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McDonald residents are opposed to data centers
DEAR EDITOR:
As a longtime McDonald resident who attended and spoke at the 9/9/26 council meeting, I was again disappointed by the disregard the council members had for listening and engaging with the residents who spoke.
Previously, we had been told that until recently, the development of a data center had not been in the works. However, that is not true. At the 9/9/26 meeting we were finally told that a company by the name of Oppidan has had a land contract since last year.
The village was to hold a public meeting with Oppidan on its proposed data center on Tuesday, Sept. 15 in the high school gymnasium. We hoped to see even more locals at that meeting to demonstrate just how much the community does not want a data center in our little 1.70-square-mile village.
Not only will it affect our community, but also the surrounding communities.
There is no need or want for this environmentally harmful industry in our village.
LYNN A. MILLER
McDonald
Thank you to the Gondols for work on War Memorial
DEAR EDITOR:
Our family and friends have ordered several bricks for the North Jackson War Memorial. When we saw the work being quietly done on the War Memorial, we knew those people needed to be recognized.
Steve and Patty Gondol, with the help of their family and friends, have been installing rock to update the landscape around the Memorial. Steve was on his hands and knees digging out the blank bricks to install the new bricks.
They aren't doing this work for fanfare or recognition. They're doing it to help each of us honor our family and friends. They're doing it to help us carry on the legacy of those who served our country, especially the ones who didn't get to come home.
BRENDA McDOUGAL
North Jackson
Say goodbye to America's long-held freedom
DEAR EDITOR:
Imagine living in a country that sends agents to journalists' homes to seize their electronic devices. They pressure media to limit their reports. The financial support is withdrawn from public radio and television.
Independent news has been stopped from being shared with the press. The independent editor of its military's traditional independent newspaper has been fired. Access has been denied to reporters that refused to sign pledges to limit their reports.
Russia right? Must be China? Or perhaps North Korea. Maybe some Middle East country ruled by a king? Had to be the Iron Curtain bloc! Maybe it was the drug cartels. Had to be a suppressive country in the middle of some backward African nation.
Nope. This is currently the United States. Welcome to our Amerika.
Have a nice day before those will be stopped by our leaders, too.
HAROLD WILSON
Austintown
Forget the bribes ... pay off some of the national debt
DEAR EDITOR:
President Trump, instead of offering a bribe of $5,000 to every American adult if Republicans succeed in the mid-terms, why not put that TRILLION dollar-plus payout toward the national debt?
KATHLEEN WILSON
Austintown
Acton 'lunge' exaggeration should also be condemned
DEAR EDITOR:
David Skolnick is correct in stating that conspiracy theories on the Dr. Acton Canfield Fair incident should be condemned. On the other hand, extreme exaggerations of the incident should also be condemned.
An extremely exaggerated narrative came from the Acton camp itself. Shortly after the incident, Dr. Acton posted a statement from her communications director on X, stating "an armed individual lunged at Dr. Acton, injuring multiple people." Naturally, this statement led to speculation of an assassination attempt. Since then, cellphone footage of the incident was released. In the footage, you can see Dr. Acton surrounded by several supporters. Suddenly, a disturbance occurs so far away from Dr. Acton that you cannot even see the perpetrator despite the cellphone operator panning towards his direction. Describing his actions as "lunging" towards Dr. Acton is clearly not an accurate portrayal.
We also learned that the perpetrator was holding a cellphone and never brandished his weapons. Thus, calling him "armed" is a heck of a stretch. Simply put, an arm man did not lunge at Dr. Acton.
The extreme exaggeration by Dr. Acton's camp, who witnessed the incident first-hand, is disappointing. The obvious attempt to sensationalize the incident could only have been done for political gain.
SAM JORDAN
Youngstown
The lies just come so easily to some folks now
DEAR EDITOR:
Earlier this week, I was at the state liquor store downtown, purchasing some Crown Royal before the tax (yes, the tariff is a tax levied on American distributors and consumers of this particular Canadian spirit) kicks in. A stranger passing through that aisle smiled at me, so I said, "I'm just stocking up at this price." He said, "Oh, don't worry, they'll find a way to get it into the country." I wondered who "they" might be -- bootleggers? Canadian distillers? Something told me not to pursue the matter.
As we both exited the store and headed for our cars, he stopped and stated, "You know, they're building a distillery down here." To clarify, I asked if he meant that Crown Royal would be distilling their products in the U.S. He said, yes, that was the case. "In Ohio?" I asked. "No," he said, "Somewhere in Michigan or something. You know, closer to them."
Since his assertion seemed to be a MAGA-cult affirmation that the tariff is already "working," I decided to do a little research when I got home. I learned that Crown Royal has not built, is not currently building, nor has any plans to build a distillery in the U.S.
This is what happens when lying becomes the standard modus operandi. You can, following the style of Fearless Leader, just make stuff up and put it out there (without even crossing your fingers) in the hopes that people will just swallow it whole. Thank goodness we have an election coming up.
J.E. JOHNSTON
Poland
Scammers are everywhere, even on TV infomercials
DEAR EDITOR:
Infomercials are the bane of television, and telemarketers are the curse of the telephone. The goal of both is to try to sell you something you don't really need.
If you needed it, you'd probably go out and get it yourself already, without prompting by some friendly voice on the phone or a paid actor on TV.
Then there's the internet, with social media infomercials! I admit, I've been a victim!
Some like to say, "I learned so much from that 'info-mercial!" The psychology of both forms of solicitation is that the longer they hold your attention, the more likely you are to buy what they're selling. If you succumb to their pitch, it is usually followed-up with, "But wait! There's more!"
You've already been hooked, so you'll probably buy a second one for half the price, or some other irresistible "deal." Maybe something totally unrelated to the original product.
Now, when the phone rings and I answer it, if there's the slightest pause before the caller says something, I know it's a robotic, computerized dial-up. I wait until they talk first, then I answer in my best fake Chinese talk, "Wing sho, mush-mush, Tao lu cu chai." Never speak English.
They hang up. It's fun. Or come up with your own shtick, like, "City Zoo," then hang up. Remember, they want to hook you quickly and then keep you interested.
Today the phone caller might be using your own area code, to make you think it could be someone you know. Try not to fall for that. Caller ID, or don't answer it. You could waste hours of your day, being mesmerized by some actor who doesn't know diddly about what they're selling.
Famous actors aren't necessarily college grads with majors in nutrition or health care for the aged. Which brings me to another point.
In general, the older we get, the more likely we are to be scammed. "But he sounded so earnest, sincere, and legitimate," when he convinced you to withdraw your life savings and leave it in a brown bag in your driveway. At midnight.
If in doubt, check it out before you ever do what they ask. There is nothing that can't wait. America is full of scammers. Just look at Minnesota!
DONALD ALLEN
Boardman
Focus on victims of 9/11, not on lies of Donald Trump
DEAR EDITOR:
Twenty-five years ago last week, this country began burying its dead, dug through rubble with its bare hands, and for one brief moment, actually acted like a nation united instead of a perpetual shouting match. The anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, does not belong to any president, living or dead, and it most certainly doesn't belong to Donald Trump.
Last week Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself on Truth Social in a general's uniform, medals and all, standing shoulder to shoulder with George Patton and Douglas MacArthur. He never served a day in uniform. The last time the country asked him to, during Vietnam, he sat it out on a deferment for "bone spurs," a diagnosis he's never managed to describe the same way twice. A man who avoided military service has now digitally inserted himself among two of the most decorated combat generals America ever produced.
It is beyond disgraceful. It's stolen valor, plain and simple, perpetrated by a man who loves playing soldier and ordering strikes on other nations but couldn't stomach the idea of actually putting on a uniform.
Trump also spent the week reviving his own tired story that he was practically a first responder on 9/11: hundreds of construction workers he supposedly brought to the site, firefighters who supposedly carried him from a collapsing building. All bald-faced lies. PolitiFact and a former FDNY battalion chief say the record doesn't back him: no record, no witnesses, nobody who was actually there who remembers him being part of it.
Different methods, same instinct: Take a day, an event, a memory that belongs to people who actually bled and make it about himself. Whether you find that infuriating or, (God help us), inspiring, the conversation this week has become about him again: his image, his ego, his need to be the "hero" of a story he had no part in.
We owe the victims, the first responders, and the families who still carry that day a simple thing: an anniversary that stays about them. Not about a man who dodged a war and now wants credit for assisting with a tragedy he mostly watched from a distance, like the rest of us.
Let's remain focused on the victims, the families and the first responders of Sept. 11, 2001.
JOHN SHARTLE
Canfield