Get big money out of elections

Get big money out of elections

We need a new amendment to the Constitution — one that will set rights as belonging to people and not corporations or institutions. If we don’t get that soon we can kiss our democracy good bye. They have nearly all the money and now they are buying the government one governor, state house, senator, congressman and president at a time.

They are selling them to us — just like they sell toothpaste, with 30-second ads on TV. They take the same tired ideas and sell them as new and improved every couple of years and we buy it. They can’t govern, but boy are they good at PR and advertising. The guy with the most money wins and that is the guy who sucks up most to the rich donors. As Christ said “You cannot serve two masters.”

They know just how to push your buttons. They play to your fears of people who are different like gays, brown people, and people of other religions. Or they use your envy by pointing at one group as making or getting more, as they are now doing with the public employees, and while they have you fighting among yourselves they walk away with all the marbles.

They wave the flag, but they really hate everything about America. You cannot love your country, while hating its people, its ideals or its elected government. You cannot serve well a government you hate, or while you are serving another master.

There are two ways we as citizens can cure this monster that the mass media has caused. We can become more informed. Or we can take the money out of the process. It is not too late for us to solve this problem. We still have the vote. As with any tool, it is only as good as the person using it and that person is you.

Paul D Shanabarger, New Springfield

Where did all the music go?

How strange that AM radio in this area is all-talk radio all of a sudden.

The easy going music that we used to listen to going to work and at home — the songs of your life — is gone. After a hard day at work, its nice to relax to soothing sounds; instead we get more fired up listening to talk radio. Let us have a choice.

Louis Yaworsky, Austintown