Hotly contested campaign was good for Ohio and area

Hotly contested campaign was good for Ohio and area
EDITOR:
I know that many, many people are for an end to all this he said, she said; who is right or left, and which party will benefit you most. But Ohioans should be glad we were a battleground state.
In spite of your political beliefs, your vote for or against a candidate, the fact that the attention is focused here brings attention to our issues.
The many individuals paid by the Democratic, Republican and Independent parties in Ohio has been greatly enlarged this year with the closeness of this race.
Think of all the ads on TV, radio and newspapers, coupled with the thousands of signs, buttons and bumper stickers, literature and phone banks, then multiply it by the paid poll-takers and you end up with a more than $1 billion spent by the political parties. These funds were donated from around the country and spent here in Ohio.
I for one give three cheers to the parties for boosting our lagging economy with these windfall funds.
I thank the candidates for spending their dollars here to get my vote.
I demand that no matter who wins the presidential race that they remember this valley Nov. 3 and after.
JOHN BREZINSKI
Boardman
Why should our Valley be satisfied with more of same?
EDITOR:
The Vindicator ought to consider dropping The People's Paper as a tag for the sad reason that the editors are so out of touch with the situation in the Mahoning Valley. Your endorsement of the Bush/Cheney ticket shows how little vision the editorial staff has.
Your editorial suggests that we should be satisfied with more of the same. More of the same means more hubris from the administration ("I'm the president. I don't have to explain myself to anyone. & quot;) "Other mortals" might have taken a more considered view, listened to the advise of those who advised against going into Iraq so poorly prepared to deal with the consequences of this war. And, indeed, we are not safer. More terrorists trained, hiding places in Iraq, missing explosives that may very well be in their hands, and, as we were recently reminded, Osama Bin Laden lives to plan another hit on America.
You have prepared an agenda for President Bush in a second term that he has never suggested he would even consider. You ignore the actual proposals he has made regarding the chaos of our health care system and its failure to provide even the minimum for many of our citizens. His suggestions for remedying Social Security have met with criticism from even those in his own party. His huge tax cuts for the wealthy support the greed of huge corporations and destroy the hopes that the middle class can enjoy prosperity and the chance for the poor to rise out of poverty. His No Child Left Behind was a gift to educational testing and materials businesses. He opposes increases in the minimum wage. An increase in minimum wage would be more likely put more money into the economy than would benefits to the rich who are investing their money overseas.
John Kerry gives us hope. Hope for a better America. Hope for the people of the Mahoning Valley. How can your paper provide excuses for Bush/Cheney and leave us with little hope, only more of the same?
You seem to be creating a Bush that would be more acceptable to the people who read your paper and providing excuses for his failures. You should have held him accountable. Shame on you.
JANE AMES
Hubbard