No sentence reduction for victim

No sentence reduction for victim

After reading the article about Taran Helms (the man who shot Joe Kaluza) having his sentence reduced, I must admit that I am more than a little mystified by or justice system.

If I understood correctly, it seems that two judges on the 7th District Court of Appeals voted to reduce Mr. Helms’s sentence because his crimes were committed simultaneously. My immediate thoughts were the following: This man is rewarded for committing these heinous crimes by taking 17 years off his sentence and, more importantly, Mr. Kaluza’s sentence of life in a wheelchair will not be reduced by 17 years.

Will someone please tell me where the justice is in all of this?

Gerry Vasko, Youngstown

Violent crime undercuts progress

My applause to The Vin- dicator’s Todd Franko and Bertram de Souza for their purposefully written columns last Sunday. Both writers directly reminded all readers that we, as a community — both urban and suburban — are responsible for taking back our city from those who commit violent crimes against our citizens. If cities and regions much larger than Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley can address these issues, surely we can do the same.

As a proponent of higher education in the region, I firmly believe that unless we make poverty and crime the civic priorities that they need to be, we will never be able to improve our schools and the education level of our region. Educators will continue to face daunting challenges beyond their control. Colleges and universities will continue remedial education. If we are to help Ohio to achieve its educational and economic aspirations, together we must speak loudly and with one voice to our regional leaders that we have had enough.

This by no means is to suggest that those who work daily to keep our streets safe, address social injustice and educate our youth are not doing their jobs. However, they cannot do it alone and need an outraged citizenry to support their daily efforts. They simply cannot do their jobs as well as long as we keep silent. Now is the time to call upon our leaders, by all means of communication possible, and let them know that something drastic must be done now, or all of the momentum associated with Youngstown’s revitalization efforts will be for naught. Indeed, we are fooling ourselves to believe that our region is enjoying a renaissance if violent crime, generational poverty and failing school systems remain.

The challenges we face as a region have less to do with competition and threats from the outside, but more to do with danger from within our own city and suburban limits. I am a proud, lifelong city resident who would like to remain one. But the events of the past few weeks make even the most proud city residents question their residency.

Scott R. Schulick, Youngstown

It’s all about jobs

The economy goes up and down and has for decades. That’s the way things are. But don’t tell that to someone who can’t find a job.

Lots of educated and knowledgeable businessmen and economists are trying to figure out this great recession. Does anyone have an answer. They always have in the past.

Take for instance the dot.com bubble during the Clinton years. The one word that could answer the great economic boom in it was “productivity.”

This time the great job loss economy doesn’t seem to be easy to figure out. Timothy Geithner is not dumb, folks. Neither are Ben Bernanke and Larry Summers.

Maybe the great “job loss economy” is due to job losses. That is, for 50-plus years, the solution to jobs lost to increasing imports has been “trade adjustment assistance” — doling out money for displaced workers to train and to move around the country to where the jobs are.

We all know that “trade adjustment assistance” has in the past (and is still) another broken government program.

Always remember that 100,000 job losses to imports results in several hundred thousand job losses in the groceries business, the clothing business, homes, etc. This is not “trickle down” — this is “busting up.”

When the greatness of America was based on moving (from overseas to the U.S., by immigrants), jobs were already available. Now it will take a surge in production and services and a new “moving army” to take a healthy bite out of the recession.

Louis N. DeToro, Youngstown