Young see value of two parties

Young see value of two parties

I am thankful that the small group of occupiers in our town is not large enough to support the violence and destruction seen in the larger ones in other cities. In Youngstown, the group does not have a large enough membership to allow the acts to be hidden behind a cloak of anonymity.

It is still a costly example of a small number of rebel rousers costing the taxpayers a large amount of money to police an illegal activity. The worst part is the support expressed by many elected officials. Robert Hagan was on hand to get his picture taken supporting the law breakers.

When our elected officials overtly or by doing nothing support law breakers, we see another reason the Valley is losing its young people. The younger generation who want to succeed in life are fleeing the area in ever larger numbers to see what life is like in the real world where the two party system keeps elected officials from being bought and paid for by the party and unions they must negotiate with.

One solution is to never re-elect an incumbent. Even with the loss of so many good citizens there are still enough qualified people to serve one term not worrying about re-election and then go back to working for a living.

Robert Husted, New Springfield

Fighting for the 99 percent

We did not start this fight. We acted in response to Gov. Kasich and the Legislature ramming through Senate Bill 5, an attack on the rights of more than 300,000 Ohio workers.

Issue 2 was not about Democrats and Republicans or liberals and conservatives. It was about Ohio’s priorities and values. The people who came to the polls to reject Senate Bill 5 came from across the political spectrum.

We want leaders to focus on the things we care about: jobs, health care and education. We want representation for the 99 percent.

Thomas Mamula, Canfield