Letters to the Editor

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I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the many students who placed in the Holocaust Remembrance writing and art contests. It was refreshing to see so many from public schools being honored. Good job students from Austintown, Boardman, Sebring, West Middlesex, Crestview, Lowellville and Akiva Academy. Please help keep public money where it belongs to help these students and programs.

-- Austintown

I had the pleasure of taking my grandson to Walnut Grove playground in Canfield. This is such a welcoming place for kids. It was so nice to see the interactions between children of different ages and abilities. I hope this sets an example for future playgrounds in Mahoning County and other areas. Thank you to all who were involved with getting this completed and keeping it nice. These children are learning the importance of kindness with one another through play.

-- Boardman

Here we go again. History repeating itself almost 50 years later. In 1975, Ohio decriminalized pot. Localities immediately created new laws making papers, pipes, etc. illegal … creating new criminals for no reason. It appears localities are at it again even though millions voted to make pot legal once and for all.

-- Girard

Raise your hand if you've ever taken a flight out of the Warren / Youngstown airport. Just as I thought…no one. Then why are we dumping millions into a facility that no one will use? There are three major airports within an hour drive and they have endless choices for destinations. Why would anyone want to fly out of Warren / Youngstown? This money can be better spent on infrastructure, social programs or schools. Why dump more taxpayers' dollars into a black hole?

-- Bazetta

Reinventing Social Security requires that a large percentage of the U.S. would know how to invest their payroll tax. Has anyone ever investigated whether this is feasible? Let's try to educate those that don't, which is probably over 50% of the population.

-- Youngstown

How can 300,000 new jobs with 200,000 of them governmental help the economy? Drives up the deficit and increases oversight. Sad. Just like all the illegal immigrants and their crime waves murders on Georgia campuses, Washington streets and western reservations, plus Californians leaving the state because of crime waves and lack of safety. Sad! Not another four years, God help us.

-- Canfield

A recent sound off warned of an "evil authoritarian and unconstitutional plan for the shameful benefit of a single unhinged individual" unless we vote Democrat. News flash; we are already living that nightmare. One only needs to look at the state of the United States and the world now versus their pre-pandemic state. There is a stark difference. Neither we nor the world can afford four more years of this administration.

-- Austintown

It sure seems that the MAGA Republicans are making fools of themselves over their absolute fealty to Trump, showing up at his trial and spouting Trump's scripted words to the press. They are contributing to any violence that may follow should Trump be convicted. It is a sorry time when seemingly intelligent people sell their souls, hanging on the coattails of this man, a man with a sorry past and iffy future.

-- Youngstown

Wonderful, Sherrod Brown boasts in one television commercial how he helped secure and then gave billions of our tax dollars to the chip industry (big business). Next commercial, picture "Mini Me" with Dr. Evil.Sherrod is attacking big business as the "reason" for inflation! Seems very hypocritical, misguided and disingenuous. Keep working for the citizens of Ohio, Sherrod, Joe Biden's policies make life very difficult for us!

-- Sebring

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As I drive I-680 through Youngstown and on many side streets, I am flabbergasted by all the motorists who, knowing the posted speed limit is 50 mph, are in such a hurry to get to the next traffic light or stop sign. And we expect the President to straighten out this country? They have a snowball's chance to do so. And watch out for motorcycles? Put another meaningless sign in your yard. See you at the numerous funerals to come.

-- Austintown

Good to see our governor show up to take credit for spending the money Biden got through Congress despite the best efforts of JD Vance and his GOP colleagues to use it to hire bathroom monitors, worry us about gas stoves damaging the environment and even claim they are being prevented from buying gasoline-powered cars.

-- Canfield

Gasp-worthy waves of "project money" and grants flow endlessly into this area. It's "still" ARP money on top of grants for "transformational projects." Talking heads with connections pull in these obscene amounts. Oversight of this money is imperative. This excessive monetary engorgement will account for "huge acts of theft" and mismanagement. In favor of thieves, this money is doled out over years. Another example is Steward's implosion as "all" sit back and watch. Where is the accountability?

-- Vienna

Yes, the nation is in chaos. Just like every previous generation. There were 53 Americans, mostly volunteers, killed in Ukraine and 29 in Israel. The previous generation lost 55,000 soldiers in Vietnam. There were more destructive student protests in the 1960s and 70s, cumulating with the shooting deaths of four Kent students. The 1950s racial riots killed dozens. We moved on. Worse than any was the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt. A threat to the existence of America itself.

-- Warren

Who in the world would want to move to Trumbull County? There is fiscal irresponsibility, a police officer accused of multiple rapes, ongoing murders and other serious crimes, excessive animal hoarding, rampant pedophilia, hospital mismanagement that may end in a health care crisis, etc. Something must be done to make this county attractive so that people will stay and others will relocate here. Strong and innovative leadership is needed. Things must change!

-- Warren

My fellow Republicans: Get informed and stay informed. There aren't two sides to facts, truth and the law. This is not a normal election. Defend Democracy and vote.

-- Campbell

Anyone who truly loves our country and values its democracy must vote blue all the way down the ballot in November! This is not an election we can afford to take lightly. An evil authoritarian and unconstitutional plan for the shameful benefit of a single unhinged individual has already been formulated and publicized. It is a terrifying battle plan! History will record 2024 as the tipping point of our nation's existence!

-- Warren

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All this talk about doing something about gun violence, and here we catch them and let them plead down and watch the gun specification disappear. The perceived elite with their armed guards want to disarm the populace, but won't keep the criminals once caught. Has modern law gotten so greedy that common sense and common opinion are no longer considered?

-- Columbiana

Monday's headline says "Clerk to open a satellite office." Far more useful and needed today would be Saturday hours for the working folks. I gave a car to my kid five weeks ago and she can't get time off to transfer the title.

-- Girard

Let me get this correct, the U.S. Treasury will assess the effectiveness of the recently passed Fend Off Fentanyl Act! The "real" measuring stick will be in lives saved! We can only pray the death numbers decrease. Where has Sherrod Brown been for the past 10 to 15 years, fentanyl has been raging! Better southern border control would also be a detriment. And never forget, Sherrod Brown has supported Joe Biden's policies full throttle!

-- Sebring

I find it disingenuous that Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) makes his trek to the Mahoning Valley in the fifth year of his six-year term. On Monday, Sen. Brown said the current fentanyl problem is not a border problem but an addiction problem. It's both. It's sad when a sitting U.S. senator cannot waiver from the Biden administration's policy of an open border with all of the problems it causes. November cannot come fast enough for America.

-- Girard

I have a solution for the financially strapped Post Office. Deliver to half the customers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and the other half on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. There would be tremendous savings on staff and resources! Half the mail we receive is junk mail anyway!

-- Canfield

Happy to see Mill Creek Park and Cruise the Creek work together to save this eBike company, by allowing it to use the Kirk Road trailhead. After the news articles last year Youngstown City wanted to shut it down. … Good job and good luck.

-- Girard

I saw the chilling movie "Civil War" about a fictional future United States at war with itself. Days later, I read that the elder sons of Trump want to lead a proposed vetting procedure to verify loyalty to Trump as a primary requirement for any future federal job. This was more chilling than the film. I imagined the boys with ARs as they interrogated journalists next to an open mass grave. They sentenced the reporters to the pit for insufficient loyalty.

-- Canfield

To the U.S. Supreme Court: If the U.S. president ordered, in his official capacity, Seal Team 6 to assassinate a Supreme Court justice(s) because he / she ruled against his / her official presidential agenda, would the sitting president be immune from prosecution for murder because it was an official presidential act, as Justice Alito alluded to recently? It seems this issue is clear-cut with no middle ground, contrary to the recent hearing! In other words, one cannot be half-pregnant.

-- Boardman