Sunday, May 12, 2019
Our world needs beauty, brilliance of mothers
It has been said and believed that “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend,” but mothers have and always will be the most priceless jewels in the world.
All the tasks mothers perform for their families every day make one suspect they might be related to “Wonder Woman.”
A mother’s love for her family makes a house a home. Mothers are caregivers, teachers, counselors, protectors, homemakers, chauffeurs, our cheerleaders, and when it comes to managing money, they have been known to stretch a dollar to make one wonder if their money is rubber instead of paper.
Mothers will be honored on their “special day” today with everything from hugs and kisses to different presents.
Others who reside in God’s heavenly kingdom will be honored in our thoughts, in our hearts, and in our prayers.
Every Mother’s Day I do something my mother did to me as a child. She would gently pinch my cheeks and say, “those apple dumpling cheeks of yours are so cute I’m tempted to bite them.’’
We would laugh, and I’d say, “I’ll bite you back.”
How blessed are memories.
To all mothers, have a lovely Mother’s Day and keep shining. The world needs your brilliance and beauty.
Mary Lou Jurina, Youngstown
Christians should balance politics, principles of faith
Christians ask your- self this: Would Christ order babies to be taken from their mothers’ arms and be permanently orphaned and placed in metal cages?
Would he tell 10,000 lies to his flock?
Jesus drove the money changers from the temple. President Donald Trump swore in and placed in his Cabinet grifters who enriched themselves and their friends with impunity.
If we have a sense of decency and know right from wrong, we should refer to the Ten Commandments and vote our conscience.
We should balance our Christian faith with our political attitudes. What is most important to you?
Fred Day, Poland
Vindicator’s view on gerrymandering lauded
I want to thank The Vindicator, “The People’s Paper”, for not pulling any punches in its May 8 editorial, “Ohioans should not forget the GOP’s hostility to fairness.”
This report tackles gerrymandering, or the redistricting of voting areas that creates election outcomes that are foregone conclusions. Despite a bipartisan panel of federal judges ordering a new map to promote fairness in our elections, our attorney general is appealing the order, defying a million Ohioans who voted in May 2018 to redraw the current redistricting map to correct our gerrymandering problem.
Such a resistance to the will of the people by our attorney general provides the GOP an unfair advantage. The mentality of winning at all costs and grabbing power through insidious and “immoral” gerrymandering destroys our very democracy.
Why would people vote if they feel their vote is predetermined to preserve the status quo? This is one reason polls show a huge disconnect between what we the people say we want and the actual policies we get from our lawmakers.
I realize this issue will probably reach the U.S. Supreme Court. I hope and pray that gerrymandering is prohibited and our precious constitutional right of one man, one vote prevails.
Anne Hutchison, Poland
Don’t use taxpayers’ money to fund old tech
I was glad to read the recent letter “State bailout of Lordstown trumps nuclear plant’s aid.”
The money spent by First Energy on its campaign in the Ohio General Assembly is on full display as talks of using our money to save old tech drags on.
The worst thing so far has been the admission that HB 6, which creates an Ohio clean air board and program, in fact does neither, creating instead a way for old plants that were never upgraded, to get your money. Nothing clean seems to be in this bill.
The level of deceit is astounding!
I hope we find the votes and the courage to actually do the right thing and help communities as technology changes, and decide to lead the future instead of hiding from it.
Thomas Collins, Garrettsville
Workhorse proposal just latest of president’s lies
I am listening to hosts of a radio talk show fall over themselves as they air President Donald Trump’s latest lies about his fake concern for GM Lordstown.
I almost laughed when they posted the specs about the company that is making overtures about buying the plant. They showed this company is millions of dollars in the hole.
How can any Mahoning Valley resident with any degree of intelligence fall for this latest con? How despicable that our own president panders to our hurting citizenry for the votes which carried him in 2016.
No wonder there is such a brain drain from this area. Remember the phrase “Check out your mind and use it, because if you don’t, someone else will.”
Kathleen Berry, Youngstown
Crime trend since Roe hasn’t always been down
Do some writers of Letters to the Editor just make up facts or are they not well informed?
A letter in last Sunday’s paper states “the crime rate went down significantly since Roe v. Wade.”
The violent crime rate nearly quadrupled between 1960 and 1991. The violent crime rate (per 100,000) in the USA in 1973 was 417.4 and had an almost steady increase until 1991 when it reached 729.6.
This was followed by a slow, fairly steady decline until it reached 386.3 in 2016, slightly lower than 1973. Eleven theories are listed as possible causes of the 1991-2016 decrease, including an increase in police officers, the violent crime control law enforcement act, the rise in prison population, legalized abortion, aging population, rising incomes, decrease in lead exposure in children and increased immigration.
They are all theories and haven’t been proven.
Cheryl Bellanca, Poland
Another school shooting, another shameful response
I’ve asked before what it takes for the gun laws to change in America.
Obviously it isn’t another shooting in a school that will have Congress act to stop the violence. It isn’t the mass shooting in Las Vegas, in a church, a mall, a theater or any other place.
It looks like Americans don’t care how many innocents die, as long as they have their guns and ammunition.
We aren’t going to do what New Zealand did after one shooting. We aren’t going to do what Australia did either. Instead we will wring our hands, maybe squeeze out a tear or two and wonder what we can do without taking a strong stand on guns and who should have them.
Everyday I see the America I thought was wonderful rot away with each shooting because we do not want to stop another shooting. We want to make sure anyone can have a gun, not for protection, but to kill more humans.
How sad that human life is valued less than the right to own guns and have rounds of ammunition at hand, to reload and shoot again.
Darlene Torday, Berlin Center