DUI mess with YPD highlights corruption; Give LePore-Hagan award for drama; Sharpen teeth in texting-driving law; welfare for privileged; Mill Creek merchandising; euthanasia views challenged

DUI mess with YPD shows corruption is alive and well

The recent report of the cover-up of a DUI case by the Youngstown Police Department just proves that corruption is alive and well in the Valley in spite of the new face put on downtown.

Does anyone believe that this is the first dishonest act by these officers or that none of them will ever commit another questionable act again? If so, I have a building lot in the Everglades to sell you.

In the private sector, almost every contract calls for dismissal for distorting, but in Youngstown, no offense can be considered after two years so every two years a dishonest person slopping in the golden trough filled by taxpayers gets a clean slate.

Possibly the young new officers should get a longer suspension, but the career officers are crooks and have no place policing the citizens of Youngstown.

The incident just goes to show “no matter how much things change, some things stay the same.” I remember when corruption didn’t even make the front page.

Robert Husted, New Middletown

Give Golden Globe to Lepore-Hagan for her mastery in dramatic acting

It is refreshing to learn that state Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan is truly grounded in reality. Who lives in the Mahoning Valley and doesn’t think that being paid $60,584 plus full benefits is typical of all part-time jobs? I can surely understand how she must feel “slighted” because she cannot keep this paycheck and her $47,089 paycheck plus benefits from Youngstown State University together at the same time.

The only possible explanation for this travesty of justice is sexual discrimination. After all, a man surely would have been permitted to be on two government payrolls at the same time.

One thing is certain, Rep. Lepore-Hagan has mastered the skill of dramatic acting during her 29 years of service at the YSU Performing Arts Series. Or perhaps it was learned from her husband, former state Rep. Bob Hagan. Who knows?

Timothy Ryan, Newton Falls

Ohio needs to put sharper teeth in its texting while driving law

There is legislation in com- mittee in Columbus addressing the texting and driving problem. In talking to a local state legislator, he told me education is the key to reducing the problem.

I told him we are beyond that. (Nancy Reagan’s solution of “just say no to drugs!’’ didn’t work very well). I told him every driver, with common sense, knows that texting/driving reduces reaction time and that death and injury could be the result.

People who drive and text have the attitude — this is a free country, I will do what I please. When something bad happens, they apologize, tell the family of the dead or injured they are sorry, and hope the courts are lenient (which they are).

For an anti-texting/driving law to be effective, there must be teeth in it. Currently, people 17 years old and younger cannot text and drive. It is a primary offense, so a police officer can issue a ticket. However, a driver who is 23, 30, 36, or 56 years old can cause an accident while texting, just like a teenager. The current law, as written, is a joke and ineffective because it doesn’t apply to everyone.

If drivers would violate a new law, the penalty must be tough so people get the message. The state legislators have to determine how tough, for this problem to be greatly reduced.

G. Roger Elias, Austintown

Mill Creek merchandise should reflect mission of self-sufficiency

Over the holiday season, I was browsing at the Fellows Riverside Gardens Shop in Mill Creek Park and discovered that clothing being sold is not locally made, but rather mass-manufactured items with Made-in- China tags.

This strongly contradicts the park’s mission to be a venue for encouraging self-sufficiency and a sustainable local community, namely, learning how to make things by hand in more natural environmentally friendly ways.

The gardens shop hosts a regular knitters group and, during the holidays, a spinner spins yarn at Lanterman’s Mill. Often where do many Mahoning Valley residents go to look for real Youngstown goods to send as gifts to relatives who have moved away? The Fellows Riverside Gardens Shop.

There are many talented fiber artists here in the Valley. Why does the merchandise buyer not invest in the quality, highly unique and valuable goods of these local talented artists?

I’d like to suggest that the merchandise buyer for the Gardens Shop start investing in the local economy and keep to the park’s mission as being a presence and leader promoting local community in the city.

Hiromi Takahashi, Youngstown

New HUD program expands welfare to privileged workers

Finally, a new welfare pro- gram for the non-needy. Just what the taxpayers need. Who benefits from this new welfare program? Certain privileged government workers.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has a new program called the “Good Neighbor Next Door.” This program allows teachers, police, and firefighters to purchase HUD homes for sale (which are already taxpayer subsidized) for half of the listed price.

If you are a factory worker, nurse, laborer or any other worker who is not a member of the favored class, too bad; you will have to pay twice as much for the same house.

And guess who gets to eat the other half of the purchase price when one of these privileged folks buys a HUD home? If you said “us taxpayers,” you would be right, again. So now we taxpayers not only will pay for the salaries and benefits of these government workers, we now have the honor of paying half of their mortgages. When is enough enough?

Traditional welfare, corporate welfare, and now government-employee welfare. It seems to me that us taxpayers pay the “fare” while all those with their hands out get “well.” Even the name of this program is offensive, as if only government employees can be “good neighbors.”

I guess the rest of us bad neighbors are only useful when it comes time to pay the bill.

George A. Davis, Poland

Columnists’ views on euthanasia, assisted suicide are challenged

On Jan. 5, The Vindica- tor published a column by Nora Zamichow and Ken Murray advocating measures to make euthanasia and assisted suicide more acceptable. The article repeats many of the high-sounding phrases customarily used by advocates of these practices.

Anyone tempted by such arguments should delve into what has actually happened in foreign nations and in the American states where such practices have become legalized or tolerated.

The authors propose interposing “another class of medical professionals” to overcome objections that doctors may have to such procedures. Though that may allow doctors to stay out of the process, it does not blunt the ethical objections to euthanasia and assisted suicide as matters of policy. If I hire someone to commit a murder instead of doing it myself, that does not absolve me of the crime.

I also found objectionable the use of a quotation from Leon Kass in the article. A casual reader might conclude that Kass might look kindly upon such measures. I am familiar enough with the thought of Dr. Kass to know that this is not so.

Patrick J. Lally, Youngstown