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At the start of the Ohio 2024 Legislative Session, lawmakers would do well to heed Gov. Mike DeWine's thoughts on what should be prioritized and accomplished. Speaking with WCPO, DeWine appeared to hope lawmakers would move away from the distracting nonsense with which they've become obsessed and instead focus on doing real good for Ohioans -- particularly when it comes to education, mental health and addiction.
"Focus more and more on mental health this coming year … kind of go back to John Kennedy 60 years ago," DeWine said. "When he signed The Community Mental Health Act, the promise was that no matter where you lived, whatever neighborhood, whatever community, if you had a mental health problem, you have a loved one who does, we're going to have a place for that person to get the help that they need.
"But we never really, as a country, lived up to this, and so my goal is for Ohio, for people to say we're making sure that people with mental health problems -- some people with a drug addiction problem, whatever their barrier is -- that we can break those barriers down and (they can) live up to their full potential."
DeWine told WCPO it is unacceptable that one-third of our children cannot read at grade levels. There are efforts under way to address that, too.
But while there was plenty to applaud in DeWine's goals for the session, Buckeye State residents must hope he and lawmakers are cautious in their attempts to put "guardrails" and "guidelines" on measures already approved by Ohio voters.
Elected officials will have to be careful about giving lip service to respecting the will of the voters while fully intending to undermine that will by "(taking) action so that we can actually put this under some control," as DeWine put it. Tread cautiously here.