The joy of coming home to YSU

The joy of coming home to YSU

Recently I had the oppor- tunity to travel “home” to Youngstown and participate in the announcement of a transformational gift from the Cafaro family to YSU for the building of the indoor facility on the campus at YSU.

It was a joy to share the stage with our new president, Dr. Cynthia Anderson, and the YSU head football coach, Eric Wolford. It was also special to witness the addition of the Cafaro gift to join forces with the already extraordinary generosity of the DeBartolo and Watson families for this much needed project. However, the realization that touched me the most was the debt of gratitude I felt for these wonderful families, in particular in this case, the Cafaro family. I was reminded as I sat in the hot sunshine of all of the times that our community has called upon the same people, and how they constantly stepped up in our times of need. Whether it was an academic building, a dormitory, or an athletic facility, there they were to contribute. Or a local charity, fund raiser, whatever the cause, up step the Cafaros, the DeBartolos, the Lydens, the Watsons, the LaRiccias and many, many others.

I mentioned to Tony Cafaro at the event that having now been away from the Valley for nine-plus years, I have a better understanding of how fortunate we have been to have his family serving our community. I also have become aware as I have traveled the country, of the tremendous respect that the national business community has for the Cafaro Company.

Coach Woody Hayes said for many years, that “you win with people.” Fellow Valley residents, past and present, let us never forget that we have been blessed with the best people in the world. Let us live with an “attitude of gratitude.”

Jim Tressel, Columbus

The writer is head football coach of The Ohio State University.

Time is well spent talking to kids about not talking while driving

The time has come for all parents to talk with their kids about the dangers of cell phones and driving. The tragedy in our own community should be a wake up call for everyone. The message: Do not use your cell phone while driving..

Teens, you may have heard this message on the news, on Oprah and from your parents. But, you are a good driver and think that it could never happen to you? Drive down Middletown Road and see for yourself the flowers that mark the place where a man was killed because of texting. It should never happen to anyone. It can happen to you.

We parents have given our kids so much technology, now we must talk with them about the dangers this technology can bring into our lives. When was the last time you talked with your teens about cell phones and driving, “sexting,” internet safety and cyber bullying? Do we really know what our kids are doing, or do we just assume they will be safe?

I ask all drivers, is your cell phone really that important? Are you so important that you must be reached 24/7? Is it necessary to risk the lives of others because you need to call someone? Should anyone really be texting while driving?

The car should be a no phone zone. I plan to put this into practice in my car.

Let’s all support Ohio Senate Bill 164 that would ban texting while driving.

Barbara Buzzacco, New Middletown

Sharon Steel money went to dogs

An article pointed out that the daughter of Victor Posner, former owner of Sharon Steel, had passed on, leaving her $8.3 million estate to her dogs, one of which has a $15,000 collar.

Sharon Steel workers are irate. We were drawn into their E.S.O.P. plan with the guise of needing this for re-investments that never happened. Finally, each worker, when the company declared bankruptcy, was left being owed in the vicinity of $20,000.

That was our money, not theirs, and we should have been paid first. Instead, the banks and attorneys ate it up. When they got to us there was nothing left.

This once again shows that powerful people and big business take control, and the struggling workers are left by the wayside. So, Delphi workers, been there done that. I wish you luck.

I guess this story shows what they mean when they tell us that everything is “going to the dogs.”

Ronald Wm. Kerr, Youngstown

There are few superintendents in STRS’s retire/rehire pool

On June 20, the newspaper laid the STRS $40 billion “deficit” at the feet of double dipping superintendents. You cited cases of superintendents retiring from a $100,000 a year position, collecting a $64,000 pension and being rehired at the same job and pay. While less than 200 of the 110,000-plus retired educators in the state are rehired superintendents, the perception is that the majority of teachers are retiring early and being rehired.

Retired educators receive an average of about $37,555 per year. The Ohio retired teachers do not receive a Social Security benefit based on their teachers’ salary. If during a teacher’s lifetime she or he did work under Social Security, the SS benefit is reduced by two-thirds.

When the newspapers say things like “some public employees are retiring as young as 48 years old,” they usually fail to mention that those public employees may be firemen and policemen. The minimum age that an Ohio teacher can retire is 55 with 25 years experience: their average retirement age is 59.

As a public school teacher serving 32 years in the Liberty Local Schools, I was paid through tax dollars by my school system. Throughout my career, part of that income paid to me, with an amount of “deferred compensation” from my employer, was sent to STRS to invest. The money in my pension check has been earned and invested. It was not taken directly out of the state treasury. About 75 percent of STRS retirement income is from the return on investments.

I hope that this information will help to clarify this subject.

Gretchen Keefer Reed, Girard

The writer is president, Trumbull Chapter of Ohio Retired Teachers Association.

Learning the economic facts of life

Those who cannot remem- ber the past are condemned to repeat it. Simple, concise, but far too often ignored.

We can look back at history and find many examples that prove this to be true. Or we could just open our eyes and watch it playing out right in front of us.

What we are repeating is akin to the failed Keynesian economic policy of the 1930s which produced the New Deal. Like our modern day stimulus packages, the New Deal was crafted to lift America out of a recession/depression and put people back to work. Unfortunately, all the massive spending doesn’t erase unemployment and doesn’t produce a recovery.

On May 9, 1939, FDR’s Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau Jr. said, “We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. ... I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started, and an enormous debt to boot.”

Fast forward to July 11, 2010. Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of President Obama’s deficit commission said, “We’ve got to cut spending or increase revenues or do some combination of that.” “This debt is like a cancer, it is truly going to destroy the country from within.”

I think it was Albert Einstein who said insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Bill Hegarty, Poland