Support our troops in ways that count -- with mail

Support our troops in ways that count -- with mail
EDITOR:
Our son just returned from serving 10 months in Iraq. During his time there, family and friends constantly sent letters and morale packages. He tells us now that these packages and mail helped get him and his "brothers" through very dfficult times.
It is a sad state of affairs when we have to supply our soldiers with basic items like toilet paper, hygiene products and even food. If you have a computer, please visit website www.anysoldier.com. There are 1,628 Army, 95 Marines, 162 Air Force and 24 Navy men and women posted on this site as to what they need.
Our son was fortunate in that we had a lot of support. Others are not as fortunate and don't receive any mail let alone a morale package. "Support Our Troops" is more than just sticking a magnet on your vehicle. Show your support by adopting a soldier. If everyone sent just one box to any soldier each month, imagine what a difference you would make in someone's life. During any holiday, send greeting cards or just write a letter. Any post office can advise on how to send a package.
We all know war is hell and it is hell over there. It doesn't do much for my morale knowing that we at home have to supply our soldiers with the essentials. They should have the best of everything and don't. Yet our president had a no holds barred inaugural. Don't get me started.
Having had my father, my husband and now my son in a war, I know what happens before they leave, while they are gone and what they are like when they come home. Do your part. Support our troops and mean it
MARGARET PUGH
Coitsvill
Mahoning County officials should show imagination
EDITOR:
Are our elected officials scaring us into thinking that if money does not exist a program or service cannot exist? Is it really necessary for the Mahoning County treasurer to eliminate the real estate tax installment plan when it has been helpful to so many county citizens?
Why are those who do not take advantage of this program paying for this service in the first place? The county should be charging a convenience fee to those who enjoy the convenience of this program to cover its cost of postage and printing of coupon books. This fee could be an exact dollar amount or a percent of the total payment to cover such costs. Charging a convenience fee is not a new idea and in fact is used successfully by many private organizations and governmental agencies throughout the country.
O.K., the half percent sales tax did not pass. Our elected county officials need to get past this fact and find creative and innovative ways of working through this dilemma. Municipalities across the country are using innovative techniques of offering their citizens the services they expect and demand, Why not communicate with them to find out what they are doing to determine what might work here in Mahoning County?
LEONARD CERCONE Jr.
Poland
High cost of tuition and fees is the legislature's fault
EDITOR:
I read Mr. de Souza's column about tuition and fees at Youngstown State University. The fees do not appear to be much out of line with those I paid at Miami University of Ohio between 1952 and 1955. Especially since there are fees covering items that did not exist at the time I graduated, such as computers and software and modern pieces of equipment needed by the chemistry and physics departments -- none of which is cheap. They also make it possible to cover much more material during a semester than could be done by hand in 1955.
The big difference is, as it always has been in the recent past, the amount of state support the university gets, support that has a very great bearing on the amount of tuition a student pays, and yes, to a much lesser extent, on the fees. My tuition at Miami of Ohio in 1955 was $90 a semester, or $180 per year. If the state universities received the same level of state support today, the student tuition would be about $900 per semester at the most. This sad state of affairs is the result of 50 years of the General Assembly's playing around with that support. It would take more than a 100 percent increase in state support to the universities to restore the 1955 level of support.
As it is, some of the state "supported" universities are skating close to the edge in their efforts to economize. What happens if they are put on probation by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, with the possibility of losing their accreditation? It is the North Central that counts in that accreditation, not the Ohio Board of Regents, no matter what Chancellor Chu says.
When, oh when, oh when is Mr. de Souza going to start pointing his finger in the right direction, at the state government?
JEROME K. STEPHENS
Warren
Where's the tolerance?
EDITOR:
Thanks for continuing to print articles that lean to the right, left and middle. What privileges we have in this blessed nation. The recent letter in which the writer expresses his & quot;fear & quot; of columnists like Cal Thomas is regrettable.
I have a & quot;fear & quot; and disdain for those who oppose the principles, like the Ten Commandments, that have made America great. Yet they have a right under the First Amendment to express their views.
Why is there such an intolerance on the part of left-wing propagandists for those with opposing viewpoints? I thought they were advocates of tolerance. It's amazing how some cry tolerance and practice intolerance.
WILLIAM J. FINNIGAN
Warren