I am thankful that I have insurance that pays for this test.

I am thankful that my breast cancer was found early and has not spread, giving surgery and treatment a good chance to save my life.

Many women are not so lucky. Too many women do not have the means to pay for this test, so their cancer spreads before they even know about it.

Too many people with disabilities do not receive health care and assistance that would enable them to live comfortably and independently in the community, a freedom that many of us take for granted.

Ohio has the opportunity to show that it is a state that values its citizens and all that they contribute.

Medicaid expansion will help so many people who cannot afford insurance to care for their health and the health of their families. Please encourage your state legislators to support Medicaid expansion in Ohio.

Becky Stevens

Cuyahoga Falls

Neglected 
by choice

In your May 15 editorial, “Gosnell’s ‘house of horrors,’ ” you called his a “rogue operation,” implying, along with some pro-choice organizations, that Gosnell’s practices were a rare phenomenon.

But live births following late-term abortions have been known as the “dreaded complication” since the 1973 case of Dr. Kenneth Edelin, convicted of manslaughter for suffocating a child born alive.

Over the years, at least eight other physicians have been accused, charged or convicted of killing or refusing to treat infants born alive after late-term abortions. Details of a current case can be found on LiveAction.org.

Perhaps as egregious as Gosnell’s practices is the inaction of pro-choice medical boards and health departments, who are supposed to be concerned about women’s “reproductive health” but neglect to inspect clinics for years, sometimes even after complaints have been filed.

Besides Pennsylvania, similar inaction has been reported in Delaware, Kansas, New Mexico and Texas, and there may be others.

U.S. Rep. Trent Franks is introducing a bill which would prohibit abortions after 20 weeks, when the unborn can experience pain.

While admirable, the bill will solve only part of the problem because unborn humans killed at six days, six weeks or six months after conception are equally dead.

Raymond J. Adamek

Kent

An AED 
saved my life

I can identify with Dr. Terry Gordon’s passion for having automated external defibrillators available in all public places (“Doctor issues alert on devices,” May 16).

Last month, I was working out on a treadmill at the Lake YMCA when I suddenly went into cardiac arrest.

While I don’t remember any of it, I was told that two nurses who were working out next to me immediately began CPR while an employee ran to get the AED.

Thanks to their swift action, I am here to write this letter. In the hospital, the cardiologist told me, “You died, but they brought you back.”

I never realized that such an event could be so serious. How do you thank someone for being involved and saving your life? Words are so inadequate.

When I went to the Y that day to do my usual workout, I never thought that I would be hit with cardiac arrest. I am grateful that the Y had an AED accessible, and I urge all places where the public gathers to do the same.

Russ O’Neill

Hartville

We believe that is the case here. Your editorial unfairly criticized Rowlands for apparently requesting an investigation into comments posted on the online version of the Beacon Journal that stated: “Rowlands and Bevan Walsh hopefully they will be the victim of this guy the next time.” The “this guy” referred to had just been acquitted in an execution style murder case.

The comment suggested that execution would be appropriate for Rowlands and Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh. The comment was outrageous, especially given recent events where law enforcement personnel, judges and prosecutors have been targeted by domestic terrorists.

This trial had only recently concluded. In another local, high profile case at the time, a party said he would shoot people who might try to take his home from him. The Beacon Journal reported on that individual’s weapons arsenal.

All of this occurred shortly after Newtown and against a growing backdrop of federal and state judges and prosecutors being shot and killed.

Regardless of whether the judge or prosecutor felt threatened, the comment, and publication of the comment, is dangerous because they plant a seed that killing a judge or a prosecutor is something one ought to consider. Again, with many recent murders of judges and law enforcement officials around the country, this matter cannot be taken lightly.

Frankly, law enforcement should have investigated the comment and the person who posted it regardless of whether Rowlands or Walsh requested law enforcement to do so.

As a corporate citizen of Akron, and the only newspaper, the Beacon Journal acted irresponsibly by taking the position it took. Unbelievably, a newspaper that had gone to great lengths to promote a series on “civility” earlier this year thinks it is OK for readers to post comments suggesting that a public official should be murdered and no one should do anything other than to “remove the comment” and “ban the author.”

We disagree with the Beacon Journal’s editorial criticism of Rowlands. Any suggestion of violence against a judge, a prosecutor or, for that matter, any person, is a serious matter that should be (and here was) properly investigated. The Beacon Journal should have heeded its own advice, contained in the editorial, and not published the “Judicial discretion” editorial.

John C. Weisensell

President

Akron Bar Association

Akron

Deserving of 
the best

It has been almost two weeks since the victims of horrendous and devastating kidnappings 10 years ago were discovered in Cleveland. Three women and a 6-year-old child were held captive. I won’t go into detail as to how they were treated.

The news media have covered this mind-boggling story from coast to coast and throughout the entire world. What I have to say concerning these four humans is that they should never want for anything.

They should each have an armed guard and be overprotected, along with housing, food and anything to make them comfortable. They deserve nothing but the best after what they went through.

Sound ridiculous? I don’t think so. Look at the money we throw away on many of our social programs, when fraud and corruption enter the picture. Look at foreign aid we waste. These women definitely need to be cared for.

Fred C. Pall

Norton

Unions protect 
wages and rights

I am writing in response to a Friday letter, “Right to work for Ohio.” The writer is naive about what unions mean to American workers and about union rights.

First, the two state representatives who wrote the right-to-work legislation are Republicans. These two lawmakers have so far had a history of voting for legislation that favors big corporations.

If there are no unions, there are no negotiation rights for workers. Who is going to negotiate wages, benefits and retirement with the company? You? This is exactly what these two legislators want, jobs with low pay, no benefits and no retirement.

The bill favors big corporations. The writer says unions have outlived their usefulness. Is he trying to say it is no longer popular to want good wages, benefits that include health care and good retirement?

Unions use dues to negotiate for higher wages, benefits and job protections for their members. If this right-to-work legislation is ever passes, who is going to pay the dues? Where is the union going to get the money to fight for rights and benefits?

And, more important, if this legislation passes, there are laws that force a union to file and to grant negotiated wages and benefits for all workers. That means a worker could get all the benefit dues-paying members pay for, for free. Is that is fair?

Timothy J. Manning

Canton

Why exempt?

Many angry voices have been raised — and rightfully so — because the Internal Revenue Service targeted some tea party groups that were seeking tax-exempt status.

But little, if anything, has been said about why tea party groups (or any political organization, left, right or in between) should be granted tax-exempt status.

Sam Salem

Akron

Follow the 
supermajority

I’m missing something that perhaps writers such as the author of the May 12 letter headlined “Standing up for gun rights” can explain. What gun rights are lost with background checks or registration? I register my car and have never feared it being taken illegally. I register appliances and warranties, too.

Do you know that in 2010, some 73,000 bad guys were denied guns because they failed background checks? Forty percent of all sales are private or take place at gun shows, with no background checks. That means almost 49,000 people who shouldn’t have guns still got them.

If the writer wants to be so uninformed as to equate race with gun violence, try equating it with income levels. Poor people of all races commit the most crimes. Big shock, eh? One-hundred percent of crimes are committed by people who breathe. Race is simply not a meaningful category in gun violence. Poverty is.

No law is perfect, nor any outcome 100 percent airtight. But I sure think, along with 85 percent to 95 percent of the entire U.S., that keeping guns away from over 100,000 bad people a year is a great start.

As far as mental illness goes, most murderers are not diagnosed until they have done something bad, so increasing funds, while it may be a good thing, has a slim chance of stopping anyone, unless you make mental evaluations mandatory before buying a gun, which no one wants.

Anything that can lower our world-highest death rate from guns has to be a win-win deal. There is no magic cure, sadly. We must live with some gun violence. But even small steps like background checks and registration would help plenty.

As for the May 12 letter “Aiming at the wrong target,” there are families that shoot together for fun? That must be a minuscule percentage of the population. I don’t hear people saying, “Let’s take the kids and shoot targets,” as opposed to, “Let’s take the kids to the carnival, or the movies, or the mall, or out to dinner.”

And why stop referring to the condition of the times? I’m guessing that the Founding Fathers would have banned hand-held weapons that kill dozens at a time.

Our Founding Fathers weren’t right about a lot of things (women’s rights and slavery, to name two). That’s why there are amendments. They were smart for the times, but times move on, and if you do not adapt, you become extinct. Isn’t it time that we do what a supermajority of America wants to be done?

Richard J. Kunkel

Wadsworth

Incompetence

I just received another request from the Republican National Committee for a donation. This committee must include some of the dumbest people in the country. It has spent more sending me requests for money than I gave in the beginning.

I am not donating to anyone in the Republican Party until I see our elected officials speak up about the incompetent administration.

I wonder: Who is going to monitor this new immigration program? The same organization that has been running it? We have laws on the books; just enforce them.

We must get the whole story about the cover-up in Benghazi. Our former secretary of state’s remark, “What difference at this point does it make,” ranks as traitorous.

The Internal Revenue Service investigation of tea party groups was outrageous, and the organization planned leaks of information.

What happened to the attorney general being in contempt of Congress for gun sales in Mexico?

J.T. Smith

Jackson Township

Industrial carbon pollution significantly contributes to climate change and threatens the health and safety of Americans.

Heath experts agree that carbon pollution worsens smog, which can lead to an increased number of asthma attacks and deaths among children, seniors and people who work or exercise outside.

President Obama has the power to protect our most vulnerable by finalizing the carbon pollution standard for new power plants and then moving to develop and implement a standard for existing power plants.

Last year, Americans showed their support for this plan by submitting 3.2 million comments in favor of the carbon pollution standard.

The administration must immediately move forward with limiting carbon pollution from power plants.

Thomas Collins

Garrettsville

Dangerous myth

I’m already against the assault rifle used in the next mass slaying. I’m also against the large magazine. More should have been done to keep weapons out of the shooter’s hands. Furthermore, expecting a lifesaving shootout at the last moment — following a wild, wild West mentality — is a dangerous myth promoted by movies, popular culture, a North American sense of our own infallibility and a mostly mistaken, too simple reading of our difficult past.

This myth keeps old attitudes alive and stops us from dealing with difficult present-day realities in a manner that comes from the 21st century, not the 19th century.

If we have any doubts about the difficulties presented in shootouts, we should speak to those who use guns legally or illegally, with the support of government or without.

Hardly ever is there a “clean shot.” Even in the best circumstances, the use of a lethal weapon is often in question, as suggested by headlines about investigations into the use of lethal force.

In a study in New York City, 28 percent of the bullets fired by police officers hit the intended target. That is a lot of bullets not going to the intended target. These professional police officers had already received 100 hours of training.

Usually, in our country, most of the discussion about deaths comes down to which comes first, or matters most: the person or the weapon.

Some imply, “People are killed by guns.” Others respond, “People are killed by people.” Still others say, “You’re both wrong. People are killed by people with guns.’’

Yet when it comes to the chicken and the egg, according to most biologists, what came first was actually the dinosaur. If there is a dinosaur in the gun-deaths room, do we have the courage and will to identify it, and can we let it go extinct?

Rolf Wicks

Akron

Equivocating

Deputy Mayor Rick Merolla, when asked whether the city of Akron will offer help or credit monitoring services to taxpayers who have had their tax records hacked, gave the kind of equivocating answer that has led the public to have such a low opinion of public servants. Merolla said, “We don’t believe we did anything wrong.”

I don’t know whether city officials did anything wrong, but I do know the city requires its citizens to file tax returns, and those returns include a great deal of sensitive information.

I do know that in requiring the returns, the city has acquired responsibility for the safekeeping of the data in the returns.

That responsibility is not negated, even if the city has made good-faith efforts to safeguard the material.

How refreshing it would be to hear a government official accept responsibility instead of running for cover.

Bob Gardner

Akron

These cuts come on top of across-the-board cuts for all of the program’s beneficiaries beginning in November, which will lower benefits by about $25 for a family of three. The impacts on foodbanks are longer lines at food pantries and even greater demand for emergency food.

At the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, we are making significant progress in our local fight against hunger. With overwhelming community support, the Foodbank recently achieved an ambitious $1 million Harvest for Hunger campaign for the first time in its 30-year history.

As the Foodbank gains scale and momentum, it yields incredible results for the charitable dollars so faithfully invested in its mission.

At the same time, what happens in Akron or Canton or Brunswick or Dover is critically linked to what happens in Columbus and Washington, D.C. The idea that local charities can do it alone is a myth that should have vanished long ago.

Even with our best efforts and state and federal nutrition programs funded at current levels, there are still 240,000 people in the Foodbank’s service region who experience food insecurity every year. That is not OK.

New polling data released by the Food Research and Action Center shows that public support for the federal supplemental nutrition program remains high; seven in 10 voters say that cutting food stamp funding is the wrong way to reduce government spending, and 77 percent say the federal government should either be spending more or about the same amount. Deficit reduction is an important national priority, but it should not come at the expense of our most vulnerable.

When issues of great importance to the well-being of our people and society surface in our collective conscience, great leaders arise with the courage to stand up for the poor and vulnerable. We have seen, time and time again, those leaders come from Northeast Ohio. Now, as we wait for further action in Congress, we can only hope those leaders will emerge.

Please support our elected officials in their work to support nutrition programs. Please tell them it matters to you. Please join me in pleading with them not to cut programs that are working. You can learn how to be an advocate in the fight against hunger and poverty and join the Foodbank’s network by visiting www.akroncantonfoodbank.org and clicking on Get Involved and Be an Advocate.

Daniel R. Flowers

President and chief executive

Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank

Akron

Better to buy 
than lease

Lester Lefton, president of Kent State University, reportedly sold his home last month for $700,000 and KSU will lease it from the new owner for $56,000 per year for up to 20 years. Nice going.

Had Lefton offered it to KSU, at 20 percent down (to avoid property mortgage insurance) and the same annual amount paid monthly at 3 percent annual interest, KSU would get full ownership in 12 years.

The total costs would be equivalent to about 14 years of rental — $140,000 down plus 143 payments of about $4,667 per month.

Wouldn’t a financed purchase take less than 20 years? At the end, KSU would own the property. The university could have bought it outright and saved $107,000 in interest — doesn’t KSU have bags of money for capital expansion? I guess the plan is now on paper and stored in a time capsule in the closet in Lefton’s office. There must be some pretty smart people at that university.

Len Rose

Fairlawn

Showdown in 
the ‘culture war’

In a May 4 article, the National Rifle Association warned of a “culture war” (“NRA members advised they’re in ‘culture war’ ”). I assume they mean by that a fight between gun owners and the American people who are against gun violence.

The NRA claims this fight will stretch into the 2014 elections. That is good. It means American voters will not have to put up with a year and a half of political campaigning by congressional candidates.

Instead, those seeking election can stand up the day before Election Day and say proudly they did or did not vote for gun controls and will or will not vote for them if elected.

This will give both sides of this “culture war” the opportunity to express whether they want the gun violence in America to continue or not.

Thus, the election will bring an end to the NRA’s so-called culture war without a shot being fired.

James McNenny

Stow

Loss of 
innocent lives

The May 16 letter “Abortion rights for all women” is beyond my comprehension. The writer cannot truly feel that a doctor or anyone else has the right to take the life from a baby already outside of the womb.

Her statement “fetuses should have no legal rights” is bad enough, but are we now talking about murdering a baby already delivered as being acceptable?

I wonder where the writer would draw the line — age 1 week, 1 month or perhaps 1 year? She wrote that “the health and personal decisions of the women must come first.”

Unless we can prove that a fetus is not truly a person, and I do not believe we can, then why should not our laws protect that unborn child, which cannot protect itself?

A woman does have the right to her own body, but that fetus is not part of her body. A woman has birth control options and the option of giving up a baby for adoption.

If the anti-abortion community “will use this case to eliminate all abortion services,” as the writer said, my question would be: Who has caused that? My answer is: The doctor who stabbed the child just born in the back of the neck, causing its death. We lost our moral compass years ago (with Roe v. Wade), and millions of innocent lives have been lost as a result.

David Sachs

Stow

Having spent a lifetime in professional health services, including health policy analysis, I regret to conclude the answer to her question is no. We do not have the capacity for either “reasoned negotiation” or “respectful dialogue” regarding health-care reform, or any other complex policy issue.

Unfortunately, the debauchery of the democratic process leading to the Affordable Care Act and efforts to implement it have clearly demonstrated that until we get a handle on the way we address health care and other great issues in our society, the answer will remain no.

Whether society can continue to implement the numerous beneficial aspects of the act, while moving on to broader health-care issues such as cost containment, technology management and balanced decision-making, remains problematical.

If we hope to fix the “creaky” health-care system within the context of a civil, democratic society, two things are required. First, there must be some general understanding of what’s involved.

The medical-industrial complex is, essentially, out of control, and its irrational processes are growing exponentially. It has become the proverbial tail that is “wagging” society.

The processes and costs (economic, social and political) can be neither sustained nor contained. Yet, essentially, all of society is currently invested in this system.

Second, society must engage in evidence-based reality (facts), along with “reasoned negotiation” and “respectful dialogue.” There is scant evidence we’re ready for that. There is simply too much greed, avarice, intolerance, partisan demagoguery and lack of comprehension.

William J. Lambert Jr.

Jackson Township

Resist the 
exploitation

Upon learning of the horrifying experiences of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight at the hands of the despicable Ariel Castro, it occurred to me that their story was ready-made for exploitation.

Although I enjoy reading books and watching movies, I resolved immediately that I would never read a book or watch a movie depicting the travesty that took place on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland.

Unfortunately, the harbingers of greed in the entertainment media are already vying for the book and movie rights to this tragic story.

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight will spend the rest of their lives healing. Let them heal in peace.

Celine E. Riedel

Avon Lake

Solid evidence

I was very sorry to read that the writer of the May 16 letter “Abortion rights for all women” was once attacked by people claiming to be pro-life. What a horrible experience it must have been.

Nevertheless, the case and the decision by the jury against baby-killer Dr. Kermit Gosnell was based on solid evidence. Only a handful of doctors in the country do late term-abortion, and for good reason. I believe life begins in the womb.

Steve Bauer

Tallmadge

This long overdue effort to address Ohio’s economic stagnation has been met with hysteria from Big Labor. From letters to the editor by union bosses to television commercials, the unions are trying to derail this reform before it gains steam.

Labor’s panic is understandable. Earlier this year, Michigan, the home of the United Auto Workers, became a right-to-work state, the 24th in the nation.

This brought home to the union bosses just how tenuous their hold is on their positions and their membership. For if Michigan could quickly turn right-to-work, any state could.

Adding to labor’s anxiety is the fact that overall union membership nationally is a mere 11.3 percent of the work force. This is the lowest level since 1916.

And perhaps more telling, in the private sector, the percent of workers in unions stands at only 6.6.

Private-sector unions are in a free fall. And the bosses know, but won’t openly admit, that their membership would be even lower if workers had the freedom to not join a union or pay union dues.

Should workers have the right to organize? Absolutely. But they also should have the freedom not to be coerced into unions or in any way be forced to pay union dues.

Strong unions, privileged by law, are a legacy of Ohio’s past. But it is a legacy that has outlived its usefulness and is holding the state back economically. I think that Roegner and Maag should be applauded for their courage and willingness to confront such a powerful special interest group as Big Labor.

Peter Skurkiss

Stow

Cultural change

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel says he’s got the recruits’ backs.

That’s fine, but for every recruit whose back he has, 10 people will have her assailant’s back.

That is the attitude that has to be changed.

Ray Crim

Akron

Information to 
save lives

Once again, I’m compelled to stand up for my country. A May 8 letter, “Illegal acts of torture,” dared to equate the United States’ legally established approach to eliciting information, which in turn, literally saved countless American lives, with the torturously inhuman acts routinely carried out in order to preserve certain foreign regimes abroad.

The writer is certainly entitled to her own opinion; she is not entitled to her own set of facts.

The facts are that before engaging in the elicitation tactics her letter implies were illegal, the CIA took tremendous care and went to great lengths in advance to ensure, through the eyes of subject matter experts from the Department of Justice, the legality of its detainee program.

Allow me to be equally daring by suggesting that if one of those countless lives America’s “atrocious” tactics had saved was one of the writer’s loved ones, her perspective might be different.

Bill Fairweather

Akron

Akron without 
Safety Town

Around March, I started to look into enrolling my soon-to-be 5-year-old in Safety Town. I wanted him to have an understanding of all the ways our community works to ensure his safety and, most important, how to gain access to and recognize the people who can help.

After some research, I discovered Akron does not have such a program available to its residents anymore.

The city does not offer Safety Town because of a lack of funding, storage and personnel. Fairlawn, Stow, Green and Copley all require attendees to be residents for this free five-day program or get on a waiting list in case there is an opening. I was warned that is a rare occurrence.

As a taxpayer I see this as one of the most direct links between myself and the city. I cherish the police officers and firefighters who work to keep my family safe.

Surely a city with a cabinet that has four deputy mayors, five directors, and two deputy directors to oversee services to the community must have adequate funding to educate children so they understand the safety net I am paying for.

My concern is that such an important program like this is not in place for the city of Akron. A program like Safety Town is so beneficial for children to understand the people and departments within the city and how they are there to help.

I would argue that topics such as stranger danger, crossing the street, seat belt safety, traffic lights, fire safety and 911 are more crucial within a city like Akron than in suburban areas, but it would be great if both could benefit from the program.

Isn’t the idea to expose children to these safety issues regardless of where they live?

Carrie Sloan

Akron

Goodyear and 
the community

Recently, some small splash was made about Goodyear moving into its new digs that included a few published remarks intended to demonstrate the company’s “commitment to Akron and Northeast Ohio” (“Goodyear’s in motion,” May 10).

Let no one be mistaken, Goodyear’s commitment goes as far as the tax breaks allow and not beyond. Any state in the union could have Goodyear in its backyard had it offered a nickle more in incentives.

Our community includes most of the folks who worked for and retired from Goodyear. These are the folks who were told at year’s end that they would no longer have medical benefits available to them through the company and that the company would no longer have a fitness center retirees could use. The company, it seems, has washed its hands of anything that looks, feels or smells like a retiree.

Ask any retiree about Goodyear’s commitment to the community and get a real sense of what it means.

Then, after listening to the answer, recall that the grand opening of the company’s new headquarters was a private affair, attended by only invited dignitaries.

This new structure, one that inside must certainly be as attractive as it is on the outside, will never be seen close up by some of the company’s most ardent admirers, its retirees.

Is this indicative of Goodyear’s view of society at large?

You don’t have to answer now, but think about it.

Paul Forney

Akron

Professional giving

I think all professional sports players should donate a percentage of their salary to the state in which their home team is located.

This money could go to the athletes in our schools, who, in many cases, have to pay to play.

Schools are already strapped for money.

Nancy Jackson

Akron

Clinical trials 
to defeat cancer

May is National Cancer Research Month. There is probably no other field currently that has as much impact on human lives as does cancer research. Until a few years ago, cancer was equated with death and dying, as well as surrender and defeat.

Not anymore. Cancer is now viewed as a terrorist that we can defeat if we understand it, its movements and its behavior.

That understanding comes (and did come) through clinical and laboratory research, just like the CIA and other government agencies that use clandestine operations to watch terrorists, what they do, how they get their funding, what they eat and how they communicate with each other.

Sounds strange? It’s true. Government agencies failed, and miserably so, when they failed to communicate on Sept., 11, 2001.

In cancer research, we have learned that the basic scientists who investigate how cancer cells act, behave and communicate must convey that knowledge to clinicians. Clinicians then use that knowledge in their research, and it has worked like a charm.

It has become like an orchestra in which everyone performs his or her part when required, and in the end the outcome is a marvelous melody.

But the melody is worthless without an audience. Fortunately, things have changed in the past decade. Before that, implementing a clinical trial was like going upstream without a paddle.

Now, however, the public is becoming increasingly aware of the importance of patients participating in clinical trials, where scientific discoveries are translated to the bedside.

We are not there yet, though. Our fullest potential can only be achieved when every single cancer patient has access to a meaningful clinical trial approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

I am sure this goal is achievable; it has been done in pediatric oncology and has resulted in a more than 80 percent cure of children with cancer.

All we need is the public to be aware of what treatments are out there.

Nash Gabrail, M.D.

Medical oncologist

Canton

To do so would be an exercise in futility, for even though the House could impeach him, it would take 67 votes in the Senate to convict and remove him from office.

It would be a repeat of Bill Clinton, though the Benghazi affair is all about Hillary. The criticism is not unjust, but the lack of civility allows our enemies to laugh as we become more like they are.

If the GOP decides to impeach Obama over these and other scandals, I have a suggestion of what they could do with the articles of impeachment once the trial is over.

They should be placed in the George W. Bush Library next to the memo that Bush received at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, on Aug. 6, 2001, that warned of a terrorist attack in the near future. The document should be signed by Dick Cheney because his name is not prominently mentioned in that library, when he deserves one of his own.

Perhaps we need to realize that in a constitutional republic based on the principles of representative democracy, people get the government they deserve, whether they like it or not.

Michael J. Walzer

Akron

Abortion rights
for all women

Regarding the May 14 article, “Pa. abortion doctor convicted of murder,” I disagree with the jury and think Dr. Kermit Gosnell should have been acquitted.

Abortion should be safe and legal at any stage in pregnancy. The health and personal decisions of the women must come first, and the fetuses should have no legal rights.

Women need access to abortion care and may need a late-term abortion for a variety of reasons.

Denying women access to abortion providers like Dr. Gosnell will cause late-term abortions to go underground, and more women could die from lack of services.

I am a pro-choice advocate who had an abortion, escorted women at abortion clinics and was violently attacked in Akron by anti-choice extremists, so I know firsthand the violence that can erupt from the anti-choice community.

My fear is that the anti-choice community will use this case to eliminate all abortion services. This cannot happen. In order for women to be full, equal citizens in society, they must have access to abortion care at all stages of pregnancy.

Do not let what happened in Pennsylvania dictate the future of abortion care for women. Speak up, and vote pro-choice.

Nancy Dollard

Lake Township

Thrill of the hill

I grew up listening to my mom’s stories about the Soap Box Derby. She would reflect on how wonderful it was to grow up with it, and it was an important part of the community. I think the community has forgotten the treasure we have in our own backyard.

I wanted to let readers know that my mother was right, the Soap Box Derby is amazing. My 7-year-old son went to his first rally recently at Akron’s Derby Downs.

It was the best sporting experience I have witnessed because of the people, parents helping other parents and drivers and children shaking hands and telling each other “good job.” We had numerous people giving us a hand or guiding us.

When my son was upset with his driving, a parent from West Virginia came over to encourage him.

You see too many children’s sporting events where the parents and children are consumed with winning. Thanks to the Soap Box Derby for truly being a cut above the rest and showing a little boy the true meaning of sportsmanship.

Kelly Lutz

Akron

Transition to newer technologies and processes is never painless. The social and economic disruption caused by the Industrial Revolution, beginning with Eli Whitney’s cotton gin and continuing with James Watt’s steam engine, was significant and rapid.

Despite that pain and even violent opposition ( the Luddites in 18th-century England), technological progress was inexorable, and we are all better off because of it.

The same is true for green energy. In the short run, it may be costly and the adaptation painful. But in the long run, it is by far the most economical and environmentally sustainable approach to energy production and delivery.

The pain of transition can be mitigated with intelligent federal involvement.

Would you rather have the deficit increase due to spending on outdated technologies and processes that are at best ephemeral and at worst extremely dangerous environmentally, or would you rather be forward-looking and make investments in the future that can pay dividends for generations?

The countries that make such investments will prosper in the centuries to come.

Tragically, it’s already getting to the point where the truly significant discoveries and inventions are not happening in the U.S. anymore. That’s a warning sign that should be depressingly clear to all of us.

Instead of getting distracted by short-term social issues, we should focus on the future and regain our former position of scientific and engineering leadership.

Our failure thus far to get very serious about new and emerging energy conversion, storage and delivery technologies might be our undoing.

We are rapidly losing operational capability on many fronts (we can’t launch astronauts into orbit right now, which is very scary) as well as brainpower, which is being auctioned off to the highest bidders (Iran, North Korea and Pakistan didn’t get nukes and missile delivery capabilities without significant outside help).

Precious human brainpower and dollars should be aggressively applied to areas that will benefit us in the long run and not deployed for wasteful and unsustainable energy technologies.

Steve G. Belovich

Hinckley

Plan B is not 
a viable alternative

“Absurd” is the word that came to mind as I read the May 9 commentary, “Plan for preventing teen pregnancy.” The columnist did a very poor job of trying to convince me that Plan B is a good thing. I could not care less about who is debating what, whether it is the government, judges, the Food and Drug Administration or politicians.

The plan is absolutely about government coming between parents and their children. It is absolutely about society condoning teen sex.

It is a meager, impersonal attempt at bringing the number of teen pregnancies down.

In reality, it will probably have the opposite results. As adults, we are encouraging the wrong behavior with Plan B. We are slowly becoming a nation of enablers.

It is wrong for youngsters to be having sex and babies, but, just in case they do, we’ll make it OK? I don’t think so.

Mary Caruso

Tallmadge

Shame on 
UA board

Part-time faculty from the University of Akron and other area colleges and universities came out in force two weeks ago to protest their pay and working conditions at UA.

They did this despite UA’s track record of mistreating adjuncts who oppose the university on policy.

The part-timers again called into question the ethics of UA’s systematic denial of unemployment compensation to part-time faculty on the grounds that they possess “reasonable assurance of re-employment,” despite a university rule that states that part-time faculty have “no expectancy whatsoever of continued employment.”

One might think that the university would take a step in the right direction by addressing one or more of the many issues raised by its mistreatment of contingent faculty.

Instead, the university’s board of trustees last week changed its rules to specify that part-time faculty are “at-will employees” and removed the characterization that part-time faculty have “no expectancy whatsoever of continued employment.”

The purpose of this rule change is to make the university’s denial of unemployment compensation more consistent with its own rules. Instead of resolving to improve the working conditions of part-time faculty, the board elected to further institutionalize this mistreatment.

Trustees should be ashamed of themselves. They are led around like goats on a rope in a highly choreographed charade in which the university’s administrators make important decisions that are rubber-stamped by these politically appointed and well-connected trustees.

The mistreatment of adjuncts could not persist but for the complicity of the board.

Matt Williams

Vice president, New Faculty Majority

Clinton

No defense for 
NRA’s arguments

The Beacon Journal should be ashamed for printing on Mother’s Day a letter defending the National Rifle Association (“Aiming at the wrong target”).

Forget the nonsensical arguments, such as criminals will not respect the law. Then why have any laws in the first place? Should we abandon kidnapping laws because three young women were kidnapped for 10 years?

Let’s forget that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has made arrests at gun shows and that terrorists are making videos about going to U.S. gun shows.

What about the argument that existing laws are not enforced? Of course they aren’t. They have been gutted by the gun lobby.

If the truth is on your side, why lie about a national registry when the proposed law on background checks would have prohibited one?

The ban on assault weapons led to fewer murders by assault weapons. In Chicago, the gun problem stems from gun purchases outside of the city.

We are having this debate because men keep opening fire on innocent people. We are talking about 154 shots in five minutes, which is ridiculous if you are not on the battlefield.

You are more likely to kill yourself or a loved one or friend by accident than defend yourself.

Nothing will stop violence, but you can lessen the possibility of a massacre by banning large clips and weapons that are suited for battle.

Arguing that a background check that can take up to 25 minutes is against your Second Amendment rights is as ridiculous as it sounds. Nothing is absolute.

And let’s keep it real, once again: The government has jets that go at the speed of sound, tanks, drones and satellites.

No armed citizenry is going to prevail. We are only making things more dangerous for us.

Chris McCail

Akron

A bushel of 
misrepresentations

I am responding to the May 9 letter, “Evasions of Democrats.” The writer stated “that many companies are hoarding excess cash, no doubt some in offshore, interest-bearing accounts.”

Experts estimate that Americans have more than $1 trillion in assets offshore and illegally evade between $40 billion and $70 billion in taxes each year. American working people bear the burden of this tax gap.

In 2012, companies hoarded excess cash in the amount of $1.45 trillion, most of it held overseas.

The writer also mentioned that companies are not hiring, blaming that on uncertainty. The reality is, companies have become more efficient during recession.

The writer also said that Democrats have run the government for the past four years. In only two of the last four did the Democrats have a majority in both the Senate and House. Republicans are now using a record number of filibusters to derail the Senate Democratic majority and then blame them for not getting anything done.

The writer mentioned that Democrats cut about $700 billion from Medicare. The amount was $716 billion, and it was from future spending growth. The Affordable Care Act specifically prohibits Medicare benefit cuts.

President Obama is not suggesting cutting Social Security, but he has proposed a “chained CPI” method of calculating inflation. Republicans have supported this method.

As to Obama’s nomination of Penny Pritzker to be secretary of commerce, it is not unusual for a president to nominate a well-qualified individual who has contributed to his campaign. Obama has not labeled the top 1 percent of top earners as nasty. He only has stated that they can afford to contribute a little more in taxes.

Dennis Maneval

Akron

The companies want the public to buy into the safety and efficiency of their operations in spite of the reality, which is that there is nothing truly safe or efficient about them.

On March 16, an oil and gas well accident triggered an explosion and a huge fire in Wayne County’s Chippewa Township (“Wayne County well explosion sparks huge fire”).

Areas where injection wells have been used to dispose of drilling waste have experienced earthquakes even though they have never experienced earthquakes before. Recently, scientists determined that e earthquakes that have been occurring in Oklahoma are linked to injection wells.

The fossil fuel industry is intent upon making sure that they squeeze the very last dollar out of fossil fuels, no matter what the cost to the only planet we have to live on.

They will tell us whatever they think will keep us quiet and accepting, and pooh-pooh the efficiency and effectiveness of solar energy, while other nations are using solar energy to their advantage and cleaning up their environments.

Hydraulic fracturing is using up our fresh water at an alarming rate, and tar sands pipelines are leaking.

If we are to survive we must have water. Leaving in the ground 70 percent to 80 percent of the purposely polluted water used in each fracked well does not protect the water we need for survival.

Pumping the remaining 20 percent to 30 percent of that polluted water into injection wells does not protect the water we need for survival.

The role played by injection wells in earthquakes is not clearly understood, but it is no longer questionable. The role played by hydraulic fracturing in the destruction of freshwater resources is clear and evident.

Janet Daily

Doylestown

Burning question
for Cleveland captives

The three ladies who were tortured and held captive in Cleveland have been through so much. They and their families cannot retaliate against their captor. The law must take its course.

However, perhaps there is something that can be done for them. The house where they were held prisoner is said to be in foreclosure. If that is so, it may be possible for the people of Ohio to collect money to purchase this derelict prison from the bank.

When and if the young ladies are feeling strong enough and well enough, they could be given a sledge hammer. Let them go for it.

When they are finished destroying their prison, however long it takes, let them strike a match to burn it down, with the fire department standing by, of course. How about it, Ohio? I’m willing to put up the first $200 to make it happen.

Beverly Durant

Macedonia

Portman upholds 
Second Amendment

It has come to my attention that U.S. Sen. Rob Portman is being portrayed in an unfair light in regards to his position on our Second Amendment freedoms. The so-called universal background checks would affect only law-abiding citizens.

Portman did support other amendments that would help fix our broken mental-health system, increase funding for school security and increase penalties for gun traffickers and straw purchasers.

We must remember we cannot legislate morality.

Scot A. Villwock

Clinton

Full disclosure 
for oil, gas drillers

I would like to call attention to the danger of allowing shale gas extraction (hydraulic fracturing) to continue. Although gas companies in Ohio have repeatedly claimed that the process and chemicals used are safe, they are not required to completely disclose the chemical information in advance.

This is because they say it is an industry secret. Col. Sanders has a secret recipe, too, but KFC is required to disclose the ingredients to the Food and Drug Administration and medical professionals, in case I get ill.

Gas companies do not have to disclose immediately their chemical concoctions to anyone, including medical professionals and first responders like firefighters and emergency medical personnel.

There have been reports of explosions at hydraulic fracturing sites.

What information do investigators in Ohio have to go on? How would they know when it is safe for a family to return home? How would firefighters safely attack a fire ignited by an unknown chemical?

How can a doctor treat a patient who has been exposed to an unknown chemical?

We need our legislators to compel energy companies to disclose immediately the composition of their chemical secrets to medical professionals and first responders.

The Fracking Emergency Medical Right to Know Act, now before the legislature, would protect all Ohioans and hold gas companies accountable.

Jennifer Bruzda

Kent

Playing politics
with gun control

I was very disappointed to see that attempts to address the violence in our schools and communities died in the Senate. But I’m not angry at people like U.S. Sen. Rob Portman ,who voted against the ineffective and complicated legislation that came before the Senate.

I’m angry at the Democrats in power who refused to put forward common-sense legislation that all have agreed on, that might have actually addressed the root causes of gun violence and wouldn’t have infringed on Second Amendment rights.

They played politics with this bill. It’s unfortunate, and it is certainly disappointing.

Evan Gallagher

Kent

Honor for all 
in Korean conflict

The Department of Defense 60th Anniversary of the Korean War Commemoration Committee, having noted that 2013 marks the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, decided to honor the veterans of this conflict. Well done.

But then the committee redefined “Korean veteran” as only those who served in the Korean theatre. It is ignoring the military support structure that made possible our presence and combat in Korea.

This structure stretched all the way back to the Pentagon, perhaps 85 percent of the total in uniform. The “support structure” is not welcome in parades. The committee is disenfranchising these veterans

The majority of the personnel in the support structure were draftees. They, like volunteers, served honorably wherever they were asked to serve. They deserve the same respect.

James N. Ruby

Akron

Avoid another
Middle East conflict

It is reported that Bashar Assad is using chemical weapons and nerve gas to kill Syrian rebels. It’s all over the media that the red line was crossed, and talking heads are saying the U.S. should attack Assad in Syria and support the rebels, including al-Qaida factions.

The reason is that these chemical weapons might get into our enemies’ hands and be used against us in a domestic terrorist attack.

But don’t our enemies already have chemical weapons? In the meantime, we risk a world war, with chemical and nuclear weapons, for what? To support our enemies? These are the same rebels who are attacking Christians in Syria. The U.S. has been involved in at least five Middle Eastern wars since 1991. They have solved nothing. If anything, radical Muslims have gotten more upset with us, and terrorism is growing, here and in the world.

Tell the president and members of Congress to refuse to let us get involved in another senseless war.

Bob Kubilus

Marshallville

Coverage exposed 
abortion doctor

I would like to thank the Beacon Journal for publishing stories about Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the abortion doctor in Philadelphia. He was accused of killing a woman with an overdose of sedatives and killing three babies born live after abortions performed by him. One woman working at the clinic admitted to slicing the neck of a baby born alive.

It has been reported that abortions were done as late as seven months’ gestation, past the viability standards set by the Supreme Court.

Dr. Gosnell reportedly kept babies’ feet in jars, for DNA, if it was needed.

To me, this story is just as much an atrocity as the Jodi Arias case. Of course, the Boston bombings took precedence, but the story about Dr. Gosnell needed to be told.

Linda Gracey

Twinsburg

This legislation created a state plan for renewable energy and energy efficiency, requiring Ohio’s electric utilities to generate 12.5 percent of electricity sales from renewable energy sources such as wind, biomass and solar.

Under the law, the utility companies must also enact energy efficiency programs to reduce energy consumption to 22 percent of current levels by 2025.

For every $1 invested in energy efficiency, Ohioans save $3 on their utility bills.

Not only will Ohio ratepayers save money, but Ohio will see manufacturing jobs created in the clean energy industry which already employs over 25,000 workers.

Since the legislation was passed, Ohio has begun to rebalance its energy portfolio toward renewable energy and energy efficiency and away from fossil fuels, especially coal, which is where we currently get most of our energy.

Burning coal creates worsening air pollution which affects us all. It contributes to heart attacks, strokes, asthma attacks (especially in children), lung cancer and exacerbations of emphysema and bronchitis

In fact, I know that when we have an air pollution alert day, as sometimes occurs on hot summer days, our clinic will have many more patients with acute breathing problems than usual.

Reducing the amount of coal burned for electricity also reduces the smog-forming pollutants nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and mercury, which is especially toxic to pregnant women and children and contributes to birth defects.

I would strongly encourage Gov Kasich and Ohio lawmakers not to roll back our state’s renewable energy and energy efficiency standards.

This will hurt our economy, our pocketbooks and our health.

Julia Radwany

Akron

An anarchist 
and a criminal

I believe that the decision to invite Bill Ayers to the recent May 4 memorial service was a disservice to Kent State University, the student body, the alumni and the community.

Ayers was an anarchist and criminal, who set off bombs in government buildings, including the Pentagon. He only escaped a long prison term because of a technicality. Even he was astounded when he was acquitted.

He boasts that he never killed anyone; he just blew up property. He would have killed someone eventually, had he not been caught. His girlfriend blew herself up preparing a nail bomb to set off at a dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

Many Ohio sons, brothers, fathers, uncles, husbands and friends went through Fort Dix preparing for Vietnam. Ayers and company were definitely willing to kill and maim anyone to impose their agenda on the rest of the people.

To the extremists of yesterday, such as Ayers, and the extremists of today, such as the Boston Marathon bombers, the ends justifies the means. There is no difference.

William Connor

Tallmadge

Teachers out 
for themselves

When the weather was nice, many Strongsville teachers marched on strike for the betterment of the students. When the weather turned bad, far fewer marched for the betterment of the schools and students.

When the school board made its final offer, teachers stood fast and stayed out for the betterment of the students.

When the school board found additional money and increased its offer, union officials and teachers stayed out for the students.

When they were hit with the reality of what health insurance was going to cost per month, they went back to work again, for the students.

Reality must have hit hard when they sought support on Twitter, Facebook, the Web and from other teacher unions and got nothing in return.

I bet all the students now feel like they were pawns, an excuse for the teachers holding out just for their own good. Students missed classes, important tests and eight weeks of a senior year that they will never get back, and it was all for their good.

Lee Neal

Tallmadge

Taking stock 
of more revenue

All the fuss and fury over the issue of taxation calls for a new form of raising revenue that could be acceptable to both Democrats and Republicans. Such a plan has been described in past issues of Public Citizen and Hightower’s Lowdown, both reflecting progressive ideas for good government.

This method of raising revenue seems fair, easy to collect, broad based and with a low rate of about 0.2 percent. It would levy a tax on every daily share transaction of stock on the New York and Nasdaq exchanges. The huge number of shares, in the millions, traded every day, ensures a very broad base, and consequently allows a very low tax rate.

Because all transactions are described and recorded on every client’s monthly statement, collection of the tax should be easy. Some degree of fairness would be provided because the tax would fall primarily on those best able to pay.

Adoption of such a plan would not absolve Congress and President Obama from making reasonable and well-chosen cuts in federal spending.

Henry Robert Menapace

Stow

Idolizing guns

It is easy for those who idolize the ownership of guns as a “sacred right” to interpret the Second Amendment to allow unrestricted access to any weapon of any size.

Those who would oppose such foolishness are painted as un-American, naïve, uneducated, or the like.

Statistics about the comparative safety of guns are touted out of context and in ignorance of the value of human life.

While many of us thought the death of 20 elementary children on a single day would awaken our leaders to the absurdity of gun love, it seems we were wrong.

The problem with idols, of course, is that people who follow them don’t realize it until it is too late.

Rick Hawksley

Kent

After reading it, I wondered the same thing, as I stared at an old copy of Marvel Comic’s U.S. Agent my teenage daughter borrowed from her female friend. This same friend happens to be obsessed with all things Spiderman, her personal space turned into a shrine honoring the superhero.

Perhaps there needs to be more of a demand for a movie with a female lead as a superhero. Unfortunately, the viewing public seems to embrace the notion of women being the weaker sex.

It certainly doesn’t help when women are portrayed as catty, confrontational, needy, whiny and self-absorbed on TV, as emotionally charged creatures needing a savior to rescue them at the cineplex and as less-than-worthy contenders for power with men in the real world.

Maybe a woman superhero is lurking in the imagination of an aspiring young female writer or artist who has yet to put pen to paper.

Or, maybe the plain truth is that we’re just not ready for her; the same way our country isn’t ready to elect the first female commander in chief.

I think as more women are put into positions of power, the existence of a female superhero will become more plausible. As more equality for women is gained, we’ll see an outdated mind-set transform before us.

For now, my daughter and her female friends will have to worship at the feet of Batman and Spiderman. Who knows, maybe someday soon, they’ll step aside.

Lisa Valley

Akron

Relative state 
of employment

A lot of people who have not received raises for many years feel unfairly taken advantage of. A lot of other people have lost their jobs due to corporate cost-cutting.

Many who lost their jobs have gotten new ones, but are making a lot less than they were before.

Many of those who can’t get new jobs are forced into the welfare system. Meanwhile, corporate executives continue to increase their profits, salaries and bonuses.

Here’s how it works: You and many of your colleagues go to work one morning, get called into the human relations office and are handed a piece of paper to sign stating that you will not sue or say anything bad about the company or you will not get any sort of severance.

You are then escorted out of the building, and the next day you have no health insurance.

Depending on where you are, a job with no raise for many years can sound pretty nice.

Scott Moyer

Akron

Aiming at 
the wrong target

First lady Michelle Obama recently addressed citizens in her home town, Chicago. She talked about the shooting death of a young girl who had just recently performed, with a school band, in front of President Obama. She grouped this schoolgirl’s death in with many others in Chicago. She talked about Chicago children worrying every day if they will live through their walk to and from school.

All of this was a prelude to her plea, and White House proposals, for more restrictive laws on guns and gun owners. It seems right, until you recognize that Chicago has had some of the most restrictive gun laws in the United States.

With the most restrictive laws, the city continues to have one of the highest gun murder rates.

Let’s look at the rhetoric from the White House and anti-gun groups about the National Rifle Association. They sound a lot like al-Qaida calling the U.S. the “Great Satan.”

Of course if you repeat anything, even an outright lie, often enough, the public will start to believe it.

Someone needs to recognize that the NRA is not Wayne LaPierre. The National Rifle Association is 5 million law-abiding gun owners and hobbyists. Criminals and murders will never be affected by laws because they do not respect them.

More laws, on top of the ones that already go unenforced, is folly and a waste of our tax dollars. Laws that are virtually unenforceable, because those who propose them are ignorant of the subject, are an even greater waste of tax dollars because they will be constantly challenged or subverted (as was the case with the Clinton-era “assault weapons ban”).

After 10 years of banning assault weapons, the definitions were still unresolved and every federal agency agreed that there was no measurable decrease in crime.

Anti-gun groups keep referring to the flintlock rifles of the Revolutionary period. What they don’t want you to know is that the flintlocks were the “assault weapons” of their time.

The writers of our Constitution were brilliant and forward-thinking men. They tried to write rules that would stand the test of time and innovation. Their ideas were not all perfect, but they were better than any government since.

Anti-gunners also put forward their idea that no one except hunters have any reason to own a gun. They either fail to recognize or just don’t want you to know that far more people own guns for recreation.

There are many families that shoot together as a family sport, from grandparents to grandchildren.

Let’s continue to respect the Founding Fathers.

Michael Dobbertin

Akron

Old patterns, 
new perspectives

The following comments are inspired by three recent commentaries in the Beacon Journal, the May 7 editorial “Bus money,” the April 26 column “What future for our region?,” the April 26 column “Canadian view of Keystone.”

These seemingly unrelated commentaries present different facets of the same issue — continuing to do things the way we have always done them or recognizing the need for changes to help make our region, nation and planet more vibrant, resilient and sustainable places to live and work.

Local school districts are required to provide ever more expensive transportation for both public and charter school students in their districts while state school funding remains inadequate. Anguish over this mess overlooks more basic problems of why (a) school transportation is so expensive, and (b) individual school districts must expend educational funds to provide it.

Answers include (but are not limited to): (a) because of sprawling urban and suburban development; and (b) we have always done it that way.

In a few other states and many other nations, neither factor matters much because sprawl has been limited and how best to fund and provide school transportation has been carefully considered and modified to better fit current circumstances.

Advocates for approval of Keystone pipeline construction remain mired in “the way we have always done it” while regional leaders involved in the Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium (NEOSCC) are focused on figuring out what choices we can make now that will provide the greatest chance to successfully develop a truly sustainable society.

Specific regional choices have not yet have been determined, but will most likely include:

• Ending sprawling development, such as the Walmart in Copley Township;

• In-fill development of existing sprawl to create more walkable, transit-friendly neighborhoods;

• Replacing urban center freeways (such as the Akron Innerbelt) with linear parks, bikeways and other urban amenities;

• Focusing future transportation spending on maintaining existing streets and highways while expanding alternatives to automobile use;

• Rapidly increasing development and use of non-fossil fuel energy sources, rendering the Keystone pipeline unneeded in a society seriously seeking sustainability.

Howard Harding

Akron

Standing up 
for gun rights

I support U.S. Sen. Rob Portman for standing up for the Second Amendment rights of Ohioans.

According to a recent article by the Pew Research Center, firearm homicides are down, violent crime has decreased and most deaths by firearms are suicides. However, it pointed out that the vast majority of the American people think firearm violence is up.

Another issue the media does not want the public to know is the association of race with gun violence. According to Pew, “a disproportionate share of gun homicide victims are black (55 percent in 2010, compared with the 13 percent black share of the population). Whites were 25 percent of victims but 65 percent of the population in 2010. Hispanics were 17 percent of victims and 16 percent of the population in 2010.”

I support Portman’s opposition to anti-gun legislation that would penalize law-abiding gun owners and would focus instead on improvements to the mental health system and enhancing school security, respecting Second Amendment rights.

Daniel Dawson

Campbell

Many actually believe an all-powerful NRA buys congressional votes with a paltry campaign “war chest” of $20 million, the amount one or two senators might spend on re-election.

By contrast, the multinational, conglomerate-owned media provide hundreds of millions of dollars of free, gun-prohibitionist propaganda through television, radio, newspapers and news magazines.

The incidence of public mass shootings is skyrocketing, right? No change since the year 2000. Violent crime is skyrocketing, right? Since 1991, there has been a 52 percent decrease in the nation’s murder rate, with violent crime dropping nearly every year while private gun ownership has markedly increased.

The NRA provides hunter safety training, concealed carry training and firearm safety courses.

With crime rates dropping every year, the media has to sensationalize any rare gun-related tragedy to create a spurious crisis mind-set.

Polls say nearly everyone wants universal firearm purchase background checks. Then why was there such a rush to buy every available firearm prior to Congress voting on such legislation?

It would be a meaningless law, unless accompanied by universal firearm registration (to be followed by required, arbitrarily provided licenses, taxes, mandatory insurance, then confiscation).

By the way, where is the money going to come from to pay for this new government bureaucracy — Medicare or Social Security?

I would say that nearly all of the anti-NRA letter writers never contacted the NRA for Justice Department, FBI and independent studies to learn the facts presented to politicians before voting, rather than relying on outrageous, emotional media harangues.

Who needs assault weapons? High-power rifle target competitors use them, alongside the military, for the purpose of fostering U.S. military preparedness. It takes years of training to become competent with a firearm, not two weeks of range basic training.

Isn’t it curious that Obama’s Department of Homeland Security ordered 1.7 billion rounds of ammunition, enough to last them the next 107 years at the present rate of consumption? Is it for your protection or for something else?

The NRA works to protect an ungrateful and ignorant public, while multinational conglomerates get rich from exploiting violence in movies, television, music and video games, deflecting their culpability onto law-abiding gun owners.

Jack Jones

Akron

Wrong about 
John McCain

When Bill Ayers spoke at this year’s May 4 event at Kent State, he couldn’t have been more wrong, especially when he slandered U.S. Sen. John McCain (“KSU speaker defends bombings of ’60s, ’70s,” May 5).

Does he not remember McCain was in the infamous Hanoi Hilton for about seven long years as a prisoner of war who let other soldiers have freedom ahead of him?

Ayers should read McCain’s book, Faith of My Fathers, and he would have great understanding of what happened.

McCain did not commit war crimes. The May 4 Task Force would have done much better if Ayers had not spoken this year.

I praise the May 4 Task Force for keeping the memories of that fateful day in 1970 alive all these years, but when I hear remarks slandering a true patriot, I can’t sit idly by and say nothing in response.

Ronald R. Neal

Akron

Closing Guantanamo

When it comes to closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, nothing has worked. So here’s an idea nobody has tried: Call Guantanamo Bay “Public Housing for Muslims.”

The GOP will shut it down in a heartbeat.

Mark Ira Kaufman

Silver Lake

Social Security 
already cut

In response to the May 6 letter headlined “Promise of Social Security,” I believe the writer is unaware that the practice of cutting benefits already exists.

As a teacher in a public school in Ohio for 11 years, I am the recipient of a modest monthly pension through the State Teachers Retirement System. Many more than 11 years of my productive adulthood were spent working in the private sector, where the Social Security tax was deducted from my salary.

When I reached age 65, and applied for benefits, a formula was applied that cut my Social Security payments by more than 50 percent.

At that time, this seemed unfair, but there was no choice in the matter. The current administration obviously is not the first to want to change the rules for Social Security.

Donna Gardner

Stow

Not the answer 
to gun violence

Sometimes, when bad things happen, we rush to do something, anything, to make ourselves feel better. That essentially explains the gun-control bill that recently died in Congress. It wouldn’t have stopped Newtown. It wouldn’t have stopped Aurora. It wouldn’t have stopped Virginia Tech. It wouldn’t have stopped Columbine.

It was a bad bill that wouldn’t have prevented gun violence. I hope that we see a real plan that can make headway against these horrors, but we shouldn’t pass a bill that accomplishes nothing at all. I thank U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio and every member of the Senate, both Republicans and Democrats, who voted against this bill.

Dillon Lloyd

Kent

Safe drilling 
requires disclosure

I would like readers to know that Senate Bill 17 would enable first responders and medical personnel to know what chemicals have been and are involved in oil or gas drilling, especially when hydraulic fracturing is used.

Currently, medical professionals are not automatically entitled to this information, which is shortsighted and prevents rapid treatment of those contaminated, as well as exposing others to contamination dangers when an accident has occurred.

I can only imagine the reason this is kept a secret is because these companies are using hazardous materials, hazardous not only to their employees but to medical professionals and their families.

Rosalind J. Martin

Gates Mills

Portman upholds 
his oath

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman is to be commended for his vote in opposition to the Manchin-Toomey plan for gun background checks.

Every member of Congress takes an oath to support the Constitution. Many seem to ignore their oath almost as the last word uttered departs their lips.

The Second Amendment is not a difficult principle to understand. What it protects is clearly defined in the operative clause, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

That position is justified with a phrase explaining that a well-armed citizenry provides an available resource from which a free state may form a well-regulated militia to defend itself.

The argument, “Well, we just want to keep arms away from those we believe should not possess them,” might be equally be applied to the argument, “Well, we just want to keep those who should not be expressing an opinion or reporting events of the day from the means of expressing their opinion or reporting events.”

That Portman displayed the courage to honor the oath of office despite the emotional appeals from colleagues and political interests for him to betray his oath reflects great credit on him as a man of integrity and as a faithful servant of the people who entrusted him to represent them within the constraints of the Constitution.

Emmette Boone

College Corner

Military culture 
of cover-up

It is amazing how women are sexually violated in the military, and there is no punishment. The commanders usually dismiss the case.

There are about 19,000 sexual assaults on women annually in the military. About 3,000 report them, a handful are taken up and little, if any, punishment is given the rapists. I guess the culture is to keep the military looking “pure.”

I guess the “good soldiers” are too privileged to be prosecuted. It seems the chances of punishing the rapists are equal to the chance of winning $300 million in the lottery.

The cases are all over the Internet, too, but the military has a system of keeping quiet and denying everything. That makes the highest commanders look good, and they want to get that retirement check.

John D. Ambrose

Norton

The writer was struck by information, presented by Bill Moyers on PBS, about how corporations (not identified in the letter) are making record profits but not hiring more people or giving out raises, and how they are parking money offshore to evade taxes.

If Moyers knows of any company that is evading taxes, as opposed to legally avoiding them, I hope he has reported it to the feds. Or is he purposely misleading his audience?

Many companies are hoarding excess cash, no doubt some in offshore, interest-bearing accounts, because they face uncertain, massive new regulations and costs for Obamacare.

The writer claims that GOP members are the “Guardians of Privilege.” She says government has continued writing laws that protect the richest 1 percent.

Doesn’t she know who is running the government right now and for the past four years? Certainly not the Republicans.

Even so, the writer claims that President Obama is being forced to cut back programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

Republicans have proposed restructuring them to preserve them for the future, but the Democrats will have none of that. For them, the future is now. They did cut Medicare by about $700 billion to help pay for Obamacare.

With all of the bashing of millionaires and billionaires that President Obama relishes doing, you wouldn’t think he would want them in his administration, even though he happily accepts their campaign contributions. But just a few days ago, he nominated Penny Pritzker to be secretary of commerce.

Though well-qualified, she happens to be a billionaire businesswoman, way up in that nasty 1 percent group of top earners. She and her family have used offshore companies to invest in properties, which enabled them to avoid some taxes.

But she did raise over a million dollars for the president’s re-election campaign.

The letter writer might want to talk to the president about that.

Robert Umbarger

Munroe Falls

Catholic community 
meets the challenge

It is great news for Northeast Ohio that the Rooted in Faith — Forward in Hope campaign of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese raised more than $170 million.

I want to thank Bishop Richard Lennon for his ideas but most of all for his faith in the good people of the diocese. Thanks should go to Bishop Roger Gries, and to the priests, brothers and nuns who worked so hard to reach the lofty goal.

Thanks, too, to the staff of the Catholic Community Foundation.

There should be big cheers for the laity, so many thousands of generous donors. The laity responded, not only with dollars but with prayer. Many hours are provided by volunteers to the various ministries and agencies that support those in need.

The campaign could have been titled “Rooted in Faith” by our parents and grandparents and “Forward in Hope” for our children and grandchildren.

Charles J. Snee

Rocky River

Native tragedy

On Friday, the newspaper ran an article with the headline, “Suicide rate jumps 40% for middle-aged whites.” I found it curious and appalling that the report failed to mention the even more alarming 65 percent jump in the suicide rate for Native American peoples, shown in a chart.

I am saddened that Native American people continue to be invisible and of little concern to mainstream America.

Ariel Wulff

Brecksville

On May 1, state Reps. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson, and Ron Maag, R-Lebanon, set forth a plan to make Ohio yet another right-to-work state. Have no lessons been retained from our recent political history?

Two years ago, 62 percent of Ohioans rejected Issue 2 at the ballot box. This attack on workers was vicious and uncalled for, blaming union workers for the ills of our economy.

I am a leader in the Service Employees International Union, and I see and hear attacks on workers nearly every day.

Most of these people aren’t rich; many are just trying to make ends meet. I think about times I am in disciplinary hearings, or when I hear from other leaders about the fights they have had to keep workers from getting fired. It usually comes down to people not doing their job.

The thing I am struck by most is that these state representatives are not doing their job. But evaluation and performance appraisals only occur at the ballot box. If Roegner and Maag truly represented Ohioans, they would listen to the 62 percent who made a loud statement two years ago.

Instead of doing their job, these representatives will continue to cost the state money. They have stripped the governor’s budget to the point that it is an absolute joke. They continue their attempts to pass laws that will take countless hours to defend, either through security during demonstrations at the Statehouse or through ballot measures.

Roegner has let down social workers who bargain for caseloads that are manageable. She has let down teachers who want class sizes that will afford every student the opportunity to get needed attention.

She has let down police officers and firefighters who collectively bargain for safety equipment. Her efforts are now contributing to the demise of health-care workers in private nursing homes, social service agencies and hospitals.

Roegner is surely not out there fighting for the working people of Ohio. She is more concerned with passing a state budget that repeals taxes and licensing fees for drilling companies.

House Speaker Bill Batchelder continues to collect both his salary and his state pension, as a double-dipper, while making low-wage workers feel horrid about milking the system. I believe Batchelder has been milking the people since 2007.

The people of Ohio need to wake up and get rid of the politicians who continue to cost this state money rather than to do their job.

Dana Epple Huntley

Akron

Payback time

On May 6, I read a well-written letter, “Promise of Social Security.” The only thing I am in disagreement with is not putting any blame on the current administration.

My problem with this administration and the past two administrations is that while Social Security founders and nears bankruptcy, our leaders send millions and sometimes billions of dollars to other countries while ignoring the fact that they have borrowed billions from the Social Security system. I say, pay us back first.

Gerald C. Wise

Norton

Acts of terror, 
then and now

How dare Bill Ayers declare the anti-Vietnam bombings perpetrated by the Weather Underground in the 1960s and 1970s any less destructive than the Boston bombings of a few weeks ago (“KSU speaker defends bombings of ’60s, ’70s,” May 5).

They were both acts of terror. One was home-grown and political, and the other religious and political.

Ayers said no one was hurt or died in the Weather Underground bombings, but the group’s own members were killed while making bombs that were going to be used at a military dance.

How many military members and civilians would have been hurt, maimed or killed in that act of terror by the Weather Underground had the bombs not blown up before they were used in that plot?

I grew up in the Vietnam era and was a freshman at the University of Akron when the May 4 incident happened. I remember days of peaceful protest and meetings after the incident and the shock and disbelief that violence could come to our college campuses.

I disagree with Ayers when he says that the United States is the most violent country that was ever created. Has he not read history, or even the newspaper or Internet, lately? There have been so many countries in violent turmoil, such as Syria, Angola, Sudan and Mali. The violence, turmoil and suffering of innocent people never seems to end.

The Weather Underground tried to use violence, like the Boston terrorists, to protest violence. That is a lose-lose situation. We can’t stop the violence in our country and others until we all learn to live together peacefully.

Terrorism, whether home-grown or from a foreign land, is not acceptable in our country. Each of us needs to reject violence in our lives and embrace peace.

Connie M. Kubilus

Marshallville

Help the victims

The least we can do for those who suffered in the Boston Marathon catastrophe is for the federal government to pay for all medical expenses not covered by victims’ insurance.

We bailed out banks and ran huge deficits in unwarranted wars and military activity.

Let’s spend some money helping those in need, who did nothing to bring on their individual tragedies.

Elliott Berenson

Chesterland

Protection against 
absolute power

On April 29, you printed a cartoon by Nick Anderson of the Houston Chronicle titled, “Welcome to America.” The left panel, titled “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” had a drawing of a pressure cooker bomb, under which it said, “Death toll: III.” The right pane was titled “Constitutionally Protected.” lt had a drawing of an assault rifle, with a death toll equalling thousands.

The message is that our constitutionally protected guns have killed more than a pressure cooker bomb, and maybe so.

I think the cartoonist should have included a third panel. In that panel, he should have drawn a picture of a totalitarian regime and titled the panel “Government with Unlimited Powers.” The death toll for this panel, in the 20th century alone, would be 170 million innocent people killed because they had no protection against their own government.

These statistics are according to the University of Hawaii political scientist R.J. Rummel’s book, Death by Government.

R.H. Dekmejian from the University of Southern California comments on Rummel’s book online, saying the statistics in the book demonstrate “that power kills, and absolute power kills absolutely. But where freedom reigns, violence is constrained. Rummel explains why the best course of action to stop government killings is the pursuit of freedom.”

Freedom must be protected and our constitutional right to self-defense guaranteed, or it may be our own government we have to fear.

Jean M. Spearing

Tallmadge

Bill Ayers 
in context

If Bill Ayers wants to wallow in narcissism and nihilism, he can (and does). But I cannot abide his lies, no matter how many times he repeats them. I’m disappointed that neither your reporter nor your editors challenged his statements. You offered no historical context and no skeptical perspective.

The United States is not “the most violent country ever created,” not even in the last century. Not even close. History puts the lie to his statement countless times.

Sen. John McCain did not commit daily murders and war crimes.

The Weather Underground itself did bombings in which it knew no more about collateral injuries than does any other terrorist group. However, its failed intent at Fort Dix is obvious.

In this setting, Ayers says, “I’m against violence.” But he has been quoted in other settings saying his regret is “we didn’t do enough [bombing].” Ayers thinks too highly of himself: He was and is a self-serving brat.

Tom Dade

Medina

Illegal acts 
of torture

Recently, an exhaustive, 600-page report has been published proving that the United States government used torture against detainees after the 9/11 attacks.

Now we know that our country has joined a club of repressive nations, which includes Pakistan, North Korea and Russia.
Where is the outrage from our citizens? The United States is a signatory to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and the Geneva Conventions, but that doesn’t seem to have deterred our government from these illegal acts.

How can we self-righteously point to the atrocious human rights records of other countries? We will be mocked, and rightfully so.

Carol Button

Cuyahoga Falls

Almost three weeks ago, Portman voted to block a limited, bipartisan bill to improve background checks in the wake of tragic shootings.

These minimalist measures are supported by 82 percent of Ohioans, according to a recent Fox News poll. Even before the final roll call, Portman voted unsuccessfully to prevent debate on the issue. While shameful in its own right, this was the only the latest example of “moderate Rob Portman” following his ultraconservative ideology instead of representing his constituents.

Over the past two months, Portman has voted against two of President Obama’s most qualified Cabinet nominees — CIA Director John Brennan and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Although these two officials were eventually confirmed with bipartisan majorities, Portman stuck with his most conservative colleagues in refusing to even hold a vote on Hagel.

In January, Portman voted against a bipartisan compromise to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government that was passed by the Republican House and signed by President Obama. At the same time, he voted against a bipartisan measure to provide relief for Hurricane Sandy victims. While trying to secure funding for the suffering people of New Jersey, Republican Gov. Chris Christie noted that this gridlock was “why the American people hate Congress.”

These kind of votes are nothing new for Portman. Last June, he helped defeat the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have helped women receive equal pay for equal work.

Although Portman may have won over some Ohioans with his recent support of gay marriage, it is important to look at the totality of his record in Congress. He has masqueraded as a moderate for far too long. Time and again, he has stood with the extreme right-wing ideologues.

As Ohioans, we must hold Portman accountable, because his votes on everything from gun control to budgetary issues to foreign policy are having substantial negative effects on our state and its communities.

Shammas Malik

Akron

Life principles

The sanctity of life is a major tenet of the Catholic faith. In 2012, a representative of the Catholic Church sat down before Congress to express this defense of the faith. The church feels that its principles should not be trampled upon by the government, especially for political gain.

Now the Catholics have another chance to defend their faith. They have a chance to voice their anger at the imposition of something that flies in the face of their religion.

The Boston Marathon bomber faces the death penalty for his terrorist attack. The Catholic Church is adamant about the sanctity of life, no matter how small.

The church has historically condemned the death penalty. Will the Catholics who supported fighting against the government “imposing” birth control stand up for their principles and refuse to support any politician who is for the death penalty? Or will they choose which scriptures they want to uphold, rationalizing their support for those who go against most of their other tenets just because they are against abortion?

Ernest Michaels

Cuyahoga Falls

Future of the Browns

I read the April 29 article “Recorded talks by Pilot Flying J are basis of raid.” There is no direct link to either Jimmy Haslam or his brother, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, but there are taped conversations of top sales brass. It appears as if Pilot Flying J did defraud trucking companies.

I hope that Jimmy Haslem runs the Browns in an above-board, straight way. Cleveland does not need a sports scandal, but rather a championship. I hope that I will see one in my lifetime.

Gary Conner

Akron

Everybody pays in, and everybody gets paid — if you live long enough. That was the promise that drove acceptance of the program and pretty much the reason everybody has been willing to contribute 15 percent of wages their entire working lives without squawking too much.

If we take this income and then refuse people payments in retirement (because they have a high income and saved money), what we’ve really done goes well beyond simply breaking a promise. We will have turned Social Security into a very high not-so-hidden tax.

It would be one of the highest taxes applied to Americans in history. It would be a tax applied to people who never had a chance to consider it in its true form and to vote on it. And we should not assume that legislators at the time would have approved the program if the administration’s current plan was known.

This affects ground that Americans consider hallowed — the idea that you are not to be taxed without representation. What kind of representation do you have when a new program is falsely presented to lawmakers and the public for support and approval?

Do you suppose Americans would have supported Social Security at its onset if the promise was: Everybody’s going to pay in, and we may or may not pay out to you, depending on the quality of our government’s fiscal management?

I don’t question the motive of our current administration. One does need to look at promises made, and whether it is fair and just (after all, this is a fair and just nation) to subject a portion of the population to a high tax without their or their elected officials’ approval of same.

It’s not right, and we know it. There is a word in our vernacular for gross misrepresentation of matters of fact for the express purpose of parting individuals from their money for reasons very different from those presented. That word is fraud.

This administration needs to stop and think about some of these issues before subjecting a minority of Americans to a new tax they and their elected officials had no opportunity to see for what it really was.

David E. Kettlewell

Akron

Shrinking humanity

Regarding the May 1 article “Lower age for Plan B approved”:

Parental guidance? This, combined with Roe v. Wade and the tragic deaths that make front-page news every day, exhibits the fact that every minute of the day, the world’s population is dwindling by leaps and bounds.

Humanity is suffering. Do we think so little of ourselves that we risk extinction?

Mary Thornburg

Tallmadge

Negatives of 
the tea party

I was dismayed to read a front page article that portrayed Tom Zawitowski as a good candidate for chairman of the Ohio Republican Party (Beacon Journal, April 25 “ ‘Judgment Day’ in state politics”).

The premise was that he represented a significant percentage of Ohio voters and would be a unifier. The following facts do not support those absurd contentions.

I have never heard or read a positive statement from him. The article reports that he became upset with government over Title IX (equality for females in amateur athletics) and the bailout of General Motors.

The first is an important equity law that needed better regulations and fewer lawyers in our litigious society. The second was a choice between the bondholders and countless American workers. It was the second time I lost money on bonds.

I’m pleased to hear that the Portage County Tea Party, with only 2,300, members is the second largest in Ohio. In the 2012 election, they mailed numerous postcards highlighting their carefully considered recommended candidates. Unfortunately, every one of their recommendations was a Republican.

All but one of the Portage Tea Party’s recommendations for local offices lost by huge margins. Some of the margins were so large that it appeared Republicans were even voting against the Tea Party’s recommendations. I had hoped this would humble Zawitowski and his devotees. I was wrong.

Zawitowski has written about the benefits of the sequester. When your quality of life is diminished by the associated reductions in public service, please remember him.

He has said recently he would consider creating a third party if he was not elected chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. His reasons were unhappiness with Republican officials over the proposed expansion of Medicaid and Sen. Portman asking for equal rights for his gay son.

Fortunately, the vote was 48 to 7 against Zawitowski. So much for the powerful group of 2,300.

All I have heard from Tom’s Tea Party is less government and less taxes. They have never seen a ballot issue they support. Apparently, the public school system, like Social Security and Medicare, was a bad idea. If they decide to leave, they will not have to create a third party. Most of his followers are Libertarians, and they already are a third party.

James L. Greener

Ravenna

Compassion

As many of us wait along with Father Sam Ciccolini regarding his priestly duties, I would like Bishop Richard G. Lennon and his advisers to recall John 8:7: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

James Caruso

Akron

Perks of office

The FBI is investigating Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam’s company, Pilot Flying J, as it should. I do wonder why Big Oil and gasoline wholesalers aren’t ever investigated.

If the cost of a barrel of oil goes up, gasoline prices rise quickly, but when oil prices fall drastically, gas prices jump up. Could this be because of all the “perks” the companies give our “honest” politicians? I believe the perks are going to politicians at all levels, from the president and Congress to our state representatives.

Lou Ferrante

Brown Township

By refusing to confirm Richard Cordray as the director of the bureau, U.S. Sen. Rob Portman and his fellow Republicans are attempting to cripple the bureau and prevent it from serving its protective functions.

Republicans refuse to confirm the highly qualified Cordray, they say, because they don’t like the law that created the federal agency. But Congress passed that law; it is in effect, and it should be respected. If Republicans don’t like it, they can jolly well come up with another bill that protects the American citizen better.

By refusing to follow current law, Republicans are reaffirming their reputation as champions of predatory financial wheelers and dealers who are not out to make an honest living by offering products and services that make this a better country in which to live and work, invest, raise a family, retire and send children to college so they can do the same. Rather, they champion those who are out to make a killing by fleecing the unsophisticated, unwary and unprotected.

Cordray should be confirmed, and the agency allowed to serve its much-needed protective functions.

Denise C. Woods

Akron

In faith and hope

More than 45,000 people committed to the vision set forth by Bishop Richard Lennon and other leaders in the Cleveland Catholic Diocese by contributing to the Rooted in Faith — Forward in Hope capital campaign.

A campaign that was projected to raise $125 million, instead raised over $170 million. The media fail to recognize that the local “sheep” see a hopeful future, led by their shepherd, with reinvigorated parishes, a commitment to faith and the expression of that faith through education and other charitable works.

The diocese educates more students than any other public or private school district in the state. Many of the students’ families pay little or no tuition. The diocese serves over 3.4 million meals to the poor each year, averaging over 9,000 meals per day. Every day, Catholic Charities Health and Human Services serve people, reaching 276,710 last year.

Cleveland’s baseball fans can put their hopes in Terry Francona. Maybe he will lead the Indians to a title. But the best of what Boston has to offer to Cleveland might be the firefighter’s son from Arlington, Mass.

Adam E. Carr

Cuyahoga Falls

Diverted money

Charter schools and vouchers take money from public school districts. Almost $800 million in state funding went to charter schools last year. Why increase public funds to charter schools when most earned a failing grade last year? It only puts millions into the pockets of profiteers who run charter schools and helped elect John Kasich governor.

Kasich has slashed money from our neighborhood schools, forcing local tax hikes. Districts are asking voters this week and again in November for higher tax levies to maintain needed school programs. Even though the Ohio Supreme Court has declared the state’s school-funding system unconstitutional because it relies too heavily on local property taxes, the system remains in place.

Ed Freisen

Newtown Falls

Its choice is between satisfying one constituency for whom any loss of pleasure is pain and another for whom any loss of pain is pleasure. Clearly, our representatives enjoy dealing with people who just want to be richer rather than those who just want to survive.

The letter places an appropriately high value on the traditional physician-patient relationship, but chooses to deny it to those who would gain it via their addition to Medicaid rolls. The letter justifies this by fear of overloading the health-care system. This seems mean-spirited as though the writer fears some change in her own access to care.

Above all, it should be recognized that denying health care to an economic class dooms it to suffering and to the use of hospital emergency rooms as a last resort for care. This form of care is very expensive at least partly because the patient does not receive regular advice on maintaining a healthy lifestyle, nor is he or she able to receive care before a condition becomes an emergency.

It should also be recognized that denial of care, which includes the development of an ongoing relationship with a caregiver, will lead, in many cases, to needless pain and suffering on the part of those thus denied and that the decision to exercise such a denial is potentially one of life or death. I hope the letter writer understands the gravity of such a decision.

Finally, let’s deal with death panels. Even Sarah Palin did not assert the existence of such an agency. If, indeed, there is such a group, it is the Congress. Its role is potentially even more cynical than that of Palin’s legendary panel because members of Congress are spared from confronting the results of their decisions, but they are potentially life v. death, nonetheless.

The letter concludes by saying of the Medicaid expansion, “In the end, it will probably cost us more than we receive.” I hope the writer can understand that this would be a good outcome.

Robert Piepho

Wadsworth

Evictions at 
the Mayflower

One of the titles of the U.S. president is commander in chief. Perhaps we can add some local flavor to that title for the Akron City Council. It can be known as the evicter in chief, for its efforts to eliminate the homes of 250 downtown residents (“Mayflower project set to proceed to request for key loan,” April 23).

The city’s plan is nothing more than a transfer of taxpayer money to a private developer that will reap the rewards. Of course, the transfer will be indirect. Tax dollars will be used to pay back the loan that the city uses to buy the building, which eventually will be sold again.

It would be a different story if the building were changing hands between private parties. But there is something unseemly about the city buying a structure, just so it can evict its own citizens.

Let’s hope the federal government nixes this plan before it goes any farther. If the idea is so good, then there should be no shortage of developers that are willing to put up their own money to buy and renovate the building.

Bob Icsman

Akron

Crucial vote 
for Coventry

If you read the April 28 article on the Coventry schools (“State funding tugs at voters deliberating Coventry levy”), how can you not support the levy? The school issue on Tuesday is so crucial, I hope to appeal to the softer side of voters because we all have one.

Please understand the sadness in the collapse of a school system and community that will be right around the corner if the levy fails. Don’t think I am unsympathetic to the plight of the taxpayer, but sometimes there are issues that are bigger and more important, such as the safety of schoolchildren. Buildings need to be replaced and updated.

Students spoke at a rally Sunday and expressed that their hopes and dreams depend on the outcome of this levy. Many cuts will be instituted such as music, choir, band, cheerleading and middle school sports.

The students pleaded with the audience to let them have these opportunities they so dearly love. Some are afraid they will be made to transfer school districts, leaving friends and teachers they deeply care about.

Are we too old to remember what it was like to be a part of school activities and the need to fit in? There was all that fun and learning that came with it.

Wouldn’t it be great to leave as our legacy a new school that would be filled with the hopes and dreams of a new tomorrow? This would be something the Coventry community could point to with pride. Not only would the Excellent with Distinction rating be evident on the inside, but on the outside as well.

Vote for Issue 5 on Tuesday.

Kathy Archual

Coventry Township

Be attentive 
to mindfulness

The May 1 letter headlined “State of meditation” was both confusing and misleading.

Mindfulness is an attentive awareness of the reality of things (especially of the present moment) originating in ancient India, whereas transcendental meditation is a specific form of meditation using a mantra or personal sound to bring the mind back to a state of quiet.

The writer asked: “Why transcendental meditation and not prayer?” TM is not the same as mindfulness, nor is it the same as prayer. Mindfulness teaches us how to focus and be aware of our surroundings so we can live an engaged life.

Prayer, on the other hand, is talking to God and not listening to God, which is where meditation practices like TM come into the picture.

We have been “talking” to God for thousands of years. How has that worked out for most people? Maybe it is time to teach children how to quiet their minds, be present to the moment, and maybe they can learn to listen to God instead of just talking. In fact, they might even learn to listen to their teachers and parents in a real, meaningful way.

It is possible that King David himself wrote in the Psalms, “Be still and know that I am God.”

For those who choose not to practice mindfulness, I highly recommend doing some research on the topic and maybe the study of consciousness will help them to understand that we are consciousness and the extent that we expand our consciousness and become aware will directly correlate to our understanding of how reality works so we can live a more purpose-filled life. That is not a bad thing to teach our children.

Mary L. Tabatcher

Mogadore

Support the 
Mogadore levy

When considering an additional tax burden, we should ask ourselves whether or not those asking for the money are going to be good stewards of our largess. In the case of the Mogadore schools, I believe the answer is an unqualified yes.

I am a proud Mogadore High School alum and father of the Class of 2013 valedictorian. My son has greatly benefited from the caring teachers, administrators, coaches and support staff that have prepared him well for college and life ahead.

On Tuesday, Mogadore voters will join the legions of Ohioans asked to approve a school levy. Too often the decision in these situations is left to a relatively small number of “undecided” voters. Here are the facts I hope the “undecideds” will consider before casting their ballots:

Mogadore currently suffers a yearly loss of $1.4 million in tax revenue due to legislation that has reduced the amount of tangible property tax paid by local industry, in particular the businesses on Gilchrist Road.

To offset this substantial loss in revenue, the district has eliminated key administrative positions. Remaining administrators have taken on multiple roles. The teachers union has agreed to a wage freeze and increased contributions to their health-care premiums.

Accepting approximately 300 open enrollment students from eight surrounding districts brings outstanding students, great athletes and future community leaders. Without the additional state aid these students bring, it would be nearly impossible to sustain Somers Elementary under a separate roof from the high school.

Additionally, the school board has refinanced the new high school building, saving in excess of $1 million over the course of the loan.

On Tuesday’s ballot is Issue 7, a 5.9 mill levy. This amounts to $15 per month for the owner of a home valued at $100,000 ($11.44 per month for residents 65 or over). Other figures circulating within the community are inaccurate.

Life in Mogadore has always centered on our schools. We are rated Excellent by the state and are highly desired for our academic prowess among families in neighboring districts. Our athletic accomplishments are well documented.

I implore you to visit the polls on Tuesday to vote in favor of continued excellence in education and great financial stewardship. Vote yes for Mogadore schools.

Ron Whitmer

Springfield Township

I was honored to meet so many zoo supporters at my recent appearance at the Akron Civic Theatre in support of the zoo’s most recent expansion, the Mike & Mary Stark Grizzly Ridge exhibit. Grizzly bears are one of America’s most iconic animals, and the plans for your new residents look incredible. I can’t wait to see the grizzly bears, red wolves, otters and bald eagles on my next trip to Akron.

At the heart of every zoo’s mission is education, and the Akron Zoo is no exception. It is not good enough for zoos to just provide state-of-the-art exhibits and conserve these wonderful species without educating people about them. It was evident that your zoo’s staff, leadership and supporters share my enthusiasm and passion for education.

The Akron Zoo has flourished under my dear friend Pat Simmons’ vision and leadership. Like Columbus, in the early years, Pat and I both struggled to keep our respective zoo’s doors open. But we shared a philosophy — the zoo has to be a source of pride for the community and a great place for animals and the visitors — and it paid off.

I have admired her work and value her insight and dedication to your zoo. Last year Pat’s leadership and passion were recognized across the country when she was elected to be the chairwoman of the professional organization for zoos, Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). The Akron Zoo has been accredited by the AZA since 1989 because it adheres to the highest standards set for every aspect of a zoo — including animal care, education and conservation.

Folks, zoos are only as good as the people who visit them and love them. Thank you for supporting such a valued resource for some of the world’s most endangered species. I am so proud of the Ohio zoos and our leadership among zoos worldwide.

Jack Hanna

Director emeritus

Columbus Zoo and Aquarium

Columbus

Mistaken about 
the gun vote

In response to the April 29 letter headlined “Representatives of the NRA”: The writer said, “I would like to require that those who voted against registration and think everyone is entitled to an assault weapon are forced to view an autopsy of a victim who died due to their pressured vote.”

There are so many things wrong in this short sentence. First, the vote in the Senate had nothing to do with registration. It would have required all firearms sales to go through a federally licensed firearms dealer, so a background check of the buyer could be completed. Nowhere in the bill did it mention firearms registration.

Second, a bullet fired from a so-called assault rifle does not do any more or less damage than that same round fired from a hunting rifle chambered for the same round. So an autopsy of an “assault-rifle” and hunting-rifle wound would be identical.

As to people thinking they are “entitled” to an assault rifle, most law-abiding gun owners do not feel entitled to anything.

My suggestion to the writer would be to do some research on a topic he wants to spout off and sound concerned about. With all due respect, ignorance of firearms does not qualify him to be involved in a decision that only affects law-abiding citizens. Criminals do not participate in background checks when they buy a gun on the street.

Jeff Barker

Wadsworth

New definition 
of the basics

An April 26 letter suggesting education return to the basics (“Back to basics in Coventry schools”) is shortsighted.

Our world is no longer simple or basic. Once upon a time, not so very long ago, our public education system was focused on preparing our workforce. A child was encouraged to learn the “three Rs” as background to enter the world as a factory worker or some other uncomplicated job.

Those jobs are evaporating. Our new world requires tech-savvy citizens who can compete in a worldwide market. My grandchildren are light years ahead of where my generation was at their stage. Nor do I believe Coventry schools has a significant dropout rate. I do believe the nonresident students can add diversity and broaden horizons for the entire student body.

I do not live in the Coventry district, but I fought this same battle for the Chippewa school district. Sadly, I failed to convince a sufficient number of voters that it was a great opportunity for our community, and our levy went down in defeat. Our two buildings that would have been combined in one location continue to house classes. And continue to be antiquated and energy inefficient. We owe it to our children to prepare them for the new world. It’s the American future.

Martha Cosbey

Doylestown

Barberton schools 
deserve support

I have had the honor to work in Barberton High School for the past three years as part of a collaboration team from the University of Akron. I teach my Methods of Teaching of English class at Barberton where my university students, training to become high school English teachers, work in partnerships with Barberton English teachers.

My university students are mentoring high school students on the basics of reading and writing. My students are in the high school every day. Also, I am on site to supervise and help with the curriculum along with the Barberton teachers. This year we expanded to the social studies content area, and we hope to continue to expand at Barberton as we envision more collaboration with Barberton schools.

Our ultimate goal is to showcase Barberton as a model collaboration site so that other schools and universities can replicate the project. This collaboration, which provides daily one-on-one tutoring for Barberton students, has no cost for Barberton or the University of Akron. It is free.

I so admire the Barberton school district. It is extremely well run with beautiful facilities. The teachers we work with are willing to help us for the benefit of their high school students. The teachers get no additional pay. They do it because they believe the collaboration provides strong educational support for their students.

However, the collaboration is facing challenges. As a result of the reduction of teaching staff, it is almost impossible to meet. Even lunches are now rushed. I cannot envision what more reduction in force would mean to the quality of instruction we are attempting to deliver.

The collaboration almost came to an end this year because my cooperating teacher was laid off because of cutbacks, even though she had five years of experience. Fortunately, my teacher returned in September because of a resignation, but it was very close. This teacher has been recognized as an outstanding teacher, and she is dedicated to Barberton.

Barberton residents have a wonderful school system, and no matter what happens as a result of the election on Tuesday, the professional staff will continue to do its best to educate the children and teenagers of this community. I will continue to provide the collaboration if possible.

But decline in education is slow and may eventually be irreversible even with the best efforts of professionals working as hard as possible. I so believe that one of the best features of the city of Barberton is its schools, and I have witnessed the daily excellence on behalf of the community. Barberton has wonderful children and they deserve the best possible educational experiences available.

However, I fear for the day when the Barberton schools no longer have the resources or staff to provide the quality education so necessary to survive in our complex world.

I know that the community will support its school system as it has in the past. The results of the support are obvious in the state rankings, and for me, obvious every day I am in the schools with the outstanding efforts I witness. I am honored and feel fortunate to be a part of the Barberton educational community.

Hal Foster

Distinguished professor emeritus

University of Akron

Akron

Perception 
of crime

I enjoyed shopping trips to Rolling Acres Mall. The mall closed down when it was abandoned by a public that perceived Rolling Acres to be unsafe — this during a period when, as I recall, there had been two murders in the Chapel Hill Mall area and none at Rolling Acres.

On Sunday, the Beacon Journal reported: “Summit poll finds crime is rising concern.” The same article reported total crimes are down 12 percent from the first three months of 2012 and all of 2011.

I wonder: Will Summit County in general and Akron in particular resemble Rolling Acres after being abandoned because of perceptions that are not supported by official law enforcement crime statistics?

Gwendolyn Wilson-Cobbs

Akron

How dare the Tallmadge police turn their lack of responsibility on the runners. The Color Vibe run is a national event that was planned for this day in Tallmadge at the Summit County Fairgrounds for months. Registration went on for months, and there should have been no surprise at the number of participants on this day.

The event opened at 7 a.m. on Saturday. If you didn’t pick up your run pack during the week, you were to be at the fairgrounds by 7:30 a.m. Since our group of eight picked up our pack on Thursday and the race didn’t start until 9 a.m., we decided to arrive at the fairgrounds around 8 a.m.

After exiting Howe Road at 7:50, we were bumper to bumper starting at the first light. After 45 minutes, we approached the light at Panera and decided to park there and walk 2.5 miles to the fairgrounds. There were no police officers at any time directing traffic. We witnessed a car crash during our walk and were amazed at the chaos of the traffic. Drivers rolled down their windows asking us, runners, what was happening.

There were no signs posted anywhere. The runners were parking down side streets, at the mall, at the condo complex and at the church.

Did I mention after the 5K race we had to walk 2.5 miles back to our cars?

The Akron Marathon attracts many times the number of runners and spectators at this event. The Cleveland Revco Marathon is even larger, but the local politicians and police departments are able to organize a seamless event. I would suggest that the Tallmadge police and local politicians closely scrutinize the event so that it is better organized and there isn’t an inconvenience to the runners, spectators and local traffic.

Karen Bartlebaugh

Akron

Choice for voters 
in Coventry

In response to the Sunday article regarding the Coventry schools (“State funding tugs at voters deliberating Coventry levy”): Kudos to the Beacon Journal for knowing how to excite people on an issue.

The reporter got most everything right when he reported on the school bond issue for Coventry Township. I do not own a property called “Lakewood” school, and although I stated the children don’t “deserve” a new building, he failed to add the words “but they might need it.” I’m “old school” and think “deserve” means you did something to be awarded.

If the township cannot afford to keep repairing the old buildings, maybe it’s monetarily beneficial to build a new one. I would hope we build one of reasonable size and not overextend this township with a bigger building than what we need.

If you disagree with my wording, I get it; but please stop threatening my business and calling me and other people names. I haven’t done that to anybody, and I don’t “deserve” it. I haven’t attacked anyone’s livelihood.

Please know that I am a resident, employer, business owner, taxpayer and most of all a supporter. Still passionate? Go vote on Tuesday.

Debbie Meredith

Akron

Editor’s note: Meredith owns the former Lockwood school.

Silent Quakers

A footnote to Terry Gordon’s April 25 column on the teaching of mindfulness in public schools (“From mindfulness to mindlessness”):

Some have criticized this practice on the grounds that silent meditation is “linked too closely to Eastern religions.” Just for the record, one group of Christians has been peacefully practicing silent meditation and worship since the mid-17th century. They are called Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends), and they would be happy to welcome you into their meetings to share the blessings of the Light.

Sharon L. Shelly

Wooster

Core of 
the progressive

The April 22 letter headlined “Politics of the personal” reflects many of the core components of progressive dogma: It’s meritorious to be elected and represent yourself as of one persuasion (see U.S. Sen. Rob Portman), and then later change because you had an epiphany. Does the name Jumpin’ Jim Jeffords ring a bell?

Portman was guilty of doing what is politically endemic in Washington — taking positions and voting on issues while thinking it best for the folks in the provinces. Why shouldn’t folks on Capitol Hill a priori assume their votes will or may affect their families and personal lives before voting?

Obviously, Portman did not do this, and along with the letter writer, it may be that others of the “Luddite Republican cohorts” persuasion have a similar goal in seeing Portman be a one-termer, not because of his position on guns, but now he has established himself as a waffler.

As the letter writer suggests, who knows what Portman’s position would be if his son was a gun victim?

The letter fails to mention that only some of the parents and relatives of the children slaughtered in Newtown, Conn., begged for support of more gun regulations. But many others correctly surmised that the legislation being proposed would have had no impact on events in Newtown but was solely a measure to demonstrate progressives really care.

Sounds like the letter writer’s primary outrage concerns Portman’s position on guns but the writer is happy to see a congressional waffler as long as his positions are transformed to those that are progressively correct.

Phil Leber

Akron

Serving themselves

Had I not seen it with my own eyes, I would not have believed Congress could move that fast. Amazing, the lawmakers left the Capitol as though a pack of rats were after them, although they were just going to the airport. Talk about me, myself and I. Now we know whom they really serve.

If we got rid of half of them and their staff members we might not have any budget problems.

M.M. Elliott

Uniontown

Reject the 
Coventry levy

Again, we need to vote no on Tuesday on the bond and tax levy for the Coventry schools. More taxes are not the fix for the state our schools are in. As a community, we need to see how our money is being used and why the schools are in such bad shape. We have that right.

Residents turned down the ballot measure on Aug. 7 and again on the Feb. 5. We turned it down for a reason. Homeowners and businesses already said no. I thought when you say no, you mean no. To me the turning down of a tax levy is not because of childish, superficial reasons. It’s because we are smart and know what we can afford and are concerned with what we will need to keep our family healthy and not stressed. This would be standing up for our responsibilities.

We all have been hit hard with the housing and economic crisis. We’re just waiting to see what the effect of the global crisis will cost us. We’re not getting any more money in our paychecks. Some families have lost a paycheck.

We don’t need to hear retired teachers, current teachers, parents, open-enrollment parents or renters tell us we are standing in the way of a new school for Coventry. They are not the ones who pay the taxes and will be burdened directly with the length of these levies (the bond issue will last 34 years, and a permanent improvement levy will last a lifetime).

A new school is not the way to our kids getting a good education. They will survive. I myself, my children and many others survived and received an education in older schools. We owe our kids a great education, and that will not be because of a new school. Sure we are getting funds from the state, but we the residents have to come up with many more dollars for this new school.

Coventry residents and business owners, educate yourselves on the true finances of this school system. Take a look at the outstanding school improvement loans, money out of our pockets for too many open-enrollment students. We need to stand up for our budgets and say no on Tuesday. We need to stay strong as a community and get this situation fixed. A sound home not a stressed home is better for all.

The timing for a new school during this questionable economic state is crazy.

For me and many others whom I’ve talked to, we are trying to make clear the financial burden of open enrollment. All the open-enrollment students we have are affecting school capacity to the point that we need more teachers, larger schools. Could we survive the budget if open-enrollment decreases? Vote no on Tuesday.

Cindy Kinsinger

Coventry Township

State of meditation

Regarding the April 25 column headlined “From mindfulness to mindlessness”: Interesting. But why transcendental meditation but not prayer?

John Karaiskos

Massillon