Editor’s note: Starting this month, we’re going to resume publishing letters. If you have something to say and are local, send your thoughts — up to 200 words — to feedback@charlestoncitypaper.com. We reserved the right to edit for clarity and length. Make sure to include your name, hometown and phone number, which will only be used for verification purposes.
Ukraine needs our help
To the editor:
For the past 73 years, I’ve thought that, considering the alternative, living in the U.S. is pretty great. We’re a long way from perfect, but I’ll take the U.S. over any other country.
Our government is going through a lot of changes lately. Notwithstanding the history we have had with our allies as well as our perceived enemies, we chose to help Ukraine after [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin invaded on Feb 24, 2022. Now we are wavering.
Putin has shown his lack of respect for our decision to assist Ukraine financially and militarily. Putin also realizes that Americans run hot and cold with their support. Americans have demonstrated throughout history that we lose interest quickly. Putin plays the long game. He sends human waves to their deaths just to gain a few meters of burned-out land. Death and destruction are all he knows.
No one knows what is in Putin’s mind as regards his endgame. If you listen to the talking heads, many believe that taking over Ukraine is just the first step in Putin’s nationalistic vision to make Russia great again. He doesn’t allow anyone to dissent or oppose him. He controls the populace by fear, intimidation and/or murder. He respects no one or any boundaries.
We have given billions of dollars in financial and military support to help Ukraine from being absorbed back into Russia. Fast forward to mid-2023 and we are now admonishing the Kiev government for not moving fast enough against Russia.
Kiev requested long-range missiles. We wouldn’t send them for fear Kiev would hit targets within Russia. We did the same thing with our Abrams tanks and we withheld F-16s for the same reason. We are so afraid of being pulled into this war that we are giving huge financial aid but we’re not giving it in a timely fashion. We need to be in it to win it or we have wasted the billions in aid we’ve already given.
Our House of Representatives is helping Russia by holding up the new funding bill. It has no reason to do this except for politics. Some representatives would rather see hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians die just to keep from giving Biden a win. In the meantime, people are dying. It’s time for us as caring people to stop playing politics. Ukraine may not survive if we, as individuals, don’t help out.
Early on Kiev pivoted to the use of drones to neutralize Russia’s troops and equipment. Many Ukrainian soldiers begged on social media for money to buy FPV drones. The Ukrainian government set up a program called United 24 to secure donations from the public from across the world to fund the purchase of more drones. They used the funds to build drones capable of dropping grenades on the Russian invaders and the drones were immensely successful. If the House is not willing to pass the funding bill, we need to individually send funds to Kiev as soon as possible.
If we don’t help Kiev win this war, we will either see our children fighting in Europe or, God forbid, on our shores. We either help Kiev fight Putin in Ukraine or get prepared for a much larger and uglier fight.
Please put petty politics aside, come together as Democracy-loving Americans, and help our Ukrainian brothers fight against this tyranny. Give $5 or $500 to https://u24.gov.ua/. This is the right thing to do. Time is running out for Ukraine. Help rally your friends to support this effort. Slava UkrainI.
— Michael Kaynard, Charleston, S.C.
Fetal heartbeat law limits family options
To the editor:
While lawmakers argue South Carolinians’ value for life with the passage of the fetal heartbeat law, many South Carolina women disagree. One of the most distinguishing experiences of womanhood is the experience of childbirth and the families’ liberty to make decisions in their best interests. However, many family’s options have been limited by fetal heartbeat enactment’s unrealistic time constraints.
While there are many reasons South Carolinians argue the significance and/or need for the fetal heartbeat bill, none of them really address the real issue for women in the United States, more specifically, South Carolina. The same value and responsibility the state places on women should be placed on laws guiding medical care for women. While the fetal heartbeat law addresses the value of a newborn’s life by ensuring the life is preserved, the state does not have equitable laws to ensure that doctors and health care professionals provide women with the quality healthcare they need to ensure that the child is born and the mother survives child birth.
The rates of maternal mortality have been consistently rising in the State of South Carolina, and our rates supersede the national average of pregnancy related deaths. According to S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, of pregnancy-related deaths in South Carolina in 2022, 80% were preventable. In addition, the infant mortality rate increased 40% between 2017 and 2021. While these disparaging numbers are atrocious for all South Carolina women, they are alarming for women who are melanated. Historic data supports that under the care of midwives, the rates for maternal and infant mortality were much lower. Today, midwives are not allowed in hospital delivery rooms. If allowed to enter, they are entering under the pretense of being a family member or a friend.
Stories like the one presented in For the Love of Maddie where medical mishaps occur and result with death, long-term health problems or damage to reproductive organs happen too frequently for women to be forced on to a table they may not make it off of, especially if they are melanated. In short, forcing women onto a birthing table without making provisions to properly care for them at the table brings about the same result as an abortion for most women and children. Under these conditions, forcing childbirth does not send a message for the value of life, demonstrating value for life would require making laws holding everyone at the table accountable for all of the women and children’s lives on the table.
—Robyn Mixon, Summerville, S.C.
Address homelessness
To the editor:
More Americans were homeless in 2023 than ever before, especially among the elderly and disabled. It isn’t uncommon to see unhoused people carrying oxygen tanks, in wheelchairs, and dealing with a variety of health challenges. Politicians have proposed tent cities, mental institutions and passing stricter laws to keep the homeless off the streets, but these solutions don’t seem to address causes.
Homelessness is obviously a multifaceted issue. In addition to addressing the lack of affordable housing, there needs to be more conversations about Social Security and Medicaid. SSI, a program for seniors, blind people and people with disabilities, has strict asset limitations. These arbitrary laws discourage recipients from earning and saving more money, as beneficiaries can lose their health insurance. Policy changes coupled with more housing options will go a long way.
— Marie Griffin, Spartanburg, S.C.
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