US-Shell deal puts whale, Eskimo people in jeopardy

US-Shell deal puts whale, Eskimo people in jeopardy

When the Obama administration gave Shell Oil, a Dutch company, the rights to drill offshore for oil along the northern coast of Alaska in the midst of the Bowhead whales, our rare cold water whale, they have not only put the whale and all marine life at great risk. They also have condemned the lives and very existence of the North American Eskimo people, our country’s oldest inhabitants.

During some of 1949 and 1964, I lived with the people of Point Hope, Alaska, the Eskimo name is “Tigara.” A happier friendly people you could not ask for. Yes, as hunters and gatherers, their lives were hard. I know that from firsthand experience. With what nature provided they made it work. As the oldest continually inhabited site in North America, over 2,000 years, they have made it work! Eighty percent of their livelihood is gathered from the sea. Now they can see their way of life is at great risk.

These offshore oil fields will probably play out in two or three decades just as the Point Barrow oil fields are doing, but by then it will be too late for my friends along Alaska’s North shore.

To favor Shell Oil and risk the fragile life of our Native American Eskimo and whale populations over the Keystone Pipeline does not pass the smell test.

There’s another example of Obama’s campaign promise to “fundamentally change the way America works!”

Tom Page, Boardman

Planned Parenthood has a history of not caring

I read a billboard with the message, “It is a criminal offense to abuse an animal.” I could not help but shake my head and think of the treatment of unborn babies in our country. Three thousand five hundred are killed daily from abortion. Yes, abusing an animal is wrong, but what about the abuse done to the unborn?

From the mid 1990s to 2003, the horrific partial-birth abortion procedure was practiced. It involved 6- to 9-month-old preborn babies that were forcibly pulled feet first from their mother’s womb, with only their heads remaining in the uterus, arms moving and feet kicking. Scissors were jammed into the skulls; a suction catheter was inserted; sucking out the brains. This procedure, now banned, has been replaced by dismemberment abortion.

The incredible series of videos from the Center for Medical Progress shows Planned Parenthood staff members conveying the price of aborted baby parts – and even joking about it.

Planned Parenthood receives massive federal funding ($542.4 million annually, nearly $1.5 million per day). Over $147.7 million is generated ($451 per standard 10-week abortion). Planned Parenthood abortions outnumbered adoption referrals by more than 174 to 1.

Planned Parenthood is on pace to kill as much human life as the Nazis did during the Holocaust, by 2023. They killed 327,653 boys and girls in the womb in 2013. They have killed close to 6 million babies since their founding. Their founder, Margaret Sanger, despicably called African-Americans “human weeds.”

The documentary “Silent Scream” shows a 10-week-old preborn baby trying to escape an abortion suction instrument. It is beyond disturbing to see how this little human represents the millions of boys and girls in the womb that are abused, discarded or sold for money.

Brian Beal, Hermitage, Pa

Tressel combines the best traits of Cochran, Sweet

Market Street, South Avenue, Mahoning Avenue, Belmont Avenue. These are some of the main streets in Youngstown. I’d like to see Youngstown State University expand to Belmont Avenue.

I am so glad Jim Tressel is our new president. I’m happy to see a new student housing complex ready to get started. Mr. Tressel picked the better option over a local developer, while not stepping on his toes.

Former YSU President Leslie Cochran was good at getting new buildings, David Sweet with enrollment, and I believe Mr. Tressel will smartly do both. He listens to the students’ issues. I’d like to see a supermarket, and I’d like to see a YSU theme thrift store also, and other things like restaurants, etc.

I’d hope they then add on to Stambaugh Stadium with end zone seating and expand the smaller side.

Good luck Bo! I can’t wait for the games to start.

Mike Cholensky, Youngstown

Sunday morning poor time for school meetings, sports

I was very disappointed to learn in the Aug. 20 edition of The Vindicator that the Boardman Board of Education was holding a special board meeting on Sunday, Aug. 23, at 9 a.m.

According to Jody Stepen, assistant to the superintendent, this was the time set “to accommodate board members schedules.” That speaks volumes about the priorities for where to be on a Sunday morning, a day set apart as a day of rest and worship.

Most churches in Boardman only offer worship services on Sunday mornings. What example is being set here? Is it no wonder that violence is on the rise and church attendance is on the decline?

As a Sunday school teacher at Bethel Lutheran Church, it is so frustrating to teach a Bible lesson with poor attendance. I pass the Boardman High schoolyard where in the spring and fall, hundreds of children, parents and grandparents are involved in recreational soccer on a Sunday morning on my way home from church. Why not on a Saturday?

As a former school board member of South Range Local Schools, there was an understanding that no meetings, sports practice or event would take place on a Sunday without special board approval. I hope and pray that this continues.

Perhaps all schools and community events, including today’s Panerathon, would set policy to have Sunday mornings be for worship. Go to church! Worship, praise and learn the valuable lessons Jesus taught.

Delaine DeChellis, North Lima