New group in Y’town seeks to engage parents

Opinion: June 2, 2019 at 12:00a.m.

Invited by Mayor Tito Brown, Parents Forum seeks to create a local chapter, Parents Forum Youngstown, that will bring parents together to help one another. I am deeply grateful to the mayor and want to share with your readers some background on our program.

Parents Forum is 25 years old and receives consistently favorable comments from participants in our workshops. Recognition and support for parents’ essential work is growing.

You may not have heard of International Day of Families May 15, Global Day of Parents June 1, or Respect for Parents Day Aug. 1, but these named days are all relevant to our efforts. A “Statement on Parenting” was presented at the United Nations in October and a recent online effort #thisisparenthood wants to spark a global conversation on the realities of parenting. Count us in.

With a small seed grant from YSU’s Centofanti Center, and researchers at the university eager to work with community entities to engage and serve parents, we intend to spend the next couple of months building a collaborative team that can begin offering Parents Forum programming in the fall.

Parents’ primary responsibility is often thought to be discipline, but discipline is secondary. Connection, not correction, defines our role. Parents Forum helps parents make positive connections with each other so that each can create stronger bonds with our children.

Eve Sullivan, Cambridge, Mass.

Eve Sullivan, an Ohio native, is founder of Parents Forum. She was named a Golden Buckeye in 2015 for her contributions to the field of parenting education and is the author of “Where the Heart Listens: A Handbook for Parents and Their Allies.”

Action needed to address violence against nurses

Along with limit- ed coverage, rising costs and increased wait times, there is a silent epidemic taking place in our health-care system. Violence against nurses and health-care personnel continues to be on the rise. More than “80 percent of nurses reported they were attacked while on the job in the past year,” according to one study. This statistic is not surprising to someone who works in a hospital.

Since my entry into health care in 1993, I can recount multiple incidents of violence against myself and fellow co-workers. Many times I have gone home after a shift with bruises and pain induced by a patient or work incident. I strive to give competent medical care and have treatment goals in mind when approaching a case.

Nowhere in my education was I warned of the abuse I should have prepared for.

Imagine people unhappy with their wait time or service at a local bank, big box store or restaurant. Suddenly they become irate, they spit, kick, bite or try to strike the attendant or server. What would happen in that forum?

The police, I’m sure, would get involved, and that person would end up detained. At a hospital, rarely is anyone detained or placed under arrest. We must start to have a strict penalty for abuse of hospital staff that is followed through by a judge.

Debra Wrenn, Poland

Trump’s tariffs make dollar stores appealing

President Donald J. Trump recently imposed a 25 percent tariff on many Chinese imports. He has received quite a bit of criticism for this. However, I think this is a sound economic policy.

President Trump has assured us that this policy will help business, create jobs and also help the consumer. I think we should take him at his word. After all, he is a very successful businessman.

I’d like to continue to sing the president’s virtues and praise this decision further; however, I just remembered that I have to go to the dollar store and 25-cent store before they close.

Edward Alleman, New Castle, Pa.

US press largely ignores ‘coup’ against Trump

The press has long been considered the guardian of our democracy. What happened?

With the silence of the mainstream media, a bloodless coup against Donald Trump was attempted. This was the first time in U.S. history that the party in power is believed to have tried to interfere with a presidential election.

James Clapper and John Brennan both have been accused of lying to Congress under oath. Sally Yates signed off on spying on U.S. citizens without probable cause of a crime, though she denies that charge.

The DNC hired Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on the Trump campaign. This in itself is common in elections, but Fusion hired Christopher Steele, a retired MI6 agent, to create a damning dossier on Trump. He relied on Russians for information.

The Justice Department took this dossier to the FISA Court to get permission to spy on American citizens. They lied to the FISA court claiming that the information had been verified. The inspector general of the Justice Department is currently investigating this and the report should be finished in a few months.

So I believe the real collusion was by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, but your newspaper, along with the majority of the press, chooses to ignore this.

Yet you complain when Trump says “fake news.” As the Roman satirist Juvenal wrote, “quis custodiet ipsos custodes” (“who will watch the watchers”).

I fear real journalism is just about dead in the U.S. Very sad.

Jim McCloskey, Boardman

All Russian-backed GOP hopefuls must be ousted

Let’s be clear about the report from Robert Mueller It proved that communist Russia interfered in our 2016 presidential election.

The Russians wanted Donald Trump, the wannabee dictator, to be our next president and the rest of his Republican supporters in the House of Representatives and Senate; it worked, they won.

Two years after Trump and his gang took over the federal government, the Democrats took back the U.S. House of Representatives.

This Republican administration has made the rich richer with its tax-cut deals and the poor poorer with its trade deals.

With all the ongoing obstructive investigations, this Republican administration thinks it’s above the rule of law and our Constitution.

Now the Republicans are looking for another no-win war somewhere – just like former President George W. Bush’s Iraq War – to get Trump elected again.

The intelligent American public that loves our country and wants to get it back on track has to vote out any Trump/Russian-backed Republicans in 2020.

Case closed.

David P. Gaibis Sr., Edinburg, Pa.

People with walkers still face many challenges

This letter is the only avenue I can think of to try to get some changes made for people who are handicapped.

I am a disabled senior citizen who must now use a walker to get around. My biggest obstacle is trying to open doors. It is very difficult to open the doors and maneuver the walker.

It seems that most of the doctor’s offices, restaurants and movie theatres have two big doors to go through. Even many churches do.

I know I am not the only one facing this problem because several times when several people assisted me, they said their wife, mother, friend have the same problem.

I appreciate the fact that there are department stores in Boardman and Eastwood with automatic doors.

I wish something could be done for this. I already had to change dentists because of this obstacle.

Carol Thompson, Austintown