Wake up, Youngstown! Idora, steel won’t return

Opinion: October 16, 2016 at 12:00a.m.

Yes, it is a shame the Mahoning Valley’s economics are still abysmal and many people blame government and any president, especially a black Democrat. But what about us, those sitting around complaining and waiting for a “Steel Messiah” to bring Youngstown back while the world passes us by? Why would business want to move here? We cannot even keep a small airline running.

America had an easy ride after World War II, when we enjoyed being the only major country not having fighting and destruction on our soil. Europe, Japan, Russia and China were blown to pieces leaving us the ones happily producing and selling to the world afterwards. Yes, this was a good run for 30 years.

Then the Japanese cars started to show up. As a former auto mechanic, I remember them being poorly made. The tag, “Made in Japan” was a joke, even in cartoons. This lack of quality did not last long. While we continued to laugh, the Japanese and Germans came back.

By the way, right before and during WWII, black Americans moved north to contribute to working for the massive war effort. When the work dried up in the ’50s, blacks were left behind, underemployed or unemployed, trapped in inner northern cities such as Newark, Detroit and Youngstown.

Youngstown is backward and loves it. Should we blame our current president for this? Stock market, low interest rates and low gas prices are very favorable. For this, Youngstown would cheer a Republican president. Low saving rates are not an issue since people here still hide money in the mattress. Oh, and can anyone pass a drug test for the many good-paying jobs?

In order to move economics you need to spend money and move money. The Valley rides with the brakes on. Why not blame ourselves, sitting around for 30 years waiting for steel to come back and moaning about Idora Park?

Here in the Valley, we love cash and avoiding taxes. We love low wages, blaming immigrants we never meet. We love to hate public-sector wages, or anyone with benefits – and have a columnist at The Vindicator who spends his time beating up on people with a living wage and benefits. We want to drag each other into the mud of low wages and no benefits, while we focus on gambling, sports – and little else. Yes, we cheer for new leadership – a King of Casinos who wants to be president.

Robin Schuler, Youngstown

Hit jackpot with Trump; you have nothing to lose

When I was in high school, the state lottery systems were just coming into existence. It is something I remember because my mathematics teacher used the announcement of the lottery as an opportunity to teach the class about probability and chance. She highlighted the overwhelming odds against winning the jackpot but ended the lesson with a disclosure that she, nonetheless, intended to buy a lottery ticket.

The upcoming presidential election can be viewed as a government lottery in which Hillary Clinton is promising to give us a little more money pilfered from our neighbors, a promise that will result in more of the same – more poverty, more joblessness, more misery. She wants us to gamble away our future by investing in her, offering as an incentive a few more one-dollar lottery payouts that do nothing to help those in need. It is the same ploy tried by Barack Obama when he ran for president.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, is not trying to buy our votes with a few more dollars thrown our way. Instead, he is offering the freedom and opportunity to win the entire jackpot, a chance to play the game of success without facing a stacked deck, one weighted totally against us. He recently asked the black community, “What do you have to lose in voting for me?”

That very straightforward question directed at the black community is one that Trump could easily ask all of us – black, white, yellow, and red – because, after eight years of national decline, we have little to lose and everything to win.

Joseph K. Waltenbaugh, New Castle, Pa.

Let us count the ways Trump is bad for US

Donald Trump is too dangerous to be president. First, he’s known as an American-style fascist who wants to control his “critics” in the press, to be able to sue them or limit them (he banned about six from rallies).

He loves dictators, he took the side of the Chinese at Tiananmen Square when hundreds of student protesters for democracy were slaughtered. Trump called them a mob.

Trump said, “Gorbachev should have used a heavy hand to keep the USSR together before they split.” He also admires Putin and Kim Jong-un, who killed his uncle and a hundred other government officials.

Trump is a pathological liar. In the “Art of the Deal,” his ghost writer said, “Trump will lie about anything, and if he wins, it will be the end of civilization.” Politifact says he lies 70 percent of the time.

In a deposition around 2007, he admitted he inflates his wealth. So many lies: Muslims cheering fall of towers (he saw with his own eyes). He said that the NFL sent him a letter saying that it didn’t like debate times conflicting with its football schedule. The NFL said, “We never sent him a letter.”

I can go on and on folks. This is important because you won’t be able to believe anything he says when he talks policy in the White House. He’s going to lie about his policies; recently he said, “Those making $5 million a year will pay about the same in taxes.” The experts said, “No, they will get a deduction of $350,000 per year.”

Trump has little or no concern for others. He has been called a psychopathic narcissist by a Harvard psychologist. He’s glib, because he has no filter, no decency, and he’s manic because psychopaths need stimulation. Psychopaths become very bored easily and they cannot tolerate it.

Trump is not changing.

Nicholas Occhibone, Poland

In business and politics, there’s no shortage of lies

As I read your recent story about gas-royalty checks ending for many people in the gas-drilling areas in many states, I partially feel sorry for some of them. However, I do not feel fully sorry for them because they put their trust in big business. They have sadly found out that they have essentially been lied to and the “well has run dry.”

They likely will face financial ruin by continuing to fight their bosses. I liken the lies they were sold to the promises by Donald Trump and his claims he will rebuild the lost industries again in this country. If you fall for this, I have some snake oil to sell you. Be careful what you ask for. You’ll be sorry.

Harold Wilson, Austintown

Support Sebring schools

I encourage residents of the Sebring Local School District in Mahoning County to support the earned- income tax renewal levy on the Nov. 8 ballot.

This is not a new tax, and residents will not see an increase. Voters first passed the 1 percent earned-income tax levy in 2006 and then renewed in 2011. The $500,000 generated by this levy is critical in maintaining district operations, including staff, programs, transportation and supplies.

Over the past two years, the district has implemented cost-saving measures, which include reducing the effective millage rate of its current bond issue, saving taxpayers $66,000. However, the district will lose approximately $280,000 in state funding due to open enrollment and about $100,000 in tangible personal property taxes.

I urge residents of the Sebring Local School District to support high quality schools and vote “yes” on the district’s earned- income tax levy on Nov. 8.

Richard Lewis, Columbus

Richard Lewis is executive director of the Ohio School Boards Association.