Help end corporate greed by ousting Republicans

Opinion: August 18, 2019 at 12:00a.m.

President Donald J. Trump said that if you hate our country, you can leave.

It’s Trump’s corporate billionaires and millionaire lobbyists, otherwise known as the swamp-infested mess, that Trump was supposed to drain, who hate our country and coined the phrase, “Love America Or Leave It.”

They left America with all our good-paying jobs for cheap labor and our EPA standards so they could pollute the rest of the planet; these are Trump’s corporate patriots. Now they hide their billions of dollars of profit in Swiss banks and the Cayman Islands and call themselves Americans. This is the definition of corporate greed.

Now pay attention to these numbers in regards to Trump’s booming economy. We live in a land of billionaires, so why do we still have people – over 40 million – working and living under the poverty level who are eligible for social welfare? Could it be for cheap captive labor wages and the ultra high cost of health care? This is an ongoing Republican plan.

Capitalism does create wealth, but for whom and off of whose backs? C’mon America, wake up, before it’s too late. Let’s vote out these foreign-backed, lying, greedy, racist Republicans in 2020 and really make “America greater and stronger.”

David P. Gaibis Sr., Edinburg, Pa.

South High coach offered sage advice in game of life

Ben Laskin was a foot- ball coach and a gym teacher at South High School on Market Street in Youngstown. I knew Ben Laskin for only one semester as a student in his gym class in the year 1949, which was the year of my graduation. He quickly and easily earned my respect due to his warm human qualities, such as a quick and easy smile, and a full acceptance of each student, as well as imparting to each student something that all good teachers have: the power of encouragement to those who recognize it and accept it.

One day in gym class he did a radical thing. After taking attendance, he read a prayer titled, “The Sportsman’s Creed.” It resounded with me so powerfully, that immediately after class I went into his office and asked if I might copy it.

A few years after my graduation, I was stricken with the news that Ben Laskin had passed away due to a rare blood disease.

And so, in memory of Ben Laskin, I would like to share “The Sportsman’s Creed” by an anonymous author with you:

“Dear God, help me to be a sport in this game of life. I don’t ask for any place in the lineup; play me wherever you need me. I only ask you for the stuff to give you 100% of what I’ve got. If all the hard drives come my way, I thank you for the compliment. Help me to remember that You won’t let anything come that You and I can’t handle together. And help me to take the hard breaks as part of the game. Help make me thankful for them. And, God, help me always play on the square, no matter what the other players do. Help me to come clean. Help me to see that often the best part of the game is helping other guys. Help me to be ‘a regular fellow’ with the other players. Finally, God, if fate seems to uppercut me with both hands and I’m laid upon the shelf in sickness or old age, help me to take that as part of the game also. Help me not to whimper or squeal that the game was a frame-up or that I had a raw deal. When in the dusk I get the final bell, I ask for no lying complimentary stones. I’d only like to know that you feel I’ve been a good guy.”

Armand Pucci, University Heights

Trump, Obama both won president with sales pitches

Just as a successful salesman is able to separate a person from his money by selling a product or a service, a successful politician is able to “sell” an idea or series of ideas to the electorate.

The politician who convinces voters of just one or two widely accepted issues is often a winner. It doesn’t matter if the idea is likely going to be attained or even stand a high percentage of likelihood. It just matters that it resonates with enough voters to get the candidate elected.

Presidential candidate Barack Obama was perceived as someone who could heal a racial divide. Candidate Donald Trump promised to build the wall. People rallied around both candidates and Obama was easily elected; Trump won the electoral college and presidency.

People believed the “sales pitch” of both Obama and Trump, and the message won for both. Schooled writers, including national journalists and even special op-ed contributors from prestigious schools to this newspaper, glow either in favor of or against a politician of their liking or disliking but to the successful political “salesman,” all that matters is that the electorate continues to perceive a favorable candidate.

Atty. Carl Rafoth, Boardman

Message to migrants who complain: Go back home

I read a news article on migrants who are complaining about conditions in the holding centers where they are kept for processing.

Well, if they don’t like those conditions, they can go right back where they came from.

We did not ask you to come to the United States, so go home.

Joseph Hromyak, New Waterford

Take steps in park to fight lingering stigma of suicide

On July 8, 2013, my wife and I experienced the worst day of our lives; that is when our son Terry took his own life.

Not knowing where to turn, in 2014 we found the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s “Out of the Darkness” community walk being held at Mill Creek Park in Youngstown.

After attending the event, which was very emotionally moving yet uplifting, we knew we wanted to be more involved. With that being said, my wife Cindy became the chairperson for the event in 2015 and we have grown the event from 200 participants then to over 3,000 last year. That proves there is a need in our area.

Unfortunately since 2008, the suicide rate in Ohio has increased by over 25 percent, a number we need to change.

We are hoping you the community, those that have lost someone, who are hurting everyday, or those that just need someone to talk to will join us this year at the Youngstown “Out of the Darkness” walk Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Wick Recreational Area of Mill Creek Park.

For more information you may contact my wife Cindy at (330)720-2975, sorslene@yahoo.com or the walk website, www.afsp.org/youngstown to create a team or register for the walk.

Help us shed light on a subject too often kept in the dark.

Steve Orslene, Cortland

Ohio Barn Project leader eyes Mahoning Co.

I will be traveling through Mahoning County in early October and I’d like to find some old barns, built before 1930 and ideally having a weathered look and a good story or two to go along with it.

Several years ago I started The Ohio Barn Project. I’m an artist and writer based in Cincinnati, and I do oil paintings of old barns and write essays about them, which are posted on my website, www.barnart.weebly.com.

Almost all of my paintings help raise funds for the local historical society, a museum, the 4-H, or some other nonprofit agency. I plan to include all 88 Ohio counties, and I have 27 to go. My goal is to finish this year.

I’ve done fundraisers in Mahoning County for SMARTS and for the Loghurst Foundation. I’d like to tour the southern aspect of your county, especially the area around Western Reserve Road.

If a barn owner is interested, he or she can reach me via the contact form on my website, www.barnart.weebly.com.

Old barns are disappearing quickly and, along with them, pieces of our past. I’m hoping to preserve some of this vanishing landscape.

Robert Kroeger, Cincinnati