As the world gets hotter, who will protect us?
As news coverage continues about the excessive heat warnings for over half the nation, the AJC story about Occupational Safety and Health Administration holding hearings on heat protections proposed during the Biden administration provides insights into the direction these might take. Monied interests are again at odds with workers’ rights: greed versus empathy/safety.
Imagine you are a field laborer or construction worker, constantly on the move on a sunny day with temperatures above 90 degrees. Climate change is making such days more commonplace. Shouldn’t the government protect you from heat suffering, stroke or death by allowing you water breaks at reasonable intervals? Does higher productivity outweigh life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
As the world gets ever hotter, who is going to protect you from fossil fuels warming your world past your comfort zone? Do you want to be forced to live inside in air-conditioning that makes the outside world even hotter? Now is the time: a choice for you and your children. Clean energy or …
JOHN W. SHACKLETON JR., ATLANTA
Court’s ruling shows regard for trans minors
Regarding the hyperbolic and inflammatorily titled “SCOTUS legitimizes attacks on trans people” (AJC, June 26), Thomas Mew might be “an expert on legal issues related to the LGBTQ+ community,” but he mischaracterizes the Supreme Court’s decision upholding “a Tennessee law banning gender affirming therapies for minors.”
The Tennessee law is not an “attack on transgender people (that’s) the product of prejudice, ignorance and callous disregard.” The ruling shows an abundance of regard for minors’ biological sex and prudent judgment regarding applying life-altering procedures based on minors’ and/or their parents’ dysphoria regarding a minor’s gender.
Lawyers such as Mew will soon be inundated with young clients coming of age and suing medical providers who abused them as youth with “gender-affirming care,” causing irreparable harm to those minors. That is, if Mew is not being sued himself for the role he played in the harm done.
Minors can’t legally purchase or smoke cigarettes because smoking can cause medical problems down the road. But questionable gender-affirming care and drastic physical alterations? Sure. What could go wrong?
GREGORY MARSHALL, MARIETTA
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
