In this season of pardons, spare US whistle blowers

In this season of pardons, spare US whistle blowers

The holiday season at the end of a quadrennial presidential cycle is traditionally taken as an opportunity for the out-going president to make a number of pardons in criminal cases where there is significant merit for doing so. Such merit might be found in a restoration of national unity, a return to our values as a people, or simply to correct a miscarriage of justice.

The argument could be made that since Sept. 11, 2001, we have pushed the pendulum of government intrusion and overreach into our lives rather strenuously, in the name of perfectly understandable national security at a time of intense historical stress. This has resulted in a number of “whistle blower” cases being created as a result of individuals speaking out not because of fraud, abuse or criminality on the part of their institutions, but instead their revelations caused institutional embarrassment because of policies gone awry.

I’m speaking of such current American dissidents as Chelsea Manning, Thomas Drake and Edward Snowden, who respectfully pointed out mistakes in the overly ambitious execution of our foreign policy, at great personal risk, and whose mistakes have cost many human lives (not all American) and greatly tarnished our reputation as a country that respects the rule of law and the protection of Freedom of Speech. I am speaking of starting down the road to torture, the abolition of habeus corpus and the prosecution of dissident voices whose messages are designed to correct aberrant behavior, not promote it.

Wouldn’t it be a nice Christmas surprise if President Obama could reset our country’s moral bearings by sparing our current class of whistle blowers now fighting for their freedom and self-respect, and at the same time to restore our country’s sense of pride as a leading force for human advancement?

Howard Mettee, Boardman

Kids kept in right direction

Good read by Todd Franko last Sunday – “Why do we do this?” could’ve been your title!

We spent our 25th anniversary weekend at some four-day U.S. eastern volleyball championship. But, as all decisions go, we, as parents, make them.

I never planned on raising any “pros” (and had one in the family) so our choice was to keep four kids active in the right direction – equal amounts of sports, music, church, school clubs, etc., until they proved they could concentrate on one or two.

As for the nationwide sports fall, I’m not sure I care, but I am sure it’s rooted in us.

Joey cantanzriti, Boardman

All school workers should be trained to perform CPR

Today is just like any other day; your child goes off to school to learn. Then the unimaginable happens; your child goes into cardiac arrest. Who is there to help save your child’s life until first responders arrive? Would your child live though this traumatic event? Is there anyone in the room who is CPR certified?

Right now in Ohio it is not required for teachers, cafeteria workers, administrative personnel or bus drivers to hold a CPR certification. The only members of the school system who must be CPR-certified are school coaches. Do you see the problem here? The ones who are with our children the most throughout the day, the ones we trust to protect and keep our children safe away from home would not be able to assist to save their life in an emergency. In order to help ensure our children’s lives could be saved in a tragic event like cardiac arrest, all workers of the school system need to be CPR certified.

Each year in the United States there are around 350,000 out of the hospital cardiac arrests. Many victims of cardiac arrest appear healthy, showing no symptoms of sudden doom. Survival merely relies on immediate action of CPR.

Teachers, cafeteria workers, administrative personnel and bus drivers need to be and should want to be CPR certified. With this wealth of knowledge, they will learn how to manually perform CPR and how to properly use an AED. With these skills, more lives will be saved; your child’s life can be saved.

Joellin Chance, Austintown

Addiction truly is a disease

I am writing in refer- ence to the article about addiction. I turned 32 on Dec. 1, and I myself am a recovering addict. It will be two years on Jan 29. We, as recovering addicts, didn’t just wake up one day and choose to get high. Addiction doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t matter about your age, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. My motto is “addiction is like cancer, you can make it go into remission, or it can take your life if you let it.”

We as a community need to help others get into a treatment facility, not just throw us in jail and expect us to get better in there; that will never work. So yes, addiction is definitely a disease.

Everyone will notice a decrease in any criminal activity if we can help each other, and not be so judgmental. It’s not like we asked to destroy our families or friends. Addiction is just like any other mental illness, and can be helped with the right doctors or treatment facilities.

People that have never been in any of our shoes, don’t know what it’s like or what we go through. It’s an everybody-fight-their own battle every day. It’s just not in bad neighborhoods, it’s everywhere. Your neighbors could be doing it or selling it and you would never know.

Staci LaCivita, Boardman

More Trump madness

What new madness is this? Donald Trump recently said the 2 million-plus popular vote plurality for Hillary Clinton was a result of voter fraud. This out of the mouth of the president-elect of the United States of America!

Two million-plus fraudulent votes? Are there any Americans – Republican, Democrat or Independent – with a lick of common sense in their heads, who truly believe such ludicrous nonsense?

Perhaps Mr. Trump ought to ask his good friend Vladimir Putin if he knows anything about this.

Lee Guy, Boardman

Lobby Cleveland Clinic, others for Valley presence

Now that the elec- tions are over, I am requesting our local and state representatives take a good look at our area medical institutions and consider coming together to lobby either or all of the Cleveland Clinic, UH (University Hospitals in Cleveland), or UMPC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) to establish a large-scale presence here in the Mahoning Valley.

We have all witnessed the decay of good medical services here after the acquisition of three local hospitals by Community Health Systems.

While Mercy Health Systems has expanded and improved their situation by major improvements and expansions to their hospitals, the same cannot be said for their competition. We continue to see regular layoffs and declines in services at ValleyCare Northside Medical Center and in recent days have seen news stories regarding the parent company’s fragile fiscal health.

In fact, Community Health Systems is reported to be selling several hospitals nationwide to generate enough cash flow to stay fiscally solvent.

In this situation we’ll not likely see a lot of major investment in our local institutions in the future.

We truly deserve better than we have here and won’t be getting it anytime soon.

To which I would suggest our local and state representatives step up and lobby Community Health Systems to sell to any of the prominent big three hospital systems.

We’ve already seen the Cleveland Clinic take an active position with its recent merger with Akron General.

It’s time our underserved area also joins in to have a local institution run and operated by any one of the Cleveland Clinic, UH or UPMC. We deserve better than this.

Mark Knafels, Austintown