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Letters to the Editor

RFK aims to reverse nation’s autism trend

DEAR EDITOR: I wish The Vindicator editorial staff chose to write an opinion piece about the naked 4- or 5-year-old boy found standing on the lawn of a home on the West Side in August but they didn’t. From a Vindicator article on the story: “A child 4 to 5 years old was found standing in the front yard of a home on North Brockway Avenue on the West Side about 9 a.m. Tuesday wearing no clothing, a Youngstown police report states. When an officer arrived, he found the boy and observed that he appeared to be nonverbal, the report states. Officers could not locate the child’s ...

Repercussions for sex assault are necessary

DEAR EDITOR: As an “OLDER (widowed) woman,” I am no longer subjected to “playing the games” often seemingly taken for granted in society, but I have lived long enough, and painfully experienced vicariously, the traumas faced by younger relatives, AND the enduring mental / psychological harm imposed by violence inflicted on vulnerable, unsuspecting teens as well as adults. Volunteering as a rape crisis telephone counselor, I received anonymous calls from a terrified stranger desperate for someone to talk to, but equally terrified of sharing her — or HIS — story, which ...

Is MCP a sanctuary or a killing field?

DEAR EDITOR: The slaughter in Mill Creek Park will be in the townships of Boardman, Smith, Beaver and Canfield. These areas contain specific preserves and sanctuaries designated for the park’s deer-management program. Sanctuaries are supposed to be fundamentally a place *of safety or refuge offering protection and peace for wildlife. Instead, they torture and slaughter. The locations include neighborhoods like Collier Preserve, Hitchcock Woods, and Huntington Woods in Boardman Township; Hawkins Marsh in Smith Township; “Mill Creek Wildlife Sanctuary” in Beaver Township; and ...

Ursuline must face its day of reckoning

DEAR EDITOR: A young defenseless boy is kidnapped, sexually and physically assaulted. Videos of the assault are made and shared online. Threats and intimidations are made to prevent the boy from disclosing these heinous crimes against him, but he bravely comes forward to accuse his attackers. Police quickly move in to round up the gang of perverts, charges are filed, the victim testifies, and the criminals are found guilty and sentenced to prison terms. Justice is served. But Wait . . these crimes, and they are indeed crimes, occurred under the superficial, surreal,and sacred umbrella ...

How about real facts on ‘vampire’ power?

DEAR EDITOR: A couple comments about the recent article “Vampire power sucks energy dollars.” In a similar vein, I have wondered about daytime running lights on cars. The amount of extra fuel needed to power those lights must be so minuscule as to be incalculable. But what is minuscule times millions of cars? And what do lights accomplish on a bright sunny day? How many accidents have been avoided by having headlights on during a sunny day? Any statistics available? Or just someone thought it was a good idea? (Most cars allow you to turn these off.) For both these cases, home ...

Republicans are doing billionaires’ bidding

DEAR EDITOR: All American multi-billionaires hire lobbyist firms with huge sums of their money to lobby our Congress “to get whatever they want,” a threat to our democracy, foreign policy and workers’ cost-of-living wages. It must be true, money talks and “BS” walks. In 1980, 45 years ago, two labor unions endorsed Republican Ronald Reagan for president: the Professional Air Traffic Controllers (PATCO) organization and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Reagan fired all the PATCO members when they went on strike for airplane safety, a very demanding, stressful ...