Letters to the Editor: April 15, 2018

Speed cameras in Girard disguised as safety tool

The front-page banner headline from a recent edition of The Vindicator, “Girard leaders link speed cameras to safer streets” says something to the effect that Girard “leaders” have “generated” more than $2.3 million off of citizens who were denied due process, which is supposed to be guaranteed them by the Fifth and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. This sting is once again disguised as a safety measure.

There are some misleading statistics in the article. It said that the 199 crashes in 2016 was down from the previous two years. The downward trend could very much be attributed to fewer people traveling through the city. A grocery store, a candy store and a fine restaurant have left Girard during that period.

This injustice is not exclusive to Girard. Citizens in New Miami, Ohio, filed a $3 million lawsuit against New Miami and won.

Of course New Miami appealed the decision and the 12th District Court of Appeals has ruled that New Miami is not entitled immunity in a lawsuit that seeks more than $3 million from the village for collecting fines from a speeding camera operation that was later declared unconstitutional.

I ask: Where are our representatives who are supposed to be protecting us from this kind of scam? Doesn’t it seem strange that an out-of-state company (Blue Line Solutions of Tennessee) received 40 percent of Girard’s take? Are the citizens of this community just complacent and apathetic or are they happy having their streets paved for them?

Maybe our representatives already know this. What’s in the cards tomorrow – drones outside our windows?

• Thomas Hufnagel, Niles

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Enough is enough with Boardman school taxes

As a long-time resident of Boardman, the one consistent thing you can count on is the Boardman school system having its hand in your pocket.

There is another levy on the ballot May 8 asking for an additional rise in property tax to help the school district. Am I the only one wondering why this school system can’t make do with what they have?

Maybe some classes and programs should be cut to stay within a budget. How many administrators and nonteaching personnel are really needed?

Making cuts and adhering to a budget will not weaken the quality of the school system. Maybe the “tradition” needs to be changed. I think it’s about time the school system makes some cuts and stops using the property owners as their personal ATM.

Rest assured that in a couple of years, they will be back with another levy on the ballot when this one too is not enough.

When will it ever be enough?

• Sherry Ross, Boardman

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When will Congress stop accepting the craziness of President Trump?

We’ve finally said “No More” to sexual harassment, and Florida has passed a law to raise the age to 21 to buy a gun with a three-day waiting period. These are all good things that have happened.

Yet, I am embarrassed and ashamed that our president is a bully and that Congress seems to accept his craziness as normal.

It’s a sad day for Americans when our allies aren’t sure which side we are on and what the president will do or say next.

When I was a child my mother told me if I couldn’t say something nice it was better to say nothing at all and to follow the Golden Rule, treat others as you want them to treat you.

How can we teach our children to not be a bully when we allow the president, who should have a good moral compass and doesn’t, to continue to call people derogatory names? He lies every time he opens his mouth or sends out a tweet.

When will we say no more to his bullying tactics and lies?

• Darlene Torday, Berlin Center

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Hire more border agents instead of building wall

President Donald J. Trump wants to build a billion-dollar wall at the border, which will make him and his rich friends richer. You can hire a hundred more border control agents a lot cheaper.

His promises to coal miners and steel workers are not going to happen either.

As far as gun control, he will go with the National Rifle Association.

One solution for automatic and semi-automatic weapons: Make it a federal law for the makers and sellers of ammo to only sell ammo for these weapons and provide them to the military.

• Alfred P. Gugliotti, Poland

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With so many satellites, bomb shelters may return

Up, up and away, it is a liftoff. The first satellite sent into orbit was on Oct. 4, 1957. Russia launched Sputnik I, which measured 22.8 inches and weighed 183.9 pounds. Three months later it fell out of orbit and burned up entering Earth’s atmosphere. That was a very small satellite; I would say it vaporized on re-entry. No sweat; the Earth was safe from high-speed space junk.

Now, there might be a big problem 61 years later. To date, there are 2,271 satellites currently in orbit. Vanguard 1, which lost communication in 1964, remains in orbit today as the oldest.

Since Sputnik, the satellites have massed to tons of weight speeding around the Earth. Space debris or space junk travel at speeds up to 17,500 mph and are estimated to be around 500,000 pieces in orbit recorded in 2013.

So what are the odds of ever getting hit from Buck Rogers’ spaceship from the 1940s? The European Space Agency says one in 100 billion in the course of 75 year life time. We might also remember Russian roulette; now China got into the game lately with China Roulette. Yes, one of its satellites is falling out of orbit also. Knowing three-quarters of the Earth surface is water should bring some relief to the mix, but it is that other quarter that kind of bothers me.

Again with all the money government puts into the space program, why can’t they also go a pinch more and equip the satellite with a self-destruction mode for re-entry safety to the inhabitants of the Earth? Well maybe the bomb shelter can still be put to good use as some things may never to out of style.

• Paul R. Lawson, McDonald

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Anti-gun students put those in Congress to shame

The upcoming generations of Americans may give us hope for this country! To wit: The outstanding students in Florida who are leading the way, who have more sense than the combined witless members of Congress.

Of course, unlike U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, they have without a doubt not sold their integrity and souls to the NRA, an organization that has flooded so many U.S. senators and U.S. representatives with gazillions of dollars to buy votes favorable to them ignoring what the majority of the populace of the United States wish. Question: Which group is more concerned with people rather than the dollars? Answer: Students.

The information through the internet is available as to whom and how much this largess has been bestowed and received by members of Congress. Aren’t we fortunate that we do have one U.S. senator from Ohio, Sherrod Brown, who is still whole, not having sold himself to the NRA.

Another question: Is anyone planning to install/reinstall by voting in November, 2018, these members of Congress who spurn the majority wishes of residents of this country? If so, as my grandmother would say: “They don’t have the brains they were born with.” Good for Grandma for hitting the nail on the head.

• Shirley Bartlett, Austintown