A call for unity


A call for unity

EDITOR:

We have listened, watched and read all the discussions about GM and what’s going to happen now, in the future or maybe never. Since my husband and I are salaried retirees from Lordstown we are very interested in the future of GM.

We lost all of our health care January 1 of this year. We are old enough to be on Medicare, so we do have coverage. However, we were advised by GM last year that we would be wise to seek a secondary provider, which we did. We did not complain, threaten lawsuits, etc. as some from Delphi have done. In fact, at a meeting we attended about the total loss of health care that was coming we heard no one raise a voice of complaint.

We in this country are finding out with this administration that a contract means nothing. You folks in the UAW had better realize that starting right now. Granted, the salaried workforce has never been unionized, so we could not complain about broken contracts. In fact, my husband and I have no complaints toward GM. They have provided us with a comfortable life and we are grateful. Our answer to diminished health coverage over the years was to take care of ourselves so we don’t have a lot of health issues.

My sadness over all of “this” is the increase in class warfare and the meanness of people toward their neighbors. We are all Americans, living in a wonderful country. We have much to be thankful for. Some of us are dealing with difficult times right now but it is not the time to show anger and hatred to each other. We need to help each other where and when we can. Let’s show the world what we in America are made of and why this is the greatest country on earth.

MARGARET & RICHARD HENNING

Youngstown

City can’t afford layoffs

EDITOR:

I don’t see how the mayor can make layoffs at the Youngstown Police Department when they are already about 40 people understaffed for a city this size. We need our police on the streets.

The mayor took a 10 percent pay cut, but with his income he can afford it. The average patrolman makes about $45,000 a year, pays for their health coverage and drives their own car to and from work. I would like to know what annual salary the mayor makes, what he pays for his health coverage, what other perks he gets, and I know he has a car provided to him by the city. Why can’t he drive his own personal car to and from work like everyone else does? What does the city pay annually for his car, gas and insurance?

The police department worked for two years without a contract and now that it was settled not long ago he wants them to give everything back that they got in their new contract. People, we need our streets to be safe and with the warmer weather coming, you know crime will go up, especially if there are less police on the streets. These men and women put their lives on the line every day. Yes, they know the risks involved when they become a police officer, but it should not be made worse by the mayor making layoffs. They deserve the pay they get.

Wake up, Youngstown, and demand that our police department be left alone so our city streets don’t become a war zone.

GLORIA YAKSICH

Youngstown

Being humane has its limits

EDITOR:

I note that Ken Biros, who was sentenced to die by lethal injection in 1991 for murdering and dismembering a 22-year-old woman, is still around, making a general nuisance of himself. He claims that a drug used in Ohio’s execution process is so painful not even a veterinarian would use it. The fact is that veterinarians don’t need it. They learned years ago how to safely and humanely euthanize animals since the public demanded it. The public has not similarly demanded that executions of humans who commit nefarious acts be pain free. Society just doesn’t care.

The problem is that Biros (and his ilk) along with his defense team (and their ilk) are coming at this on constitutional grounds, allowing them to inject enormous amounts of superfluous drivel into an already overburdened criminal justice system while often making those who administer the system look like blithering idiots. Resolving constitutional questions often requires courts to sort out what the founding fathers meant when they wrote the Constitution. I believe at the time, a common means of execution was hanging by the neck until dead. I suspect there was pain involved but don’t intend to test that theory any time soon.

My point is that this lethal injection problem needs to be solved or Ken Biros will be parading around Ohio courtrooms for another 18 years, God forbid. I say we turn the whole matter over to the veterinarians.

JOHN ZEDAKER

Poland

Fixing the big three

EDITOR:

Bailout, budget, foreign affairs are on President Obama’s plate at this time, along with a multitude of various items. It is no different than what other presidents have faced in their time. As the pundits talk and write about the complexities of the problems, a reminder comes to mind. “Law OKs one-stop financial shopping.” This was a headline on an article in a local newspaper Nov. 13, 1999. Further on it states, this law “knocks down Depression-era barriers and lets banks investment firms, and insurance companies sell one another’s products.”

A homeowner has a water line leak. He turns off the water, but he can’t turn the water back on until he repairs the leak. The big leak here was the absolute deregulation of the banks. More than one taxpayer client has said that he wanted to “roll-over” his IRA CD, and found that it had been sold to an insurance company for an annuity. The bank uses the customer’s deposits to make loans. If the bank is selling its deposits, which is used to make loans in the first place, the bailout money that is supposed to help banks have cash to make loans will not stop the leak. Banks must again be regulated to stop the leaks, before you can fix the problem.

In the past, it was not necessary to have a line item veto. There were abuses, but not so flagrant that they could not be absorbed in to the budget. It is now intolerable. The line item veto must be used mercilessly.

Last but not least, sanctions have not helped to correct foreign problems in the past, and a program for “regime change” should be abandoned. If you stop speaking to a neighbor, you cannot solve any problem.

LEONARD J. SAINATO

Warren

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