Published: August 21, 2008 09:58 am            

READERS' FORUM 8/22 | Richland event was overwhelming

Regarding Richland Community Days: It was overwhelming and well-organized.

From Friday until closing on Saturday, it was truly a community get-together.

The parade was lively and enjoyable. The vendors, car-parking attendants and all the volunteers were courteous and made visitors feel welcome.

The food was good and the entertainment lively. The music was to suit all ages.

We are proud to be residents of a very friendly and caring community.

Congratulations to all who took part in organizing this delightful event where friends and neighbors could join in the fun. Happy 175th reunion.

Joe and Helen Ricci

Richland Township



Obama’s socialism wrong for America

We, the people of western Pennsylvania, are honest, hardworking, and take quiet pride in our country. I don’t see us as “bitter people who cling to guns, religion and nativism,” as described by Sen. Barack Obama at an April fundraiser.

Capitalism made the United States the economic powerhouse of the 20th century. But the government’s left-leaning, anti-American socialist agenda is killing the economy.

The partisan war in Washington is destroying our country. The spirit of the 1960s permeates Congress. The majority of its members are loud, arrogant elitists who blame America first for all the world’s ills.

Where are the great leaders we always thought would step forward when our nation was in such desperate straits?

Anyone saying irreverent things about Obama does so at his or her own peril. Martin Luther King said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

Choosing a president does matter!

Obama is an international socialist. This was obvious in his speech in Germany, when he proclaimed himself “a citizen of the world,” vowing that, as president, he would consider the “needs, interests and perspectives” of all nations.

The liberals’ “changes” for America sound wonderful, as did the changes proposed by European leaders of the 1920s and 1930s.

Once the citizens realized what was happening with the socialistic government they had elected, it was too late.

We’ve been fighting socialism in this nation since 1776. Think about this before you vote.

Joann Hunt

Windber



Public schools may not be perfect, but ....

In response to Dan Lips’ Aug. 18 opinion piece, “What’s missing from back-to-school list”:

Enough already with the “public schools are failing” bit. Instead of reading the statistics set up by the test-makers who profit from our students taking tests, we might pause.

Lips’ opinion piece claims that the “nationalized test scores reveal that one out of three fourth-graders cannot read.”

What does the test show? Some students grasp reading right away and some don’t.

Teachers can tell if children cannot read. Learning takes time; teachers are not such an evil lot.

College is not for everyone – not all grow up around college grads or see college as a future. That has nothing to do with schools; it may have to do with our society, our economy.

Lips obviously doesn’t know that the poor are living in rundown schools whose bathrooms are falling apart, who cannot afford toilet paper, let alone books (read “Savage Inequalities”) – and whose computer equipment is outdated.

Lips’ answer: Parents can send the students to any school.

Affluent parents will send their kids to the selective schools and later into private schools (which, unless they hand pick the students, do not get any better results).

Let the poor schools and the kids who cannot get out of the rundown schools crumble. Let the public schools rot.

Public schools may not be perfect, but without them, America has no hope to educate all of its children.

Debra Taczanowsky

Richland Township



Simply the Best rules restrict who can ‘play’

As I took my morning walk to The Tribune-Democrat’s street dispenser on Sunday to pick up my newspaper, as I do every day, I was very disappointed when I read the 17th annual Simply the Best voting section.

The fact that you must be a subscriber to The Tribune-Democrat to vote seems unfair.

Did anyone on the newspaper staff take into consideration the many people in the community who cannot afford a subscription, but do have their opinions on special stores, fitness facilities, restaurants, etc.? These people would be pleased to participate.

This event is for the people of Johnstown and surrounding areas to express their opinions without having to have “ties” to their opinions by expecting to be a subscriber.

I know many people who would like to participate in the voting, but can’t afford a subscription to the Tribune.

This sounds to me more like a Simply the Best Tribune-Democrat marketing contest to sell more subscriptions, instead of a special event for the entire community, as it was when it originated.

Judi Piro

Ferndale Borough

Editor’s note: The Tribune-Democrat limits voting to subscribers as a way of preventing ballot-box stuffing.

        

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