Letters to the editor

Standing still is a crime? So Findlay's latest bright idea is to make "lingering in public without an apparent purpose" a crime. Translation: if you stand too long thinking about lunch, you might be obstructing justice, or at least pedestrian traffic. Law Director Robert Feighner assures us the ordinance is fine because it borrows from laws written in 1969 and 1973! Right, because nothing says "constitutionally sound" like borrowing from the Nixon era. He even argues there must not have been any "successful" constitutional challenges. That's a bold claim, given that the U.S. Supreme Court literally struck down vague loitering laws for exactly this reason (Papachristou v. Jacksonville, 1972). This ordinance doesn't stop crime — it just gives police the power to decide who "looks like" they have no purpose. Spoiler: it's never the guy in a suit holding a latte. We've already banned sleeping in public. Now we're banning standing too long. Maybe next month's agenda will tackle "breathing suspiciously" within city limits. If Findlay wants to keep downtown welcoming, here's a radical idea: invest in people, not petty ordinances that turn existing into a misdemeanor. Robby Leatherman Findlay Off-year elections I applaud Ron Lora's op-ed piece entitled "Off-year elections do matter." Municipal and county elections are the bedrock of our democracy. These are the elections that make a difference and, through these elections, state and national politics may change. I am most disappointed that I only had two races to vote upon this year: Council At Large and the Van Buren School Board. Sadly, all the other races had been determined in the primary. Could this be the reason the turnout is so low in municipal and county elections? James Funk Findlay