Maybe candor would have helped Boardman levy
Maybe candor would have helped Boardman levy
EDITOR:
Instead of receiving numerous unabashed solicitations to write my "Boardman success story" for November's levy, I would have rather been asked to highlight what aspects of my experience could have been improved. Boardman's levy failed because its advocates were cocky. They painted pictures of smiling, white, middle class students with flutes and football helmets who didn't need extra tax dollars to improve their education. What needed to be said was that Boardman, academically speaking, has been for years resting on its laurels without an eye toward the future.
For all but a handful of students (who, ironically, were the ones asked to write their happy Boardman memoirs) Boardman is a one-way ticket to Ohio's public colleges or jobs at GM at best. Perhaps levy supporters should have focused on the need for more national award winning teachers like Colleen Ruggieri, instead of restricting hiring processes to only within the Boardman bubble.
Maybe they should have noted that Frank Centofanti, singled out in another letter to the editor, teaches the only advanced placement class offered at Boardman High School. Students wanting other high level classes are advised to go to YSU and take them.
Perhaps they should have emphasized the need for more guidance advising and college counselors. There are currently only five counselors for over 1,600 students. These counselors work around the clock but still can't give all students the personalized attention they deserve. These should have been reasons to vote for the levy, but no Boardman lover wanted to hear them.
I spent 11 years on the periphery of the school system's insiders. It wasn't until I got an acceptance letter from Harvard that I was let into Boardman's inner circle of politics. Since then I have been shamelessly contacted to sign my name off as a diehard "Boardmanite." I just won't do it.
Sure, Boardman's academics are good for the majority, but they are not great. I would have liked to see a concrete list of problems with accompanying solutions instead of superficial vignettes of nostalgia-induced praise written by recent alumni who would have fared well with or without Boardman. Perhaps then the levy would have passed.
LISA PUSKARCIK
Harvard College
Cambridge, Mass.
Valley is frozen in time; young should run away
EDITOR:
Many years ago, when I was young, we were taught to "walk, don't run" and "haste makes waste". Now I must advise "run, don't walk"! This is advice to the young adults in the Mahoning Valley. If they want to pursue a successful life they need to leave this area. People from outside our area will not consider the Mahoning Valley for anything except fodder for the comic mill. The election of November 2002 assured this.
First, over 27,000 supposedly intelligent people voted for a slimy convicted felon.
Next they elected an inexperienced clod who seems determined to follow in the footsteps of the foul mouthed buffoon he is replacing. I judge people by their job performance, not their bathroom habits. This congressman will be in office for many years unless he lets his ego get out of control, as his former teacher did.
In most areas, the corruption that exists in Trumbull County would have the public clamoring for change and punishment. The people at the top on down to the lowest county employee who is taking home the air freshener and bug spray need to be ousted from office and jailed.
Also the government in the rest of the Valley is by no means cleaned up. Most political hacks are still spending our tax money as they please. It will always be so until the voters demand better!
The worst part of the problem is that even the ones who get caught and sent to jail or thrown out of office are able to keep everything they stole from us. Like the convicted felon congressman, who with the help of family and friends managed to hide and protect their ill-gotten gains. On top of this they and their accomplices (family) collect huge pensions and benefits many times what the people they stole from will ever get.
As long as we allow this to continue, the only investors in the Valley will be local companies that move from one community to another for the tax breaks.
At my age the politicians can't hurt me too much. My pension is fairly secure and my needs of government are few, but I say again: "Run don't walk" to the nearest exit. Beam me up Scotty. There is no intelligent life here!
ROBERT HUSTED
New Springfield
Where's the mandatein a nation divided?
EDITOR:
A recent letter writer and Ann Womer Benjamin supporter made some backhanded comments about the electorate in the 17th Congressional District and their selection of Tim Ryan for congressman. He also proclaimed a Republican mandate throughout the country based on the election results of 2002.
I suggest he tally up the total votes for all the senators running for election. What he'd find is that the Democratic candidates garnered more votes than the Republican candidates. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 48 percent to 47 percent overall. A mandate? Hardly!
This country is deeply divided. Half of the people are on each side and the fact that the Republicans now control both houses of Congress and the presidency presents a dilemma for them. Do they promote their right wing agenda and attempt to overturn Roe vs. Wade? Do they try and privatize Social Security? Will an almost useless prescription drug benefit be the law of the land? Will steel import restrictions continue to be lessened, allowing more American steel jobs to be lost? Will we continue to be held hostage by OPEC because our leaders owe favors to big oil for campaign contributions?
I contend that the Mahoning Valley voted in the best interest of the Mahoning Valley. It supports unions, is blue collar and has always had a friend in the Democratic Party. The Valley I know is older demographically than many areas and wants a meaningful prescription drug benefit. The Valley I know supports steel import restrictions protecting American jobs. The Valley I know doesn't want Social Security privatized since we've seen what can happen to that money if invested in the stock market.
The Valley I know believes in Democratic ideals and is right to support the party that will promote and further those beliefs.
WILLIAM J. JOHNSON
Boardman