The Constitution establishes three separate, co-equal, independent branches of government to guard against overreach by any one of them. American judges decide cases not by the will of each changing administration but by the law. There are countries where judges always do as the executive branch instructs them, but Americans love freedom more than to let that happen here. The rule of law is our guarantee of freedom.
Why not stop the harsh name-calling, and speak reasonably and respectfully with each other. For myself, I urge we firmly reject this strange, new idea, and maintain instead the time-tested wisdom and sanity of the Constitution and its safeguards. Surely, doing so in this critical moment of our nation’s history is essential if we are to “secure the Blessings of Liberty, to ourselves and our Posterity.”
- William H. Johnston, Kettering
As the last few days of the Islamic Holy Month of Fasting - Ramadan - pass us by, it gives us a chance to reflect.
In The Holy Qur’an, Muslims read: “O ye who believe! fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may become righteous”
Healthy adults are required to fast during Ramadan by abstaining from eating and drinking from dawn to sunset.
The physical intake is instead substituted for spiritual intake. What is ‘spiritual intake’?
It is: The Remembrance of God, Worshipping, Reading The Holy Qur’an (Islamic Scripture), Giving in Charity and Doing Good Deeds to Benefit the World.
Muslims find an atmosphere in which they can establish a closer relationship with The Creator and also to sympathize with and help fellow man.
Where this month increases one in righteousness it should also encourage the believer to spread peace
Peace - a word which the world sorely needs.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the oldest Muslim community to formally come to The United States and which recently celebrated its 136th birthday, has always led by example in promoting peace on all levels through advising that Absolute Justice must always be shown to all.
As this month closes it leaves behind a task for every believer.
That task is to LOVE - love like a mother loves her child, show kindness and sympathy to everyone regardless of faith, class, ethnicity or background.
Through this we can start to build a world full of peace.
- Usama Rehman, Dayton
Credit: John Flesher
Credit: John Flesher
Spring is a time when farmers in Ohio and across the nation are busy caring for livestock, maintaining equipment, and making decisions in preparation for a new season of growth.
March is National Agriculture Month, a time to collectively take a moment to appreciate agriculture and the producers who run Ohio’s more than 76,500 farms that bring us much-needed food, fuel, fiber, wood, and other agricultural products every day.
National Agriculture Month celebrates our farmers who work hard 365 days a year to provide food and agricultural products, spurring jobs and other economic activity in the process.
Agriculture touches every corner of Ohio, is the backbone of our economy, a part of our proud history, and remains a strong foundation for our current way of life.
As a farmer myself, I like to say that agriculture is everyone’s business. Ohio’s food and agriculture industry adds $124 billion to the economy each year and employs one in eight Ohioans on or off the farm.
Ohio farmers grow 200 different crops and livestock on more than 13 million acres of farmland and is a top national producer of Swiss cheese, milk, pork, corn, soybeans, maple syrup, grapes and wine, nursery stock, and much more.
Thanks to farmers’ strong business knowledge and their ability to change and adapt with the times, they are using technology to produce more with less. Farmers today are using things like GPS systems in combines, robotic milkers, energy-harnessing methane digestors to produce and provide. They are doing all of this in conservation-based ways that protect, preserve, and conserve the integrity of their land.
During National Agriculture Month, I encourage you to celebrate the small percentage of people who sacrifice so much to provide for the masses.
Now more than ever, agriculture is everyone’s business. When the farmer does well, we all benefit.
- Brian Baldridge, Director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
March 24 was World Tuberculosis (TB) Day and a reminder that the threat of tuberculosis is alive and real. In 2023 alone, TB infected 10 million people around the world and took 1.25 million lives. Fortunately, TB is very treatable and we have succeeded in nearly eradicating it in the U.S.
I grew up in north Dayton, and as a teenager, I became acquainted with the Stillwater Sanitorium on Main St., built in the early 20th century to care for Tuberculosis patients. By the 60’s, Ohio was succeeding in treating patients and the space at the sanitorium was no longer needed to quarantine patients suffering from this deadly air-born pulmonary infection. (The Sanitorium was converted to housing for severely developmentally-delayed children and I volunteered there and became interested in the history of the original majestic building.)
Fortunately, decades of international cooperation have us closer to ending TB worldwide than at any time in history. According to the WHO, 79 million lives have been saved in the last 25 years from these efforts.
But TB has been given new life. The Trump Administration’s decision to callously shut down USAID foreign aid programs has thrown the world’s fight against TB into a tailspin. We are already seeing the resurgence of TB overseas and it is now reappearing in the U.S.
As we recognize World TB Day, please may our members of Congress recognize the success our foreign aid programs have done to save lives and promote health and goodwill overseas and in the U.S. and re-implement these programs immediately.
- Karen Hansen, Columbus
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