Philomena hasn't paid debt to the society he betrayed

Philomena hasn't paid debt to the society he betrayed
EDITOR:
Convicted former prosecutor James "The Redhead" Philomena should have thought about the serious nature his actions -- he allegedly allowed murderers to go scot-free, for "blood money." This caused many families added grief and sorrow because the accused were never punished, or were given a slap on the wrist. I like, many people of the Mahoning Valley, voted for him because we believed that he would uphold the law with a iron hand. I believe like many others that he should repay his debt to the people of the Valley and go immediately to state prison.
Philomena in his motion states all the bad things that he has endured since his incarceration in federal prison. And to that, we the people say, "Oh well." Those types of things are commonplace in the life of most convicted felons, and they are to be expected. So adjust to it, deal with it. Live with it, like the families of murder victims had to live with and deal with the fact that they were denied justice by the office that was entrusted to him.
As to the fact that he may not complete a drug program and that he's having some health issues -- I can think of a list of people who truly didn't deserve being incarcerated, but his name does not even come close to being on the list. In this writer's opinion and the opinion of most honest, hard-working Valley people here is the message we send: "justice denied, motion denied."
CHARLES F. ELLIS
Youngstown
Ryan gets credit for standing (nearly) alone on flag issue
EDITOR:
Congratulations Congressman Ryan on his daring vote against an amendment to criminalize American flag burning.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has spent his political capital trying to pass this bill, in lieu of doing anything meaningful.
The quote by Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, "If we allow its defacement, we allow our country's gradual decline," is typical of the no sacrifice, no cost, no brain, phony patriotism of light-weight politicians. The only decline we need to fear is passage of this and other bills that erode the fabric of our basic freedoms instead of strengthening the fabric that real patriots produced to protect our country from despots.
As someone before me said, "It is better to protect the Constitution and burn the flag than to protect the flag and burn the Constitution."
Our justice system is crying for amended and rewritten laws that will bring our country into the 21st century. The Mahoning County police are overwhelmed with twice as many juvenile offenses as any other county in Ohio. The last thing we need is to waste our overworked judicial system investigating and prosecuting some crank accused of burning a flag.
I have never wanted to burn a flag. I have never known of anyone who would ever want to burn a flag, but legislators in Washington continue to grandstand like the old stage entertainer who rescues his act by waving an American flag to divert the attention from a bad performance.
Congressman Ryan appears to have more going for him than some of us realized.
WILLIAM ROORBACK
Boardman
Ryan should know speech is different from flag-burning
EDITOR:
I was surprised to read that U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan voted against the measure to ban the physical desecration of the flag which we lived and died to protect. He calls it freedom of speech.
The word speech in the dictionary is communication of thoughts and feelings by spoken words -- not by putting a match to our beloved flag.
Rep. Ryan should be knowledgeable enough to know that.
VERNON WITHERSTINE
Austintown