These “informed” people vote for politicians who vote against raising wages, health insurance, school funding/teachers’ salaries (how many parents in Eastern Ky will have school choice) and now want to make school board and city council races partisan.

The Ky. GOP favorite lie is “This is what the people want and why they elected us.” The judicial system, law enforcement and the church are not trusted by the majority of Kentuckians. Even our state motto “In God We Trust” is wrong. It should read “Can God Trust Us!!!

Jim Dunn, Burgin

Committee’s courage

Kudos to the House Jan. 6 Committee for the outstanding work they did the last 18 months on investigating Jan. 6 insurrection, allegedly led by former President Donald Trump. All of the Committee members are heroes, especially Republican U.S. Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for rightly standing up against the former president. Both are “Profiles in Courage,” particularly Cheney because her stance cost her her House seat in the midterm elections. Kinzinger opted not to run again.

Cheney was correct in saying that due to his serious, multiple transgressions Trump should not be allowed to hold public office again. Actually, he was never ever fit to hold public office. The Republican Party should be held accountable for making Trump their nominee in 2016.

Every single day of his time as president was bizarre and chaotic. Today, two years after he lost the 2020 election, “Trump fatigue” pervades our divided country. The best thing Trump can do for himself, his family, the GOP and the country is to stop spreading “The Big Lie,” concede the election, and ride off into the sunset to study politics no more.

Paul L. Whiteley Sr., Louisville

Parking fees

I’m old enough to remember when downtown Lexington was a ghost town. The only thing missing was a lone tumbleweed blowing down main-street. If the area has enjoyed any kind of renaissance in recent years, it’s thanks to restaurants. Nobody’s going downtown to buy books or cars or mattresses.

These changes to the parking meter schedule that LexPark rolled out without warning will be an undue burden on those very restaurants that have driven activity back to the city center. Restaurants, by the way, which were operating on razor thin margins BEFORE the two-year global pandemic tightened the thumbscrews even further.

So, 20 years from now, when people are wondering why downtown Lexington is empty again, I hope they remember to voice their complaints to LexPark, the only business that will still be in operation downtown by that time.

Josef Ferguson, Lexington

School abuse

I want to thank the Lexington Herald-Leader for their work drawing attention to the abuses to some of the most vulnerable among us: our students. The feature several weeks ago about Kentucky’s lax laws and persistent abuses was as informative as it was alarming. Having been a female student, and now a parent to both middle school and high school daughters, this is a very important topic to me. I greatly appreciate the spotlight on the areas that need improvement, and the detailed follow up articles. I hope there is continued pressure on lawmakers and administrators to improve.

However, there are some, like retired teacher Kathy Shewmaker, who think that the paper should be ashamed of pointing out the stories they did. I’m fairly certain the vast majority of teachers choose the profession out of a passionate desire to teach young people. It’s not like other professions such as law enforcement and the clergy that offer perks of power and impunity, and attract many more abusers than the noble profession of teaching.

As a parent, I can tell the difference between predators and teachers who desire to do well. Additionally, the math in Shewmaker’s unseemly harangue is misleading, wrong, and clearly disingenuous.

Joy Miracle, Nicholasville

Religious freedom

Poor Shelly Roberts Bendall. She wrote she doesn’t want to be impacted by the religions of others and gets hammered.

Her responder states, “All laws and public policy are a reflection of a people’s sense of ethics and all ethics are a reflection of a people’s religion.” What people? What religion? Why assume the founding fathers only had Judeo-Christians in mind? Why would they confuse future Americans by stating in the Bill of Rights, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Franklin and Jefferson were deists, who essentially believed in one God, but little else. Jefferson wrote, “the pure teachings of Jesus appeared to have been appropriated by some of Jesus’ early followers, resulting in a Bible that contained both ‘diamonds’ of wisdom and the ‘dung’ of ancient political agendas.” Jefferson also coined the phrase “wall of separation between church and state.”

I suggest the responder re-read history.

The Hindu leader Gandhi labored to help the poor and championed respect for other religions. He was killed for his efforts. Other world religions adhere to similar tenets.

The responder fears that allowing citizens to make personal decisions like abortion could lead to the disappearance of the human race! Despite all the deaths caused by religious wars, there’s seven billion of us here. He should sleep peacefully with that statistic in mind. By the way, Jews have sued to protect their right to abortion, so that knocks out the Judeo in “Judeo-Christian beliefs.”

Esther Murphy, Lexington

Presidential vacation

Millions of Americans continue to struggle with the aftermath of last weekend’s blizzards but not President Joe Biden. While ordinary folk are helping those needing food and shelter, repairing busted water pipes, and hoping to have enough money to pay their January heating bills, Joe is relaxing on tropical beaches in the Virgin Islands. But not to worry, you can be assured that while basking in the warmth, “he feels your pain.”

Dale Henry, Lexington

Massie embarrassment

I’m shaking my head once again as U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) embarrasses Kentuckians. He’s evidently following the rude and tasteless behavior exhibited last year when he sent Christmas cards with a picture of his family holding AK-47s. I assume he thinks it represents what Jesus meant by “Peace” and “Goodwill toward men.” Recently, he refused to attend Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s speech before Congress. He may disagree with our policy toward Ukraine, but that is no excuse for bad manners by snubbing a foreign president’s speech to our entire governing body. He did not do his job or show respect.

Also, he must lack historical knowledge. Had the French not helped us break away from England during our revolution, we could have lost. France was gracious at that time. They were in debt from the French-Indian war, and a famine was beginning, one that spurred their own revolution. Is it not better to help Ukrainians, who were unjustly invaded, now rather than be like Chamberlain’s reaction to Hitler, acquiescing to power grabs, and ultimately fighting World War II?

We’re not only helping fellow democracies but preventing World War III. Bullies, like Putin, cannot be appeased, they must be stopped.

Ellen Clark Marshall, Lexington

Arm Afghani women

It is obvious that Afghani women have been attacked by a vicious, no-holds-barred killer invader — the Taliban. That’s no different, really, than the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Both invaders intend to kill or imprison their democracy-loving citizens. Therefore, the United States needs to take the same approach to the freedom-seeking citizens of Afghanistan that we took with Ukrainian defenders -- supply them with weapons of war, military training and munitions. While we’re at it, let’s send them those fighter planes sitting at the airport in Poland. Afghanistan women will be back in college in no time at all.

Ralph Derickson, Lexington

Speaker election

I don’t know about Republicans electing U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Cal.) to Speaker of the House. After all, during the Jan. 6 attacks on Congress, he kept bothering former President Donald Trump with phone calls asking him to call off the attack. A few days later, McCarthy gave a speech in Congress condemning Trump’s Jan. 6 actions. Even though he has since tried to take that back because it was too much of reality for republicans, all MAGAs remember his disloyalty to Trump that day.

Instead they should elect U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.). Look at her qualifications. She believes in QAnon, a mainstream belief of republicans and has a severe case of delusions of grandeur like Trump. Who could be better?

Maybe consider Kari Lake too, even though she is not a member of Congress and has never won an election. She is convinced that she won the election for governor of Arizona. She also has a severe case of delusions of grandeur and intends to carry on the duties of governor just like Trump is convinced he won the presidential election and is carrying on as president at Mar-A-Lago.

It will be hard to decide who is the most incapable candidate.

Kevin Kline, Lexington

Spending votes

On Dec. 23, U.S. Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) voted against a $1.7 trillion appropriations bill. In his press release explaining his vote, Barr called the bill “reckless”.

What would really have been reckless would have been to allow a handful of preening chuckleheads on Barr’s side of the aisle to obstruct not only the election of a House Speaker but the normal operation of government.

Everyone in the 6th District who receives a Social Security check has those who voted in favor of the bill to thank that their money cannot be held hostage before October. This includes all but one of the Democrats in the House, nine House Republicans, all the Democrats in the Senate, and seventeen Senate Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Jonathan Edwards, Lexington

Compiled by Liz Carey