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Honor America’s fallen appropriately this Memorial Day

Today’s Memorial Day holiday carries added poignance this year as it comes amid a new U.S. war — and war fallen — in Iran and as it ushers in a summer of events to mark this great nation’s 250th birthday. But sadly enough, many in the Mahoning Valley and across the country unintentionally will disrespect the true meaning and purpose of today’s solemn national holiday. After all, ever since 1971, when Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday to be observed on the fourth Monday in May, for many, the holiday is simply the final day of a long weekend dedicated to the ...

Don’t excuse political violence

A society that begins to excuse political violence should not be surprised when political violence multiplies. Once you create a moral framework in which violence is not merely understandable but righteous — once you argue that certain institutions are so corrupt, so “murderous,” that the people who participate in them deserve to be killed — you are no longer condemning violence. You are licensing it. And when that cultural permission structure meets a criminal justice system increasingly designed to favor perpetrators over victims, the results are predictable: more criminals ...

Do not use bison as political pawns

My sister Erica and I returned to Montana just a few days after the Bureau of Land Management revoked grazing permits for bison. American Prairie, a nonprofit working to create one of the largest nature reserves in the United States, was the target of that decision. Erica and I bounced along two-track roads in our Toyota RAV4 rental, hoping to get close to the American Prairie bison herd. It wasn’t as easy as one might think. What makes American Prairie different is scale. American Prairie has roughly 1,000 bison total. On the Sun Prairie section where we visited, approximately ...

Orchids & onions

ORCHID: To Dr. Robert Ricchiuti and Phyllis Ricchiuti for their prestigious and deserving honor as winners of this year’s Friends of the University Award from Youngstown State University. The high honor shows appreciation for their extraordinary leadership, philanthropy and lasting impact on YSU and the Mahoning Valley. More specifically, the Ricchiutis financed and launched The Paula and Anthony Rich Center for the Study and Treatment of Autism 31 years ago in memory of family members. Since then, it has grown into a formidable and nationally recognized institution that transforms the ...

Add muscle to Ohio laws on sexual assault

Most Ohioans likely will find little solace in knowing the official scope of rape and sexual violence in the Buckeye State has declined ever so slightly in recent years. According to a recent report from the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services, the statewide sexual assault crime rate dropped 4.3% between 2016 and 2023 in Ohio. That slight ray of hope, however, is completely overshadowed by other data that clearly illustrates sexual violence remains a painful, powerful and destructive cancer on our state. Consider: ● The Incident-Based Reporting System within the Ohio Office ...

Lesson in economics for AOC

I am not an economist, but I do have some personal experience with the principles of economics and the rules that allow Americans to prosper while becoming more self-reliant and less dependent on government. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., aka AOC, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, graduated from Boston University cum laude, and then returned to the Bronx and worked as a bartender and waitress to help her mother fight foreclosure of their home. Nothing wrong with that, but her life experience apparently has taught her little. In some recent comments she claimed that ...