Entire community must work to battle corruption

Entire community must work to battle corruption
EDITOR:
Corruption in this area causes a decline in property values, roads are left unpaved, and young people leave by the thousands because they realize that it's not & quot;like this everywhere & quot; and that most areas don't have the hidden tax of bribery and payoffs to drive away businesses.
A few concrete steps can be taken locally to face our problem head on. First, I would like local ministers, priests, rabbis and other religious leaders to take a stand by addressing their congregations during the same one- or two-week period about the moral imperative of renouncing the Mafia and corruption in every form. I've attended hundreds of Catholic services during 30 years of living in the Mahoning Valley, but I remember only one sermon about this topic. Churches have to renounce the influence of corrupt money in their operation.
Second, I think it would be appropriate for the Mahoning County Bar Association to have a presentation on Palermo for the largest number of members possible. Ideally, the presentation could take place on May 1 -- Law Day.
Normally, busloads of school children are brought to the courthouse and given lectures about the operations of the court. Instead, it would be more useful if those same children could hear from the team that went to Palermo about the consequences of corruption in the courts and legal profession and what can be done to change things.
Finally, all area schools should plan programs to incorporate the lessons of local history and how corruption has held our area back. Children can participate in role-playing exercises where they are confronted with ethical choices about bribery and protecting lawbreakers.
We will never, ever have an economic comeback in this area until we all accept responsibility for tolerating corruption. The population of Youngstown is exactly half of what it was in 1960 when I was born. Without a change away from corruption, who'll be left to turn out the lights in 2040?
BILL ADAMS
Austintown
Remedial classes long a need for college students
EDITOR:
Secretary of Education Paige has recently raised and fulminated about the question of colleges and universities offering remedial courses to get the recent high school graduates up to doing college level work.
Tragedy. Disaster. And bluntly, what's so new about that?
When I entered Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, in 1949, the summer before classes started, I was asked to report to John Hay High School in Cleveland to take a battery of tests. The purpose of these tests was to determine what level of English and mathematics classes I needed to enroll in that September.
In other words, to see if I had to take any of their remedial classes. And this was at a school called "the Yale of the Middle West." In September, my advisors had the results of the tests in front of them, and told me I didn't have to take any remedial courses.
Maybe Secretary Paige needs to find criteria for comparing the present with the past.
JEROME K. STEPHENS
Warren
From Idora, friends for life
EDITOR:
All four of my children worked at Idora Park during their summer vacation and earned their degrees from Youngstown State with their paychecks.
Pat Duffy was our neighbor. So many youth in Youngstown were employed there -- they made lasting friendships. There, they were prepared for life-time jobs!
Now, when children come home from other states to visit at the holiday what happy reunions with friends they made at Idora.
MARIE B. HARDY
Youngstown