David Taylor's vision for how to govern should be soundly rejected by voters | Opinion

America does not need or want another Trump protégé in Congress. David Taylor is a part-time prosecutor with a Trump-type mentality. How can he apply justice to defendants if he thinks Trump didn't inspire the rioters? Taylor also thinks Trump is being victimized by the U.S. Department of Justice with President Joe Biden's direction with no proof to back up the ridiculous accusation. Another point made by the extreme right-wing candidate is that he would take away Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) from millions of citizens who receive adequate health care at a reasonable price. This candidate for Congress should think about the Florida governor who thought being a Trump duplicate would be a success. Everyone has a First Amendment right to voice their opinion on how this country should be governed. I think Taylor's vision will be soundly rejected by voters. Extreme views excite certain groups, but truth over power wins every time.

Benjamin Crews, Springdale

Connected Communities initiative a gift to developers

Cincinnati targets the same old neighborhoods to accommodate developers. The city's "Connected Communities" initiative is a scam. By targeting already overburdened areas with this blanket gift to developers of no parking restrictions and no more single-family areas within a half mile on either side of Reading Road and Hamilton Avenue, it is removing the tools these individual neighborhoods have to preserve their built environment. In the video provided on the info website on selling "Middle Housing" states "take Hyde Park for example..." It is a perfect example; the only areas impacted in Hyde Park are the business districts, while single-family areas remain intact including their parking restrictions. In Bond Hill, nearly the entire neighborhood is impacted − no parking restrictions, no single-family homes. In North Avondale, the entire neighborhood is impacted. If the City wants to do away with single-family homes, every neighborhood should bear the impact, not just those City Council teams less worthy of zoning protection. The campaign is slick, the website is slick, I have to wonder, who is paying for all this? Who is lobbying council to ease or remove obstacles to developers? Things that make you go, hmmmm?

Vanessa Wong, North Avondale

School choice screams elitism not equal access

In response to the op-ed by Orlando Sonza, "Parents deserve better education options for kids," Mr. Sonza is right; it is time for a change, but school choice is not the answer. All children need access to a good education, and their families should not have to apply to a separate school to receive it.Sonza quotes the phrase, "the cream of the crop rises to the top," a phrase rooted in the concept of competition. When it comes to the topic of children’s access to quality public education, competition has no place at the table. With regard to education, he is not striking the proper tone for someone running for Congress.

Sonza refers to the "partisan elites” being "scared of high-level community schools competing with the traditional public option." He has it backwards. Having to send my child to a separate school in order to receive a quality education screams elitism, not equal access.Ironically, the webpage for Cincinnati Classical Academy, a school which Sonza references in his op-ed, features "The pursuit of the good, the true, and the beautiful is good for everyone" − except, everyone cannot attend there. Everyone can, however, attend their local public school. A better solution to Sonza’s concern about "a subpar educational experience in Southwest Ohio" is to fix the funding problem for Ohio’s public schools.

Sonza states that "those against school choice are scared that parents will learn about the academic richness at schools like CCA." This statement is condescending and false. Perhaps those who are against school choice realize that if there is a choice between attending a separate “outstanding” school or a “subpar” school, then that means that some students are still attending a subpar school, which is unacceptable, divisive and inequitable. And, is it really a choice, if the child’s family has to apply to attend and may not get in? I am against school choice, and I am scared, but not of what Sonza states I am. I am scared of someone in the United States Congress who believes that the fix to the problem of subpar schools is promoting competition and separation instead of providing equitable access.

Amy Mason, West Chester

Tax code is failing small businesses

As a small business owner, I know that our tax code is failing Main Street. This Tax Day, let's reflect on the need to overhaul the system. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which has many provisions set to expire, is particularly ripe for overhaul.

Supporters of the Trump tax law promised it would bolster small businesses, but a recent Small Business for America's Future survey showed most respondents believe the law primarily benefited the wealthy and large corporations. Lawmakers must remember that the tax code can and should be written to support small businesses.

Anne Zimmerman, Anderson Township

Gun ownership comes with serious responsibilities

After a recent township meeting a resident was making a point about gun rights. Their position was that they would defend to the death the rights of a gun owner to do as they please on their own property, to shoot as much as they want and at any hour of the day without concern for neighbors or public safety.

I listened for a few moments, and then said I disagreed with their position. My counterpoint was that while I agree with the Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms and being a gun owner myself, I believe there are certain communal obligations and responsibilities that go along with that right.

For instance, continually squeezing off 200 rounds in the middle of the night to scare off coyotes while alarming your neighbors is an irresponsible act. For me personally, as a combat Vietnam veteran who has contended with PTSD for a long time, indiscriminate, unrelenting gunfire is something I don’t want to relive and have those actions trigger my harbored emotions as I try to live the rest of my life in peace and tranquility.

Additionally, with the unrelenting wave of mass shootings in schools and social gatherings, gun owners should consider how parents, children and crime victims can be distressed or even terrified by arbitrary and excessive firing.

As responsible gun owners, we need to understand that everyone in our communities have rights, and the earned privilege to live in a neighborly fashion is paramount to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Gun ownership comes with serious responsibilities for owners and their use should not be intolerant of others’ rights.

Maybe Article 1 from The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states it best: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

Mark Cann, Pierce Township

Reading should be about the enjoyment of story not puzzle-solving

`As a retired reading specialist, I read with interest Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's version of what he calls "the science of reading." There are gaps in teaching readers to rely solely on pronouncing letter sounds when they approach a text that results in a noticeable number of children for whom reading becomes a challenge.

Readers of French, German or Italian print know that they will always meet the same sound for each letter they encounter. But, when we readers attend to the printed version of our English language we, too, are aware that letters represent sounds, but we have to learn to accommodate knowledge of the untrustworthiness of the principle of one letter representing one sound. Witness the word, gazebo: Is it GAZE-BO or GA-ZEE-BO? COR-PO-RA-SHUN or COR-PO-RA-TI-ON? How does each version contribute to understanding a text? Strategies for reading in those three above-mentioned languages differ from those that apply to our English ones.

Given that we cannot trust that each letter stands for the same English sound, we must also keep in mind what we know about the way words string together in our language as well as our awareness of the topic of the text we meet, in order to gain meaning from our efforts.

A refusal to acknowledge these three ways that we interact with print can often result in an exercise in futility as we try to solve the puzzle of pronouncing sound and hoping to find meaning. A wise professor at The University of Cincinnati once offered, "Reading is NOT the solving of a puzzle, it is instead, the enjoyment of a story or the discovery of information."

I see too many children at my dining room table each summer, who have yet to discover the joy of reading because they have been turned off by this puzzle-solving activity that the governor and some others recommend. Please, let us educators use what we know about how to teach children to read!

Marianne Davis, Anderson Township

Biden out of touch with many Americans on state of economy

President Joe Biden's former chief of staff Ron Klain recently said that the president was "too focused on taking victory laps on infrastructure projects, and not concerned enough about the price of groceries and gasoline." In other words, Klain understands that inflation still isn't under control, people are hurting, and Biden should address that. The problem was confirmed when the Labor Department released last month's inflation number and it showed a 3.5% increase over the already high number from March 2023. When voters are asked the usual election year question of "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?" you can bet you aren't going to hear too many say, "Hooray for Bidenomics."

Jeff Lynne, Edgewood, Ky.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Republican David Taylor has Trump-like mentality | Opinion