Dear Editor,

I personally know three people, owners of businesses on Dayton’s Main Street, who left them—closed them or otherwise got out—to take jobs with public agencies that offered benefits that included health insurance. I also know three others--young, talented employees of Dayton businesses--who left those jobs to take employment with public agencies that offered benefits that included health insurance. And I count three storefronts on Dayton’s Main Street that were occupied by private sector businesses, but after lying empty for some while, were occupied by public agencies. They’re our public agencies, yes, and we need them, but do we need them to locate on Main Street?

There may be more; you may know of instances I don’t know about. This has been a slow shift over several years. And my heart sank a little with the news of each event. Dayton has a really quite wonderful core of people who take pride in local initiative and putting local effort into adding value, beautifying and making this community thrive. But this issue of health insurance cannot be solved locally; it’s directly linked to what happens in congress. 

How long is long enough to go on assuming that sending a Republican to congress is good for business and not make the connection to this creeping attrition going on in the business of our Main Street before our very eyes?

We can only know what Lisa Brown says and that she would contribute very strong political and institutional experience to the congress. But we do know from 14 years of actual experience what Cathy will NOT do if we send her back and that she’s saying as little as possible about it in hopes we’ll do that yet again.

I say for love of your community, break this cycle and send Lisa Brown to Congress.

Marilyn Putney

Dayton