Some depend on WRTA; everyone should support it

Opinion: October 21, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

I’m writing to urge the voters of Mahoning County to support Issue 8, the WRTA initiative that ensures essential funding to a public transportation system that provides 1.3 million plus rides per year for a growing number of county residents. The working poor, elderly and disabled who don’t or can’t drive cars depend on WRTA to get to work, job interviews and training, doctor’s appointments, the grocery store, even school and numerous other places. In this country of God-fearing people we have always made provisions for the most vulnerable among us; a yes vote on Issue 8 means respect for our elderly and greater self-sufficiency for the poorest among us.

Aside from being the just thing to do, supporting WRTA Issue 8 is in the best interest of everyone concerned. To start with, bus service will now include people living in all the suburbs and outlying areas of the county. The elderly and disabled will obtain a greater degree of independence, and those who struggle trying to eke out a living on minimum wage pay, or thereabouts, will have increased job opportunities with the reinstatement of evening and Saturday bus routes. (How could anyone function in daily life without being able to travel in the evenings and on Saturday?)

By ensuring public transportation for those who need it we limit their reliance on society and give them the necessary means to conduct their business and their lives. So many of us come from faith backgrounds that champion the well being, and dignity of the marginalized, here’s a chance to put our religious convictions into practice. For a quarter percent sales tax (not property tax), that’s 25 cents on a hundred dollar purchase, we can make sure that those who pay the same taxes the rest of us do for roads, bridges, traffic lights, etc., actually get to make use of them.

The sense of fairness that our ancestors passed on to us, and the simple goodness we learned in our homes from our parents call us to do whatever it takes to support a service that is as basic as food and clothing in a capitalist society. This is not a matter of charity but about doing the right thing; an opportunity to safeguard the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for the powerless, even when times are tough for us all.

A yes vote on Issue 8 allows us to be good neighbors and make sure that our democracy is working for everyone.

TERRY VICARS

Boardman

Let casinos or payday lenders flourish or fail naturally; it’s the way capitalism works

EDITOR:

The Vindicator doesn’t still set type by hand or use a Gutenberg printing press to publish, does it? Like most, you benefit from the fruits of capitalism. Why then do you feel compelled to deny two industries the opportunity to make a buck and create jobs?

Nobody is forced to use a payday lender, yet you support legislating them out of the state. What is wrong with a little personal responsibility and not treating the citizenry like they are brainless?

Casino’s and gambling are everywhere but here. What do we know that the others don’t? A company wants to create a lot of jobs in Ohio and you want to discourage this in the name of morality. It makes no sense.

Neither of these industries has asked the government for subsidies or tax breaks of any sort. Yet you go out of your way along with others to give General Motors huge tax credits, abatements and low interest loans to continue losing billions of dollars.

Let’s support a free economy for all and let the general population decide for themselves how to spend their own money. And where were you when I was charged the equivalent of $50 per gallon for a beer this summer at an Indians game?

TIM RYAN

Newton Falls