Moving Forward
Over the last four months, I have been working to increase renewable energy in Kentucky through the Clean Energy and Opportunity Act. It has been one of the most difficult things I have done so far, but also one of the most rewarding. I watched as cities were destroyed in the Philippines due to increased extreme weather from global climate change. I have seen West Virginians’ water poisoned and watched as the same contamination washed down the river in my hometown. I even saw my brothers and sisters denied the right to speak with their legislatures and participate in the democratic process because they were 17, the same age I was when I enlisted.
Through all of this, I did not lose hope; my resolve was strengthened, and so has the passion of other youth in the state. We are tired of watching the world be destroyed around us and tired of feeling like we do not have a place we belong. Every day I talk with other students who are standing up to create the world they want to be a part of, and it gives me hope for the future.
Dominic Maritt, Goshen, Ky.
Capital Letters are His
Hooray for Wayne Lela of Illinois for pointing out the blatant heterophobia of the left (LEO Weekly, Feb. 19). I am so sick and tired of being called intolerant, racist, homophobic, etc., because I am a Christian and believe in Christ’s teachings of love and inclusion of all under His guidance. Makes me sad when the left claims to be “tolerant” when they are the MOST intolerant of all! People get mad whenever Christ asks us to be obedient to Him. Christ did NOT say, “Be ye happy.” He said, “Be obedient,” and true peace and happiness will be yours. I am living testament that His words are true. When we go against Him, we may initially experience happiness, as there is pleasure in sin ... for a “season,” as He stated. But that way only leads to hell. Please, search your heart now while you have the chance. After you die and stand before Him alone, watching your entire life being replayed before you, it will be too late for you.
Shawn D. Sumner, Jeffersonville
$100 An Hour!
Regarding the “Waging a fight” news piece in the Feb. 5 LEO Weekly: The Economic Policy Institute, surely as under-appreciated by conservatives as ancient alchemists are by modern chemists and perpetual-motion-machine designers are by engineers and physicists, has waved a magic wand and judged that the minimum wage can be raised in such a way that jobs will not be lost but will be gained. Hallelujah! Employers will no longer hire people based on the value of their labor, which if it were less than the minimum wage in old times meant they would not hire them, but now on some new basis? In light of this new situation, is raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour really enough? Can’t we give poor hardworking people more? Why not raise the minimum wage to $100 an hour? Why must we be so arbitrarily stingy?
There is a better way. A universal credit or negative-income tax that gives people a minimum income guarantee regardless of employment status but maintains an incentive for them to do more to help themselves would surely be more effective and be without the risk that the Economic Policy Institute is wrong about the abilities of its magic wand.
Rich Mills, Shawnee
Bully Rand Paul
In a recent interview, Sen. Rand Paul says: “It’s important that people think that their government not be used to bully them.” Hello? Where is Paul’s shock and outrage at his own earlier bluster and the ongoing Tea Party’s bully behavior — holding Congress hostage, blocking legislation, paralyzing our government? Where is Paul’s rejection of GOP-gerrymandered districts that gave Republicans power-grab control over the U.S. House of Representatives?
Trying to exploit Chris Christie’s downfall, Paul’s pretended moderation clashes with his own Senate record. Paul’s cruel rejection of the unemployment-insurance extension is extremism. His equally cruel damning of food stamps as “slavery” is extremism. Not signs that an extremist is coming in from the cold. Sly Paul’s latest rhetoric is merely a shrewd attempt to repackage himself as an appealing presidential candidate. Paul warns that red states will flip to blue — but extremist Paul remains central to the GOP’s problem.
Michael Gregoire, St. Matthews
