Ohio should return Bernie Moreno to his car dealership| Letters

Return Moreno to his car dealership

Once again, Sen. Bernie Moreno has shown his allegiance is to President Donald Trump, his incompetent cabinet members, and his Republican Party as opposed to his constituents in the state of Ohio.

Here I thought he was elected to serve in the Senate to represent the interests of the residents of Ohio. Under orders from Trump, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued an order to discontinue the Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. That order was stayed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Moreno issued the following statement: “When a Democratic President can create a TEMPORARY program and an unelected judge can unilaterally block a duly elected Republican President from ever undoing it, we do not live in a democracy. It’s not permanent protected status. This outrageous decision cannot stand.”

The city of Springfield needs the Haitians to fill local jobs and stimulate the economy. Various local organizations as well as Gov. Mike DeWine support the continuation of TPS for the Haitians. However, that was ignored by Moreno.

Time to remind Moreno of his priorities when he runs for reelection. Vote him out of office so he can return to selling cars.

Bill Baecker, New Albany

Ohio needs property taxes

Re "I'm basically renting the home I own," Feb 21: Nobody enjoys paying taxes; I sure don't. But they are the cost of living in a civilized society, within which we hope for our communities to ever improve, or at least not to decline.

Letter writer James Brady indicates "users of the education system" should "pay for it."

If you attended public school, you were a user, and your way was paid for by the generations who came before you. Even if you had the good fortune to attend private school, you are surrounded by people who make your community possible and functional every day (nurses, firefighters, plumbers, doctors, electricians, police), most of whom received at the very least their basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills in public school.

As a homeowner, I am no stranger to the burden of the property tax. But a society that chooses to short-change the youngest generations in exchange for the comfort of the eldest generations is indeed a very unhealthy society in my eyes.

Colin Borsh, Columbus

Political affiliation matters

There are a lot of differing opinions on what effect 2025's Senate Bill 1 — Advance Ohio Higher Education Act — has on free speech in higher education. Recently, a member of the American Association of University Professors highlighted all the ways this law is chilling free speech.

As with physics, for every opinion there is an equal and opposite opinion. So now we have three distinguished academics explaining that, actually, no, what professors think is happening isn't actually happening.

The bylines listed these writers' academic associations but failed to list their ideological associations. Hal Arkes is a member of the Buckeye Institute, a known right-wing think tank.

George Dent and David Forte are members of the Federalist Society, an institution that many people know as a right-wing think tank pushing political policy. It is also, unsurprisingly in light of this op-ed, very much opposed to DEI.

Perhaps readers would view this op-ed differently if it was clearly labeled as the work of three right-wing think tank members. Then the inherent bias would be obvious up front. Perhaps the Dispatch should reconsider what kind of information is relevant about op-ed contributors.

Dennis Drew, Columbus