Jefferson knew the value of an unfettered press

Jefferson knew the valueof an unfettered press
EDITOR:
I am a 67-year-old retired newspaper reporter and editor, and I take serious exception to the writer of the July 28 letter to the editor slamming the media (News media has a hard time grasping simple concepts). This writer says that the disruptive students of his classroom eventually became journalists. I find that a little hard to believe. The disruptive students and the wiseacres, bullies and ne'er-do-wells from my classes either ended up in jail or in menial low-paying jobs all their lives.
The writer seems to forget that several of these "stupid" journalists gave the last great measure of devotion -- their very lives -- to bring us on-the-spot, front line news from Iraq. God bless their devotion, and God bless America that the honorable craft of these journalists may never be silenced by people opposed to a free press.
Since the writer seems to think people who read newspapers and tend to agree with what's printed in them are the great unenlightened, uneducated, uninformed, illiterate and "stupid" masses, may I submit a quote from our great past statesman, Thomas Jefferson: "The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."
Thomas Jefferson knew the value of a free press to protect the American people from the machinations of a secretive government, something that has apparently escaped the attention of our writer of July 28.
The problem with opinions expressed by our recent letter writer is that if they are not your opinions also, then you are "stupid," uneducated and uninformed.
Perhaps our recent letter writer would like to see one more addition to the president's cabinet -- a Secretary of Media Oversight.
Now, that's a really scary thought.
LEE GUY
Boardman
YMCA isn't moving from downtown, it's expanding
EDITOR:
I would like to make clear one point in a July 24 letter to the editor. The gist of the letter was that the $26 million convocation center should be located in the suburbs of Youngstown and not downtown. I am not objecting nor giving an opinion concerning that part of the article. I do object to the statement, "Even the YMCA finally recognized that to remain a viable entity it had to move to the 'burbs'." (suburbs). This is just not the case. The YMCA in downtown Youngstown is a most viable entity with 8,000 members and another 17,000 participants in various programs throughout a calendar year.
The YMCA has state of the art equipment and has done extensive remodeling throughout the entire building. In the past 10 years we have invested over $3 million in the downtown YMCA. With the thousands of people who use the facilities on a daily basis, there are many times that our building is filled to capacity.
When you become successful, it is natural to expand and build additional branches that will serve the population growth area.
BILL BIGELOW
Youngstown
X The writer is a member of the YMCA Board of Trustees.
Coverage of Bush flawed
EDITOR:
I saw the complete press conference Mr. Bush had last Wednesday.
I have always been a registered Democrat, however it was apparent to me that CNN and some other liberal stations did not give the important points Bush made. This did not seem fair to the people who missed the press conference.
I guess once a person like me reaches a certain age, he starts to see things more objectively. I don't consider myself a conservative Republican, but I am leaning toward being an independent.
RICHARD CANACCI
Youngstown