Election letters deadline
The deadline for any letters to the editor related to the Nov. 7 election are due by the end of the day Oct. 25. The word limit for letters is 350 words, and must include the person’s name, address (which will not be printed) and a phone number to contact. Letters to the editor may be sent to tshipley@gannett.com
Delivering more good
According to Scripps Gerontology Center, a national aging research institute of excellence at Miami University, Fairfield County’s population of people age 60 and older will grow 35% between 2020 and 2030.
In order to serve the growing number of seniors in Fairfield County and avoid a wait list for meals and other critical services, the agency relies on funding generated from the Meals on Wheels Senior Services Levy. State law requires that the Meals on Wheels Senior Services Levy come before the voters for renewed support every five years. The current senior services levy is due to expire at the end of 2023.
Meals on Wheels is a good investment for our community. In fact, Meals on Wheels services help older adults avoid costly healthcare alternatives, which saves taxpayers money in the long run. Meals on Wheels can provide care to an older adult for an entire year for about the same cost as one day in the hospital or seven days in a nursing home. In addition, a study by Brown University indicated that every dollar invested in programs like Meals on Wheels, saves up to fifty dollars in Medicare and Medicaid spending realized through reduced emergency room visits, reduced re-admissions to the hospital, and reduced admissions to costly healthcare alternatives.
Under the guidance of our Board of Trustees, supported by a dedicated staff, and supplemented by an army of volunteers, Meals on Wheels Fairfield County has grown into a community institution. For 50 years, we have helped older adults living in Fairfield County adjust to the challenges that often come with aging, providing reassurance that they are not alone, that their lives matter, and that their needs will be met in a dignified and respectful manner. Meals on Wheels makes a real and significant difference in the health and well-being of thousands of older adults each year, enabling them to thrive while living safely at home, where they want to be. But there is more to do as the aging population continues to grow across Fairfield County
Please support the Meals on Wheels Senior Services Levy this November to maintain the critical services that ensure health, connection, and independence for older adults during a time in their lives when they need a helping hand. With your support, we can provide assurance that seniors who need services will receive services through the trusted Meals on Wheels program here in Fairfield County.
Anna TobinExecutive DirectorMeals on Wheels Fairfield County
Joe “Walks the Walk” Literally; “45” not, at all
President Biden demonstrated his support for ordinary Americans in another historic way on Tuesday, Sept. 26th, when he became the first sitting president to join a picket line of striking workers. In Wayne County, Michigan, he joined a UAW strike, telling the striking autoworkers, “Wall Street didn’t build the country, the middle class built the country. Unions built the middle class. That’s a fact. Let’s keep going, you deserve what you’ve earned. And you’ve earned a hell of a lot more than you’re getting paid now.
Twice impeached and indicted former President Trump, lost to Joe Biden. Unbelievably, “45” tried to woo US autoworkers in a rambling speech in Michigan on Wednesday night that took potshots at Joe Biden, electric vehicles and Barack Obama while pushing culture war issues and fell far short of supporting the core issues that have many car workers currently on strike. The speech came a day after Joe Biden spoke to striking United Auto Workers members on a picket line.
The former US president and other prominent Republicans have consistently attacked unions but many are now being more supportive of the UAW strike. Trump is the overwhelming frontrunner in the Republican 2024 nomination race and Michigan and other Rust Belt states are seen as crucial battlegrounds in the race for the White House.
At one stage Trump said that the UAW leader, Shawn Fain, should endorse him and called him “a good man … he’s got to endorse Trump.” In the run-up to the visit Fain, however, has been withering in his opinion of Trump and declined to meet him.
Fain: “I see no point in meeting with him because I don’t think the man has any bit of care about what our workers stand for, what the working class stands for,” Fain said before Trump’s visit. “He serves a billionaire class, and that’s what’s wrong with this country.” Biden had attended the UAW picket at Fain’s invitation.
Trump’s pathetic, hypocritical speech, insults the Union workers’ intelligence.
Donald doesn’t know what an honest day’s work is.
Bob MuckensturmLancaster
It’s simple, it’s about choice
Ohio is facing the debate, controversy, and history of abortion that can be summarized in one word: CHOICE. The question before us is whether to honor the American tradition of freedom of choice; or not. Vote Yes for Choice, or you are voting for anti-Choice.
Of all the misleading and inaccurate rhetorical labels or slogans, Pro-Life is the most obvious misnomer. It’s often a faction that offers so little interest or funding for those of us already here- on issues like prenatal care, child support, parental leave, daycare, education, gun violence, death penalty, fair wages, equal justice, universal health care, global warming.
A similar crowd also fails to see the abject hypocrisy of demanding “our body, our choice” when talking about pandemic restrictions and vaccines, but failing to offer the same consideration to women’s right to autonomy.
Good health care for women necessarily includes the possibility of abortion that is chosen by a woman, her family, and a doctor providing professional advice and services. Those in favor of abortions want them to be personal, private, safe, rare, and free of political intrusion.
Improper legal rulings like Dobbs took away the constitutional right to abortion, abandoning almost 50 years of precedence. The dissenting opinions were more honest, the Court “says that from the very moment of fertilization, a woman has no rights to speak of.”
This barely legitimate, unethical, partisan SOTUS and 6 perjured Catholics forced their religion on the nation, while violating Amendments 9, 13, and 14. Condemning childbirth for females as young as 10 is denying “certain rights,” 9 months of “involuntary servitude,” deprivation of “life, liberty, or property” with the cost and burden of a child’s expense, and abridges a woman’s “privileges or immunities.”
The religious argument (Genesis 2:7) had for centuries been that the fetus was not a human soul until its viable first “breath of life.” Personhood at conception is a recent fabrication, a controversy largely began in the 19th century as a point of slavery and patriarchal nativism. Black women were to continue birthing more enslaved assets, and White women to continue supporting numerical white supremacy.
Allen BrandBremen
