A contest where all lose

A contest where all lose

EDITOR:

I think in Mahoning County we could start up a new sport. Let’s call it dodge the pot holes. Here’s how we could score the points.

5 points if you bend your rim.

10 points if you bend your rim and ruin your tire.

15 points if your break a shock or strut.

20 points if you ruin your tie rod.

25 points if you ruin your tie-rod and your wheel falls off.

We could run this contest for a week and whoever scores the most points would win. Maybe the Mahoning County Engineer’s Office could provide the prize. This would at least see our tax dollars at work.

ANDY PAPPAGALLO Sr.

Mineral Ridge

A new era with new victims

EDITOR:

When I was 12 years old I saw a documentary on the Holocaust. I made a solemn vow that I would never ever allow myself to be one of those who remained silent if such an event were ever to happen again. My own parents could not understand this. They were what I call “petty bigots,” though they themselves had no prejudices they more often than not reflected the general prejudices of society around them in all matters. For them the story of the Holocaust simply did not move them one way or the other, and they could not understand why I had become so obsessed with it.

Of course, it is easy to be against the Holocaust today. A thousand Hollywood movies over the decades has seen to that, and only a few scattered fools waste our time and theirs by questioning it. Even President Bush, the epitome of shallowness, was compelled to weep at the Holocaust Memorial when he went to Israel. The very next day he made a joke about the humiliation of the Palestinian people at a checkpoint. The new scapegoats, it seems, were not to be sympathized with. Better to cry for those who died more than 60 years ago than to consider the suffering of those who are oppressed today.

John Lennon said that “God is a concept by which we measure our pain.” That is true. The Jews have been measuring their pain by the Holocaust for more than six decades now, and thus we have what is happening in Gaza — destruction and starvation of an entire nation. It would be better for all of us if God were to become a concept by which we measure the pain of others.

A few years ago a prominent Rabbi called me anti-Semitic because I dared speak out against the cruelties of Israel. I was so hurt by this comment that I stopped writing letters for more than six months. Strange isn’t it: It used to be that the word anti-Semite denoted someone who was against human rights. Today it describes the very opposite. And the Holocaust itself has been used as a shield for destruction and cruelty. We have come full circle.

ROGER LAFONTAINE

Youngstown

About ready to give up

EDITOR:

Modern life a great time to be alive. Modern medicine has a pill for everything or if the organ is bad they will replace it and your insurance will pay for everything. Well maybe not if your company canceled your insurance.

Now we are told to exercise and eat healthy. Walking isn’t bad, and since the temperature in the house is low the cold weather outside isn’t that bad.

Eating healthy however won’t happen when fish is $8 per pound and macaroni and cheese is $1.25 per box.

Since death is now just around the corner from bad eating, it’s time to turn up the heat, sit and watch television, skip exercise and be overweight.

DENNIS HAMILTON

North Jackson