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Orchids & onions

Editorials

ORCHID: To art students in Youngstown State University’s Community Engagement Internship program and to the management of Blooming Crazy Flowers and Gifts in Boardman for their collaboration that resulted in a massive and colorful public art mural for all to enjoy in the heavy-traffic Market Street area of Boardman. The mural serves as a supersized gift to the township to mark the shop’s roots in the Mahoning Valley and its 50th anniversary in business. The YSU students also received talented help from a large contingent of Boardman schools students and residents. Like the many ...

The tsunami of campaign ads

Editorials

You can’t escape them unless you turn off the TV. One after another with barely enough time for commercials hawking adult diapers and a cure for toe fungus they come. They are repetitious and annoying. One candidate promises to lower gas and grocery prices and criticizes the incumbent for not doing so (as if politicians can control the market). Another candidate sits on a toilet, and the ad calls for his socialist opponent to be “flushed.” Still another speaks of improving education. We are already spending record amounts on education so what’s the point? None of the ads I’ve ...

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Letters to the Editor

We need the truth. Husted’s ads are lies. One ad states Brown approves of sex change surgery on children. He does not. Soren is from Texas, had surgery at 19. Then a picture of a frightened child. This is deceptive! Another ad states that Husted has “character.” Would a person of “character” be associated with the worst corruption case in Ohio history? FirstEnergy gave him a million dollars for his campaign. We got higher electric bills. We need Sherrod Brown. — Poland Are you better off today than you were two years ago? The answer is no. — Hubbard I have always ...

The tyranny of one man’s opinion

Editorials

Thomas Cromwell was the Lord Chancellor of England for much of the reign of King Henry VIII. He engineered the convictions and executions of many whom Henry wanted out of the way, including his two predecessors in office — one of whom was St. Thomas More — and even the king’s second wife, Queen Anne. When Cromwell’s son Gregory, who became sickened as he watched his father devolving from counselor to monster, learned that an executioner for the queen had been sent for from France a week before her trial, he asked his father what the purpose of her trial was if the king had ...

Remembering false gloom, doom of 1992 elections, and the upcoming midterms

Editorials

In 1992, Bill Clinton won the presidential election partly on the basis of his campaign’s false accusation that George H. W. Bush had overseen “the worst economic performance since the Great Depression.” Or so claimed Clinton’s running mate Al Gore. James Carville, chief campaign adviser to Clinton/Gore, amplified that message with the constant refrain: “It’s the economy, stupid.” That strategy worked for three reasons. First, third-party candidate Ross Perot siphoned off nearly 19% of the vote. Most of his supporters would otherwise likely have gone to Bush. Perot ...

If Hegseth wants to strip military of weirdos, he should resign

Editorials

Where did this guy come from? How did a TV personality end up leading America’s defense department, especially in a time of war? Donald Trump put Pete Hegseth in charge of the Department of Defense. It’s now officially called the War Department, but I’m not ready to go there. In one of his stranger announcements, Hegseth vowed to rid the U.S. military of “weirdos” and “beardos.” Sure enough, Hegseth does not have a beard, unlike the “beardo” Ulysses S. Grant or his Confederate opponent, Robert E. Lee. As for the weirdo part, well ... the jury’s out for ...