If you love a poem, take time to share it with a student

If you love a poem, take time to share it with a student
EDITOR:
Spring is finally here, and along with the tulips and daffodils comes National Poetry Month. While many people might not be familiar with this monthly celebration, students across the country will be reading, discussing and enjoying the poetry of great writers at all grade levels, from Shel Silverstein to Maya Angelou.
While I will be guiding my high school students through the amazing works of poets such as Langston Hughes and Robert Frost, my students and I would also like to hear from residents from around the Mahoning Valley. Do you have a poem that has touched your heart or that has made you remember someone or something memorable? If so, please share it with my students, along with a brief note about why this poem is special to you.
I am a firm believer that while a teacher and a textbook can do the job, the voice of the community can provide an awesome form of enrichment and inspiration. Please take this challenge, and share your poem! Send it to: Mrs. Colleen Ruggieri, Boardman High School, 7777 Glenwood Avenue, Boardman, OH 44512.
In the meantime, read some forgotten verses -- whether on a greeting card, or in a book on your shelf or at your local library. It's never too late to learn something new about life through language, and education is one of the wonderful rewards we all reap while living in our great American democracy!
COLLEN RUGGIERI
Canfield
X The writer is president of the Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts.
What does the CEO mean when he says 'we'?
EDITOR:
I would like to comment on the plight of the locked out workers of U.S.W.A. 2155-7 at R.M.I. Titanium in Niles. CEO Tim Rupert and the upper management have shown that the global market place has changed and to survive and prosper, we must cut costs. This the union has agreed to do, with proposals that would save the company an estimated $2.5 million per year. Coming from a total membership of 350 workers, that is quite significant. From the company's standpoint, those are not enough savings ($7,000 per employee). This comes from a company with $50 million in the bank, plus assets.
R.M.I. Titanium, the grandfather of all the umbrella companies under the R.T.I. Corporation, was built on the dedication of my grandfather, my father and hundreds of workers before and after them. R.M.I. was able to expand its operations to become a world leader in the titanium industry. But now the other branches of the R.T.I. Corporation (which are nonunion) have become independent and have no honor to R.M.I.
While the upper management made well over $1 million in bonuses and probably will again this year, we the workers along with those workers locked in the facility do not understand why the CEO would jeopardize a solvent business in the community for over 50 years, especially when the union leadership received a letter from Mr. Rupert in the spring, stating we had to quit wasting time on labor/management games and do whatever it takes to beat competing producers.
Mr. Rupert, we have proposed to help; maybe as a good faith effort you, too, should keep your costs down and relinquish your annual bonus for the good of the company, along with the other upper management's bonuses. That is if the word we pertains to you, as you have written.
JAMES B. LINGO Jr., vice president
USW LOCAL 2155-7
Berlin Center