Yes, Truman and FDR were great

Yes, Truman and FDR were great

I just cannot believe that any- one could write such a letter as that of last Sunday concerning two presidents, Harry Truman and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

I was born in 1920 and lived through the time that Michael J. Lacivita wrote about in an earlier column on great presidents, and must admit that I read and enjoy all of his columns. They bring back many fond memories.

Getting back to the presidents, after the stock market crash of 1929, FDR inherited a Great Depression. His actions in creating a host of alphabet organizations, NRA, CCC, PWA, WPA, etc. was a great start in moving the country onto the road to recovery. I served in the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) for two years (1938-1940). September 1939 the war in Europe was declared when Hitler invaded Poland. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941 and Congress declared war against Japan and against Germany. FDR was elected to four terms as president.

As for Harry Truman, this man was remarkable. In addition to having the courage to make the decision to drop the atomic bomb, his administration played a large role in rebuilding the whole world that was destroyed by the war. At home, with war over, we had a long period of peace and prosperity.

During the war I built torpedoes and tested experimental torpedoes at Pymatuning reservoir.

Paul Slovan, Boardman

Don’t ignore a catastrophe

Where are the black arm bands? Where are the yellow ribbons, the flags at half mast, the pause for a moment of silence and the singing of “God Bless America?” The crime and tragedy continuing unabated in the Gulf of Mexico should be our environmental 9/11. It is such a staggering monstrosity that it should be the alarm that finally wakes us up.

After September 11, 2001, we all continued our daily lives of work and leisure, but with a sense that we had been transformed and that everything from then on would be different. We didn’t mind the constant reminders of that shame, anger and change, even in the middle of our ball games, because we knew it was to help forge our unity and resolve. Then we proceeded to sacrifice thousands of lives and spend hundreds of billions of dollars because of that change in us. Whether or not you believe, as I do, that the wars we’ve waged since that day are for oil, we must ask ourselves if war is our only response to crisis.

We should go after those responsible for the atrocity of the Gulf and make them pay for it. But we must realize that it is not just BP, not just the oil companies and our elected officials at their service, but also ourselves and our foolish, wasteful, impossible lifestyle.

When President Obama came to visit, and our newspapers helped him celebrate the new jobs and prosperity coming our way here in the Mahoning Valley, did anyone notice that his photo opportunity was in front of stacks of steel pipe, all headed to oil and gas drilling operations? Is that our future? Our prosperity?

We must change. The next time there’s a graduation, or a session of Congress, or a seventh inning stretch, we should be singing Woody Guthrie’s anthem: “This land is your land, this land is my land/ From California to the New York island/ From the redwood forest to the Gulf stream waters/ This land was made for you and me.”

Terry Murcko, Youngstown