Not all are welcome to tea

Not all are welcome to tea

EDITOR:

I believe that it is long overdue that the Tri-County Tea Party changes it’s name to reflect the fact that they are no longer a part of the other Tea Party groups in Ohio or elsewhere, but a Republican group. This Republican group is not associated with the other groups in this area or elsewhere that we in the Ohio Valley Tea Party or Columbiana Tea Party are aware of. A person cannot find the name listed on the Internet or anywhere else with our other associated groups in Ohio and the U.S.A.

This Republican group was dropped from the national and state list of associated groups because they are a Republican group who were attempting to take over other groups and not adhering to rules of Tea Party Patriots groups as seen in Columbiana County, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere in Ohio and the USA.

I and others wish that the Republican, Tri-County Tea Party group would at least include the name Republican in their title and stop confusing people with their flagrant use of our name even in part.

It is now February 2010. We and other Tea Party groups disassociated ourselves last summer. Are they ashamed to properly identify themselves as Republicans and need to disguise themselves by using the other Tea Party organizations who do not want to be associated with them as a cover-up for their true identify?

I am not going to vote for any Republican candidates if this identity theft isn’t stopped. Even though we agree on many things, we real Tea Party people and groups are not Republican groups or controlled by Republicans.

GREG SHAFFER

Salem

Special needs children aren’t always treated special

EDITOR:

An article in The Vindicator recently stated that 113 Ohio school districts are diverting $22 million in federal stimulus money intended for special-education services and spending it on other programs. We respond as paternal grandparents, co-guardians, and advocates for the disabled.

Our granddaughter is one with developmentally disabled problems. As grandparents of a granddaughter that went through public schools for special needs we feel that there was only one school where the special ed teachers really cared about the children and their needs, and that was Austintown Fitch High School. When we became co-guardians she went to Canfield High School for her senior year. A young art teacher, Mr. Hoops, was our salvation (he had the patience of Job). He worked with our granddaughter and her pictures were in the art show and she won some ribbons and was so excited about the whole thing.

The U.S. Disabilities Education Act allows districts that get additional federal dollars to reduce their local spending by up to 50 percent of the increase. “The state Education Department says the law is intended to give eligible districts flexibility and that any money spent on general education also will benefit special-needs students.” If you believe that, I have a bridge I want to sell you.

The money will go to the gifted programs, athletics or to buy property. We have seen this happen in our own city. The special-needs children used to be last on the list, and the school system didn’t even want the special-needs children in the school system in the first place.

Which schools in the tri-county area are going to receive this federal stimulus money?

MARGARET and WARD ROTH Sr.

Canfield

Obama playing blame game

EDITOR:

The absolute arrogance and hypocrisy of the Obama administration are staggering.

During the State of the Union Address President Obama stated a few times of the need to “Not look back” or “We will not revisit past history.”

In the days following, while making remarks on the economy and while speaking to the Democratic reps at their retreat, he, of course, “looked back” and “revisited past history” by once again reminding us of the “mess that I” (I, not We) inherited from the Bush administration.

While most can agree that Mr. Bush left us in a precarious position, I think that we can also agree that presidencies prior to Mr. Bush also contributed to that position.

When does Mr. Obama start being responsible and accountable? When do today’s problems become his and not Mr. Bush’s? When does the media point this out and hold the present administration to task? 2011? 2012? When does this presidency actually start? That is, when things go wrong when does it start?

When things go well, Mr. Obama and his team are quick to take credit. For example Vice President Biden to Larry King recently: “We will have our troops home from Iraq by the end of summer, and a stable government will be in place in Iraq”. “This is a tremendous achievement for this administration.”

Well, Mr. Biden and Mr. Obama both vociferously stated in 2007 and 2008 that Mr. Bush’s troop surge would never work and in fact would worsen the situation. Mr. Reid stated “the war is lost”. In actuality the troop surge and the demand for Iraq government stability by Bush are the reasons that the troops will now, thankfully, be coming home.

They should stop playing the American electorate for stupidity. Stop duping us with their hubris. Stop the blame game. Massachusetts has shown that we are smarter than that.

M. J. DeNIRO

Boardman

Pretending health care is fine doesn’t make it so

EDITOR:

For the past six months I have worked for the advancement of the legislation currently being considered in Congress to begin mending the rifts so prevalent in our fractured health care system. The recent Senate race victory of Scott Brown in Massachusetts has not deterred me in the least or dissuaded me even slightly that we can afford to do nothing on this matter. Even without their Senate majority, the Democrats — be they moderate, liberal, blue dog or otherwise — cannot lose sight of how far-reaching this bill will be for those without insurance, namely the poor and the unemployed. The daffy, hysterical nature of the GOP has been hilarious to observe on this very serious debate. But like a joke that gets old, these grim times call for the shrill Republican opposition to relax, step down, and realize that this reform is going to happen. This much I am convinced of.

Like a crippling virus, the unchecked excesses of the health insurance industry have damaged long-existing hospitals and medical care facilities in this area. Northside in Youngstown was one such victim, and the emergency rooms of countless other hospitals here as well as nationwide have ransacked the already empty wallets of people with no other options.

This is not a way anyone should have to live. I am going to endure the challenges of the upcoming weeks and continue the clash for health reform. Giving up now is simply out of the question. There is no end in sight for the first phase of universal coverage in this country, and to anyone idle on this issue, I give this piece of advice: don’t get sick.

ROBERT HELTZEL

Niles