What does ‘convoy of crybabies’ say about future of our democracy?
Good morning,
I am Amelia Robinson, the Dispatch’s opinion and engagement editor. Thanks for signing up for the Columbus Conversation newsletter. This is our first one and boy do we have much to discuss.
Kiev, Ukraine’s capital and its most populous city, is a whopping 5,007 miles away from Columbus, the United States’ 14th largest city and the capital of Ohio, the nation’s seventh most populated state.
Despite the distance, the horror unfolding in Kiev is on the hearts and minds of many living here and elsewhere in the Buckeye State.
Columns on the crisis in Ukraine by Christopher Gelpi, an Ohio State University political science professor, and Wittenberg University Chair in the HumanitiesChristian Raffensperger, an expert on Russian and Ukrainian history, were among our most popular recent guest columns.
More:Professor: We made Putin’s war with Ukraine ‘inevitable’
Greater Columbus residents are thinking of Ukraine, but they are also thinking of America — and the rights we enjoy or/and take for granted.
Letter writer Ronald L. Solove of Columbus was outraged by news that as many as 1,000 drivers in “big-man trucks” planned to “screw up” traffic throughout Ohio to protest vaccinations and masks requirements.
“Meanwhile, brave citizens of Ukraine stand against a murderous Russia to preserve freedom,” he wrote. “What a bunch of crybabies those drivers are. They should hide their faces in shame.”
Solove raised the ire of a group of letter writers that include Chris Beale of London.
He says he agrees with the truckers’ right to protest peacefully, a right Ukrainians will lose if Russia is victorious.
“At least the writer did not call them ‘white supremacists’ and ‘Nazis,’ as Justin Trudeau (prime minister of Canada) recently said,” Beale wrote in letters just published to our website.
Another writer agreed with Solove saying the trucker protest was far from peaceful.
“Blocking a bridge that stops the delivery of millions of dollars of goods and services and normal public traffic is breaking the law,” Douglas Smith of Gahanna writes.
Here is a question for you, where is the line between peaceful protest and breaking the law? Have the truckers crossed it? Let us know in a letter to the editor.
More:How to submit a letter to the editor for The Columbus Dispatch
Letters you may have missed:
More:Letters: Capitol rioter defenders betray real American heroes. JD Vance lacks character
More:Letters: Shame on those supporting Trump after Ukraine. JD Vance no Appalachian spokesman.
More:Letters: ‘What in God’s name is happening to the U.S.A.?’ Responses to Ukraine sickening
Speaking of democracy, redistricting continues to cause heartburn in Ohio.
Many readers are fed up with the Ohio Redistricting Commission and its antics. (How concerned are you?)
Nothing less than your vote hangs in the balance.
Columnist Thomas Suddes reasoned that picking names from beach towel-size ballot would be better than the current redistricting “melodrama.”
“Dollars to doughnuts, the legislature would end up with 20 members named Brown and a dozen named Sweeney, and you’d never know it wasn’t the same assembly Ohio has now,” he writes.
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Have a fantastic day,
Amelia
Email:[email protected]
Twitter: @1AmeliaRobinson
Read More: What does ‘convoy of crybabies’ say about future of our democracy?