Emily Post, where are you? Instilling manners in kids will lessen bullying

Emily Post, where are you? Instilling manners in kids will lessen bullying

Have you ever seen a child come home from school happy and excited about their day? They had such a wonderful time they can’t wait to tell you. These are the moments we hope every child experiences. Unfortunately, it’s not.

Now, imagine your child coming home in tears, not ever wanting to return to school. What would you do? Parents deal with this situation too often and it’s unacceptable. There are children of all ages not wanting to go to school because they are getting bullied.

To stop this problem, we have to identify the cause. Bullying is aggressive behavior. It comes in different forms. It can be intimidation by physical force, verbal abuse, intentional isolation or simply lack of awareness. A group of kids can exclude another child on purpose or unintentionally.

It can be name-calling or spreading rumors. Whatever the form, too often, the story ends with the children hurting themselves or even taking their own life.

We cannot be with our child every second of every day. But, we can teach them right from wrong. It begins with an awareness of the feelings of others. Maybe we simply need to get back to teaching and using “good manners.”

Emily Post once said, “Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.”

So, let’s stop being concerned about which fork to use. It’s not about pretending to be like the Kardashians. They’re the fork that doesn’t matter.

We’ve forgotten simple manners. Every parent should see their child come home happy and excited about their day at school. It may sound simple. But, we all should take a refresher course on “manners.”

Katherine Herberger, New Springfield

Politics had no place at Valley’s Sept. 11 memorial observance in Austintown

On the 15th anni- versary of the attacks on America by Islamic terrorists, I had the honor of being part of firing a salute with a Civil War re-enactment unit to honor the Fallen of 9/11 at the Mahoning Valley memorial in Austintown.

It was amazing to see so many of our safety forces as well as military and military veterans, all standing for the national anthem and pledge – not a single knee taken.

But I was extremely disappointed to hear a former state representative and veteran and a member of a service organization use his speech to bring politics into a ceremony specifically used to honor the fallen of 9/11.

I’ll not mention what was said but Patriots Day should not be used to belittle presidential candidates, or what they did as a former state representative to assure that guard and reservists received their GI bill to go to school.

Please save it for political rallies, not a ceremony honoring the sacrifices of the safety forces, and military and civilians that sacrificed so much “so this nation might live ...”

I’m sure this will upset quite a few; that’s fine. But what I stated is correct.

John Campbell, Madison

Campbell is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm and is a member of the American Legion.

Still more junk culture setting up in downtown

Of the futility of a development proposal other than commercial, no one knows better. But pipe dreams are stubborn things.

The long derelict United Engineering property behind the old U.S. Post Office downtown is being covered with tons of fill, presumably finessing the soil pollution site to who knows? More pay to park? More saloons subsidized by Water Department capital funds? An outdoor summer extension of the Traficant sports palace for ever more adolescent culture?

Long ago I proposed that it be acquired by a consortium of Youngstown, Mill Creek Park, YSU, the Youngstown area hospitals, and the area school systems for a riverside nature/ecology park and zoo. The synergies are as obvious as tremendous: a teaching tool for the schools, an income source from guinea pigs for biology labs and hospital surgeons, a fitting extension of Volney Rogers’ heritage in the founder’s spirit of a retreat of natural beauty, our own end-of-nature-era preserve, recession and student employment, and even a riverside city park with lovers’ walk. We’d have heritage, employment, beautification, education and morale where it is most desperately needed.

None of those things matters to our community leaders. Our horizon presents only the prospect of more junk culture, high-priced parking, and faux witty booster slogans.

Robert Scheetz, Youngstown

EpiPen travesty shows need to vote responsibly

Epinephrine, the drug in an EpiPen, has been around for years and was developed by the Army for use to treat soldiers for exposure to nerve gas.

The amount of the drug in an EpiPen is worth about $1. Yes that is one dollar. So that little thing it’s in, the Pen part, costs $600. Yes that’s six hundred dollars.

The EpiPen was made in the 1970s. We must be stupid to allow a company to make this amount of profit from a product that is over 40 years old.

We need to put a cap on the profit any company can make at 15 percent. We can only do that if we elect people who work for us and not for the companies.

Congress allowed these companies to hold on to these pattens for over 40 years because the lobbyists paid them to do it. Take a look back at who voted for this, and if your represesntative in Congress voted for this, throw him out. Don’t just automatically vote him back in every election.

You, We, Us are the reason the government is not working. We are not doing our job as voters: to be informed citizens and choose candidates out of reason and not let our hate and prejudices cloud our judgment.

We need to vote into office experienced people who will work for our country and not for themselves or the people who will pay them the most or give them the most money for their campaign.

Paul Shanabarger, New Springfield

Valley could use new mindset to help create new interstate highway

At our annual West Side block watch picnic attended by Mayor John McNally, I had a delightful chat with a neighbor who is an aide to Sen. Sherrod Brown. Our discussion involved the mayor’s recent frustration with the USDOT rejecting the city’s transportation bid for funding improvements to Fifth Avenue and Commerce Street.

In my opinion, the priority of the USDOT involves maintenance and expansion of our nation’s interstate highways. The USDOT often ignores a grant application to fund superficial makeovers on streets previously upgraded with the same type of funds. I have observed in my many cross-country commutes states are now constructing new interstate highways on existing federal and state routes. I believe this is done to avoid the required costly two-year environmental impact study for a proposed new highway.

The present 711 connector could be changed to an expanded loop. The loop would continue north on Route 11, head west on Route 82, become part of the Route 5 bypass and end at Turnpike Gate 209.

It’s sad our Valley officials don’t have the foresight to come up with a plan that will grab the attention of our Washington representatives.

Our Valley continues to miss out on funding for infrastructure, construction jobs and a vital highway link. If we build it, they will come.

Mario J. Poluse, Youngstown