Support our neighbors

Support our neighbors

EDITOR:

With apologies to some area car dealers, I have been truly mystified by how many of my friends, neighbors and area residents can live in this Valley, depend on it for their livelihoods, but turn their backs on the company that does the most to make our community viable and our lives and jobs more rewarding. I refer, of course, to our front yard neighbor, General Motors.

Although Toyota and Honda might rate, by some, a hair better, American companies have made a very good car for years. Only the “experts” hired to evaluate and compare could find enough real differences to make ratings possible. What the “experts” can’t tell us without making their jobs obsolete is that there is only a cats-whisker distinction among today’s comparable models. The “foreign” cars’ aura has been created because, years ago, they were unlike our common Chevy or Ford, and therefore somehow neater to own or drive. GM, in spite of its legacy costs, has produced cars of comparable style, comfort and driving satisfaction for years, as has Ford and Chrysler.

Shouldn’t we give greater thought to our auto purchases? Doesn’t the Chevy Centre, our friends and neighbors working at GM or related employment, or on retirement tickle our vestigial conscience? Couldn’t we reciprocate by buying from an American and a Valley company? Unfortunately, that question may soon become academic.

DON HERRIOTT

Youngstown

Don’t make it a federal case

EDITOR:

Your Nov. 16 editorial (Operation Cease Fire offers Youngstown citizens hope) read: “We believe the community-oriented policing program, which was in effect during the Clinton presidency, should be resurrected by Barack Obama next year.”

That was an $11 billion program (1995 to 2003) and an audit conducted by the Justice Department’s inspector general found that some of the money allocated to state and local jurisdictions was not being used as Congress had intended.

AIG. Wall Street. GM. Crime. Each day another business, state, or entity turns to Washington with their hands out. Isn’t it time to quit placing the financial burden of solving problems on the federal government? Why is it that everything has become progressively more dependent on federal funding? Why has everything become a federal responsibility?

To quote Davis Muhlhausen of the Heritage Foundation, “When Congress subsidizes everything, it effectively reassigns to the federal government the powers and responsibilities that should fall squarely within the expertise, historical control, and constitutional authority of state and local governments.” Additionally, it reduces accountability and devalues the currency of the once dominant cultural message which we used to teach our children. It was known as “personal responsibility.” Without it we end up with what we are witnessing now — an abysmal “me too” odyssey.

KIM R. KOTHEIMER

Boardman