Wednesday, September 22, 2004
If voters put Kerry in office,our country will be gone
EDITOR:
Three years ago Sept. 11, terrorists hijacked four of our commercial planes. Two planes hit the twin towers in New York, one hit the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The fourth plane never made its destination to Washington, D.C., because on the plane that crashed in Somerset, Pa., were American men (our heroes) who made a decision to bring these terrorists down. The young man who said "let's roll" left a young pregnant wife and family. She will be able to some day tell his children the heroic act their dad did.
President Bush was only in office about nine months when all of this occurred in this country. President Bush heard the cries and felt the pain of the families that lost loved ones, mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, brothers and sisters, etc. Our country also felt the pain and sorrow. Of course this is what these terrorists wanted to do.
Was this a test for President Bush to see what he would do? Maybe so. He didn't sit around and twiddle his thumbs. Nor did he take a sensitive approach to this act of terror. He did what he had to do. Just as President Roosevelt and President Truman did.
When Japan hit our Naval fleet in Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt declared war. When President Roosevelt died, President Truman had the atomic bomb dropped. That war went four years. We lost about a million boys. I had four brothers and a sister who was a nurse in that war. They were proud to serve their country. My aunt lost her youngest son who was 19 years old. I never heard any badmouthing of these presidents or saw demonstrations in the streets.
If we put a man in the White House who is sensitive to countries that support terrorism, we won't have to worry about taxes, health care, Social Security and jobs, because we won't have a country.
I want a president who is strong, says what he means and means what he says. I want my children and grandchildren to be safe. So many people I have talked to never waver from their party, no matter what. If Kerry wins this election, he will also be tested by the terrorists. Will he take the sensitive approach? "God help us."
BEVERLY McCLOSKY MANCINI
Burghill
With FirstEnergy layoffs, is another blackout looming?
EDITOR:
Up to about three years ago I worked in a steel mill. Over coffee one day, I had a conversation with a new hire. He was a tree trimmer that had been laid off by FirstEnergy.
They were cutting back on their tree trimming and outsourcing it when it had to be done. He said sooner or later they were going to get into trouble for it. When the investigation into the blackout of awhile ago mentioned a failure to keep trees trimmed I remembered his statement.
Recently I saw where FirstEnergy is laying off 250 people at their nuclear plants. I hope we don't have another catastrophe in the making.
GERALD MILLER
Niles
Americans' mixed messageson what makes them weep
EDITOR:
The hypocrisy of the American people continues to astound me. It is unclear to me why your readers may be interested in the potential pain that a convicted death row prisoner feels during lethal injection, as referred to in your Sept. 17 article, "Does Lethal Injection Violate Law?" Or why it is newsworthy for you to report in the Sept. 17 Nation and World Digest that the jurors of the Laci Peterson trial wept upon seeing the photographs of the decomposed unborn fetus that was expelled from his mother's decaying body?
All the while, the majority of your readers will vote for so-called "Pro-Choice" candidates (including John Kerry), whose rhetoric disguises both the pain felt by unborn children during late term abortions as well as the handling and disposal of the fetuses aborted in our own Mahoning Valley.
WILLIAM RYSER
Youngstown