Is racing good for horses?

Is racing good for horses?

The horse has been our com- panion, it has borne our burdens, it has helped develop our country, helped fight our wars, helped deliver the mail, helped bring us milk and other farm products.

If the horse could vote for or against race tracks, the vote would surely be a resounding no. The sport of racing has caused horses pain, injury, and death by forcing them to run ever faster on legs made critically thin by in-breeding. But horses don’t get to vote. Humans, not horses, have the brains to vote — or so we believe.

IBM had a successful advertising campaign years ago consisting of one word: THINK. As good citizens of the Mahoning Valley, we should think before permitting horse racing and all of the evils it brings.

Perc M. Kelty, Boardman

GM bonuses make no sense

How can General Motors justify the payment of record bonuses? They sure don’t read The Vindicator.

People are losing their homes. Unemployment continues at historically high levels. We have our students being murdered in their homes. Our infrastructure is crumbling and our schools are a mess. Significant parts of the Valley have been boarded up to look like Katrina hit here too. Yet despite all this, General Motors has apparently forgotten it is still operating on the taxpayer dole and feels it proper to pay out bonuses to its employees. Has everyone forgot about the $60 billion dollar bailout? The justification is in employee retention and the positive results from last year. Have they learned nothing?

GM, including Lordstown, lost $80 billion in the four years prior to going bankrupt. Some turnover might be a good thing. The union supports the payments for the “sacrifices” they made in renegotiating the contract in 2009. It seems to me the American taxpayer is the one that has sacrificed the most.

Tim Ryan, Newton Falls

S.B. 5 is unfair and unjust

Senate Bill 5 is in debate before the Ohio Senate’s Insurance, Commerce and Labor Committee. Its purpose is to eliminate collective bargaining rights for all state of Ohio employees, all Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections employees, and the Ohio State Highway Patrol. The bill would also cripple the collective bargaining rights for local public employee unions, which represent police officers, deputy sheriffs, firefighters, teachers and other public employees.

For three decades, Ohio has made a covenant with its safety forces which are forbidden by law from going on strike due to the inherent nature of our work. This covenant gave us the opportunity to sit down with our employers and negotiate the fairest working conditions possible, always bearing in mind the safety of the public and of our members who do this important work. S.B. 5 eliminates our ability to negotiate for fair working conditions, such as staffing and equipment.

I often hear that what we earn, insofar as our salaries and benefits, is above what our private-sector counterparts make. But I fail to see a private-sector counterpart to a police officer, deputy sheriff or firefighter. Which private sector individuals run into burning homes, stand in front of bullets, get assaulted enforcing the law or save strangers’ lives as part of their job duties or working conditions? These are real working conditions that we go through, and we know exactly what is needed to improve the quality of service that we provide to the public.

We are not selfish public sector employees. All of us chose law enforcement of fire fighting because we believe in civic duty and public safety — so much so that we have used collective bargaining to ensure that employee salaries and benefit costs were frozen or even cut in order to maintain the same quality level of services we provide.

A recent Quinnipiac poll shows that by a 17 point margin, Ohioans favor collective bargaining rights for safety service workers. S.B. 5 would essentially eliminate the middle class, which has been the backbone of the nation, in Ohio. Without exploring other ways of cutting the state budget, a majority our Legislature and our new governor have come up with legislation to effectively eliminate the working class people of Ohio, a population whose numbers are already decreasing.

S.B. 5 is unfair, unjust and breaks a bond that has existed between the government and safety service unions for close to 30 years. It is my sincere hope that this unjust piece of legislation does not come to pass, so that safety service unions will be able to continue to negotiate fair and equitable terms of employment while providing the best quality services to this community.

Sgt. T.J. Assion, Youngstown

The writer is president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 141, representing deputies in the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department.