Letters: Kenmore Leg? Go north to get west? Akron Expressway can be so confusing

The road to confusion

The Summit County area has interesting road configurations.

There is the famous Tallmadge Circle, which was constructed in 1807 and has been in continuous use to the present day, handling 45,000 cars a day. The city of Green has a series of roundabouts that go round about repeatedly. It feels like a game of pinball when traveling by car.

The Akron Expressway system has signage, or no signage, which is confusing. To get to West Akron, take the North Leg because there isn’t a sign that points west. To add to misunderstanding, take the East Expressway to Youngstown or Cleveland, depending on which ramp you veer onto.

Don’t bother looking for the Kenmore Leg because it is never mentioned except in the newspaper or on the air. There is no sign pointing to the Kenmore Leg. However, there is a sign directing one to Barberton. If one takes that route, one will find Kenmore Boulevard.

There are warnings about the Kenmore Leg because trucks can tip over on it, but the word “Kenmore” never appears anywhere along Interstate 76. How does one find the Kenmore Expressway? Is it marked on maps or GPS as such?

In other states, the road is called a freeway or interstate. Here it is an expressway, and with its many problems, i.e. endless construction, off and on ramps crossing each other, barriers forming alleys of highways, and overhead signs with large stickers saying “closed,” and don’t even think about the detours, everyone still seems to be able to drive around relatively safely and eventually arrive at their destination.

Carolyn Wolfe, Tallmadge

A prescription for reform

I take prescription medications every day, which means I’m no stranger to my local pharmacy. Since being prescribed a new medication a few months ago, I chose a pharmacy just five minutes from my home.

Everything was fine for a while — I was paying around $28 a month after insurance — and then one day out of the blue, I went to pick up my prescription and my new total was $112.

This wasn’t because the price of my medication changed, but because my insurer and pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) were using a “patient steering” policy to make sure I could only pick up my prescription at one of the pharmacies they own or work with. Now, I have to drive 15 minutes more to another pharmacy just to pick up the prescriptions I need on a regular basis.

It doesn’t sit well with me that PBMs can just dictate when and where patients can access their doctor-prescribed medications or make us go out of our way to pick them up. What makes matters worse is that Congress had the chance to pass bipartisan reforms of harmful PBM practices last year, and still couldn’t get the job done.

Sen. Sherrod Brown should push his colleagues to pass PBM reform in the next couple of weeks by incorporating the reforms from the Delinking Revenue from Unfair Gouging (DRUG) Act into the larger budget legislation that Congress is working on. It’s time someone held PBMs accountable.

Josh Villers, Akron

Differing view on climate

I write this knowing that the Beacon Journal will probably not publish it because it runs counter to its agenda, but, what the heck, it will make me feel better for trying. It is a response to Professor Bill Wilen’s guest column Feb. 25 (“Who will help us survive our fragile climate moment?”

Wilen's column is a dire warning about the catastrophic effects of man-caused climate change, which will be, according to Wilen and his sources, another great extinction. This will happen unless we elect a president who will take us off fossil fuels and replace them with energy sources like wind and solar, which have proved to be highly unreliable.

Frequently in his column, Wilen invokes “the truth,” which has been revealed to him in order that he he might enlighten us with it. For that, we must be grateful. I would suggest, however, that in reading Wilen’s column, we should keep several ideas in mind. For instance:

“Believe those who seek the truth. Doubt those who find it.” — Andre Gide, French author

“Since the current opinion of the scientific establishment is only the latest and never the last word, we must for our own safety as a public bear the responsibility of being skeptical of our scientists and their pronouncements.” — M. Scott Peck, “People of the Lie”

“The language of catastrophe is not the language of science.” — Bjorn Lomborg, Danish author

“No scientist can tell you with credibility whether the climate in 2030 will be cooler or warmer than today.” — Robert Carter, former head of the School of Earth Sciences at James Cook University

“The idea of ‘settled science’ is an oxymoron, and those who speak of it are only making fools of themselves.” — Roger L. Simon, The Epoch Times

“Global warming is about politics and power rather than science.” — Richard Lindzen, professor emeritus of meteorology at MIT

Global warming is about giving more power (and money) to the government so it can save us from the coming climate catastrophe. More power (and money) is what the government seeks. In that regard, we should keep a few more pieces of wisdom in mind:

“The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false face to rule it.” — H.L. Mencken

“The welfare of the people has always been the alibi of tyrants.” — Albert Camus

“The sky is falling!” — Chicken Little

“Never let a good crisis go to waste.” — Rahm Emanuel

“Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant.” — James Madison

We will believe Professor Wilen’s version of “the truth” at our peril.

Terry Walrath, Hinckley Township

Justice deferred

The decision by the Supreme Court to decide whether a president can assassinate his political opponents (as Donald Trump’s lawyers averred) is all the evidence we need that the justices are in the pocket of the former president. They have been slow in making this decision and are delaying hearing arguments for more than a month. These actions are taken to slow justice and suppress evidence of wrongdoing strictly to benefit Trump.

The lack of ethics among the justices has been evident. The court’s eagerness to kowtow to special interests and far-right ideologues is well established. But even the most cynical observers didn’t think the court would stoop so low as to blatantly throw the election to the Republican candidate by delaying his trials so significantly.

Americans deserve to have all the information about candidates for office. If Trump is guilty of the crimes he’s alleged to have committed, we have a right to know. If he is innocent, we have a right to know. This unwarranted delay by the Supreme Court is a slap to the faces of all voters.

Barbara Kaplan, Peninsula

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron Expressway can be so confusing