What a bunch of crybabies

What a bunch of crybabies

Quitters, criminals and loser crybabies. That’s what our local politicians, so-called leaders and media are.

The Vindictor and Mayor Sammarone are crying about the Covelli Centre. I’m old enough to remember many years of fun at Idora Park. Is that what we want? No Idora, no more Covelli?

Real leaders would be trying to raise revenue, as in fund raising, public awareness, Covelli Centre coffee mugs, T-shirts, etc. The mayor should explain to grandparents, parents, our future (the kids) why there will be no more circus, Disney on Ice, Monster Trucks, etc. We can all drive to Cleveland or Pittsburgh to see a show. Sorry downtown restaurants.

Hey, wealthy local people, how about helping out?

Mayor Chuck has said he’s 99 percent sure he’s not going to run. So just hold down the fort and not worry about the future. It’s sad that Mayor Jay Williams left. He was a true leader. He knew the true significance of the Centre. All Youngstown citizens should be outraged at this so-called leadership. There are a lot of local activities there also, not just shows. And the always negative Bertram de Souza is also crying about the Centre. We need to change the negative attitude of the citizens of this community. New positive leaders is a start.

Mike Cholensky, Youngstown

Piggish behavior tarnishes the day

I am writing in regard to the graduation ceremony that was held at Mineral Ridge High School on May 27. The ceremony was very nice, but getting into the auditorium and finding a seat was a fiasco.

With almost 80 seniors graduating, you would have thought that the administration would have handed out tickets so that the parents of the graduates would be sure of a seat. That is not what happened, it was a first come, first served for a seat.

The doors opened at 1 p.m. and we were there at 12:45, and had to get in a line that was clear around the school. Those at the front of the line got in and not only got a seat, but forgot about the rest of the parents and grandparents as they were saving not only seats, but rows of seats. It seems that parents from Mineral Ridge do not know what first come, first served means as when we tried to get a seat they were all taken.

My granddaughter was one of the valedictorians and her mother and I were very lucky to find four seats. Her aunt, uncle and cousins got there at 1:30 and could not find seats together. Her uncle went home. I also saw some people who had a child graduating remove a reserved sign, sit down and not move. Good for them. Another parent sat in the over flow section and could not get a good picture or sound of his child graduating.

Now, I know why people call Mineral Ridge, Miserable Ridge. The parents who saved seats and the administration showed us what it meant to be a Ram.

Rachel Wood, North Jackson

Bus drivers become scapegoats

I am writing in support of the Austintown bus drivers. They get their hours cut and lost their benefits. Why?

The board says it will save much needed money. The reason behind this is to do away with the union bus drivers and bring in a non-union private busing company. It has been known for years that they were trying to do this. They will force these well-trained drivers to look for work else where to attain medical coverage, then the board will claim due to a lack of well train drivers they will have to outsource the busing.

They also are eliminating busing to parochial schools telling them they can get a schedule from WRTA and learn where you can pick up the bus and be dropped off at. I can see my grandsons being picked up and dropped off at the Austintown Walmart and then walking two miles home from there, I don’t think so for 5th and 6th graders.

If they want to save money start by looking into why Fitch High School has four principals and four vice principals. Back in my days at Chaney we had more students with one principal and one vice principal. Until they learn to cut the upper fat, my days of supporting anymore school levies in Austintown are long gone.

Andrew Pappagallo Sr., Mineral Ridge (Austintown Township)

Protect tomorrow’s pensions today

As the country begins its slow recovery from recession, anxieties over future retirement security are becoming a potent political issue despite candidates unwillingness to address a complex and thorny problem. Underfunded pension plans.

Every day 10,000 baby boomers turn 65, yet they are “not all confident” they have enough money for a comfortable retirement. I think there are a lot of people who have pensions coming to them who are worried that they may not see them. Many pension funds lack the reserves to meet future needs.

Twenty percent of American workers — about 44 million people — are covered by defined benefit plans. A study indicated that, collectively, plans of the Standard and Poors 1,500 were underfunded by $4.31 billion dollars at the end of last January.

The Pension Protection Act of 2006 was intended to shore up pension plans by requiring they meet 100 percent of their funding over time, but the great recession has blown holes in expected returns on investment, putting some at risk.

The PBGC protects 44 million people, in 27,000 ongoing pension plans. When a plan no longer qualifies under the rules, the agency take over and pays beneficiaries up to federal limits, which are capped and reduced.

The agency currently administers more than 4,300 failed plans with about 1.5 million participants and pays an average of $458 million each month to the retirees and beneficiaries. In the year ending last October the PBGC took over an additional 134 failed plans with another $7,000 covered workers.

Please help.

Carmen E. Parise, Youngstown

The writer is the business representative of the Newspaper and Magazine Workers Union, Teamsters Local 473.

Where are the good jobs going?

When the CEO of Corning INC. received a $27 million compensation package it didn’t get much attention. But when it was announced that all glass related manufacturing at Corning’s Big Flats, N.Y., plant would be sent to their plant in Mexico, it woke everybody up.

That was three years ago. It’s time to wake up again people because if Mitt Romney wins the presidency and the Republicans keep control of the House of Representatives and God forbid they win the Senate, then Mexico, China, Japan, India, etc., will be producing more and more of our products and taking thousands of our jobs thanks to greedy corporations who will have everything going their way.

What is that the Republicans say? “We want to put everyone back to work by creating more good paying jobs.” Will someone tell me how do you do that by giving companies the green light to move their operations offshore and across the border?

It doesn’t make any difference to these people we call representatives, what you think. There are issues out there that the large majority of people believe in but that doesn’t matter to them because they have their evil agenda and they won’t budge. There’s only one thing to do, make them budge, and I mean right out the door. Mitt Romney and the dictatorship in Congress do not have your best interest at heart. Be it the working class people, retirees, veterans, women and poor.

Bud McKelvey, Hermitage, Pa.