Published: June 30, 2009 10:59 am      

READERS' FORUM 7-1 | Compared to Cheney, Obama is tame

Several recent anti-Obama letters have irked me, as they seem to be opinions developed from misinformation. There are questions as to how Barack Obama paid for his Ivy League education and lavish lifestyle. The letters say he is arrogant, scary and wasn’t raised in America.

Obama lived with his mother and stepfather in Indonesia for four years. He attended two grades in a Muslim school and two grades in Catholic school. While accused of being a secret Muslim, why is he not a closet Catholic? He returned to Hawaii to be in the care of his grandparents for grades five to 12. Hawaii is indeed America. Our flag flies all over the island, the multi-ethnic people speak English and they are celebrating 50 years of statehood.

By making good grades, Obama went to college on scholarships and also through part-time jobs and loans, which were recently paid off partially with profits from writing and selling two books.

Aren’t up-from-the-bootstraps stories supposed to be championed in our society? His community-organizing job paid $10,000 a year plus a $2,000 jalopy.

The apartment he shared with another legislator in D.C. was supposedly so dumpy his wife wouldn’t stay there. He owned a few nice suits and four pairs of resoled shoes. So much for the lavish lifestyle.

To learn about our president, utilize the mainstream, fact-checked news sources and read his two books. We have a thinking, analytically minded leader who can speak in complete sentences. Refreshing.

Now, former Vice President Dick Cheney – there’s a scary guy.

Anita Altman

Johnstown



Our ‘choice’ is to vote out legislators

“The public isn’t dumb, they understand what the choices are.” Those are the words of Gov. Ed Rendell, who is attempting to shove what he says is a temporary tax hike on the taxpayers.

Mr. Rendell, we aren’t dumb. We know the meaning of “temporary.” Does the

Johnstown tax ring a bell? Our legislators have been all too busy OK’ing pork projects and pay raises and squandering money on building ballparks and hockey arenas, instead of being fiscal watchdogs looking out for the welfare of their constituents.

Yes, Mr. Rendell, we have a choice. We can vote against any legislator who goes along with your tactics, and we can choose to remove you from office if you are irresponsible in your fiscal responsibilities as our governor.

Robert Vetock

Johnstown



Rendell unfairly targets working class

Gov. Ed Rendell, please stop punishing me for having a good work ethic. Stop punishing me for earning a living and supporting my family. Stop this attempt to raise the state income tax.

Effective governance of the state benefits all who live and visit here, yet Rendell is choosing to place the burden of paying for this governance on the workers of the state. Why not adjust the state income tax so that all who live in this beautiful region of the country provide for its well-being?

What happened to the money the slot machines were going to be printing ... sorry, I meant earning?

Matt W. Wensel

Johnstown



Thunder has been a needed shot in arm

As a Johnstowner from 1950-98, I’m painfully amused by Bob Truscello’s June 25 letter (“Rally is a time for beer drinking, noise”).

He doesn’t particularly like bikers, motorcycles or a wonderful half-week in Johnstown every year. His dislike is giving him a very short memory:

Memories of 1977, when this town was almost wiped out, and then put on a financial slide that took more than 20 years to reverse.

Or of the 1980s, when the only good thing that came to town was a movie, “All the Right Moves,” because the producers were looking for the most downtrodden, beaten shell of a town available.

Or of the 1990s when U.S. Rep. Jack Murtha kept us afloat with “pork.”

Then some far-seeing locals decided to cash in on a national love – motorcycling – giving the tourist industry a boost like it had never seen before.

Murtha isn’t going to be in office forever, and that pork is going to disappear once he’s gone. We better have something to replace it. Currently, that’s a lot of bikers.

It’s four days a year – of loud pipes, beer and people taking back home stories of just how wonderful Johnstown really is.

It’s four days that go a long way toward the financial stability of this town for the remaining 361 days.

Mr. Truscello, go on vacation. Come back when we’re gone. Meanwhile, look at your taxes not going up because the city profited from this event. A profit that we, the bikers, certainly don’t begrudge you.

Not with the wonderful way the rest of your neighbors treat us.

George R. “Syke” Paczolt

Montpelier, Va.



Obama’s health plan a godsend for some

In response to David Lamison’s June 26 letter (“Obama’s declaration of total dependence”) criticizing the president’s health-care plan:

Obviously, he must have health insurance or the ability to pay for all the medical care, prescriptions, etc., that he needs.

I’m happy for him if he does.

Unfortunately, I do not have health insurance; not because I don’t want it, but because I can’t afford the high premiums.

I have delayed – or not gotten – needed health care due to the costs. A doctor’s visit is $70 or more, plus the cost of medication. Even if I’m able to get free medicine from a pharmaceutical company, my doctor charges $10 (sometimes more) to fill out the required form, adding to the cost of my health care.

I resent being called “intelligence challenged” because I believe that I – and others such as me – deserve a chance to get the same health care that Mr. Lamison receives, without the worry of paying huge fees.

As for being a “third-generation welfare recipient” – one doesn’t have to be among them to go broke paying for needed health care. I’m thankful that my husband had Medicare and my children have subsidized care through the CHIP program – only three of the medicines my youngest child needs to control his asthma cost almost $400 a month.

I hope Mr. Lamison never loses his job or his health care benefits – and if he does, I hope he never gets sick and has to be on a two-plus year waiting list.

Barbara Kruk

New Florence



Judge, city officials to be commended

Dwight Owen’s article on June 26 (“Charges vs. Amish, ‘bag lady’ worrisome”) is ridiculous. Both Chandan Vora and the Amish need to follow the laws of a modern, civilized society. Keep in mind that the Black Death in the 14th century was, in part, spread by people dumping garbage and raw sewage into the streets.

The suggestion that both the First and Fourth amendments are being violated is absurd. I commend both Judge Norman Krumenacker and city officials for their decisions.

I suggest that for a time the writer move next to Vora and the rats the garbage attracts, and then next to the Amish, where raw human waste is being released into the environment.

By the way, I saw the “bag lady” headed to her home with another cartload of garbage on the day before Owen’s letter appeared. Hopefully, city officials will act before it gets as bad as the last time.

How would Owen react if someone started a pig farm next to his property in Westmont? He should be thankful he lives in a community where laws are enforced to protect the masses from returning to the Middle Ages, where, unknowingly, the population themselves promoted the spread of bubonic plague.

Note that people died several years ago when a Mexican restaurant unknowingly purchased from Mexico onions grown with human waste fertilizer.

Finally, I know of no religion that has a commandment that states, “Thou shalt not use sanitary sewers.”

John Skubak

Johnstown



Those buying foreign cars hurting America

One of the most anti-American things a citizen of this country can do is buy a foreign-made car.

When you buy a foreign-made car, you not only hurt the auto industry, but you hurt among others the people who make glass, steel, paint, rubber products, carpeting, upholstery, leather, wiring, electronics, mirrors, chrome, plastics, vinyl, tires and aluminum.

The foreign-car manufacturers in this country only lower our standard of living. They expect Americans to work for less than their domestic counterparts and without a union.

Everyone wants someone else to work for less money.

How would they like if their pay were cut?

The last two American-made cars I’ve owned were driven more than 200,000 miles each, without requiring any major repairs, and were then sold to others who may still be driving them.

I would ride a bus before I would buy a foreign-made car.

Dennis Edwards

Johnstown