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LETTERS FROM READERS
Keep funding for human services
s our community mourns yet more domestic violence-related deaths, our state legislators are considering a Republican House amended budget that includes 9.1 percent cuts for both domestic violence services and rape crisis services. House Appropriations Chairman Bill Adolph has framed cuts to the Department of Public Welfare programs as a way to find money to restore funding to education programs. This is being justified based on contested estimates of the rate of “waste, fraud and abuse” within “welfare” programs. In the hierarchy of human needs, safety comes first. Basic human needs (food, shelter and safety) must be met before more “advanced” needs can be realized. Witnessing or experiencing rape, battery and other abuse destroys safety. Children and young adults who live with these realities day after day cannot benefit fully from an education. While I find cuts to education funding proposed by Gov. Tom Corbett appalling, and laud legislators for looking at ways to restore that funding, it should not be at the expense of the safety of domestic violence and rape victims. Education cannot be a priority over victim services, and it is bad public policy. Rape crisis centers across Pennsylvania assisted more than 31,000 victims of sexual assault in fiscal 2010. Approximately one-third of those clients were children. Domestic violence programs served 92,000 victims, including 7,410 children during that same year. The proposed cut is likely to result in a complete lack of services for nearly 4,000 sexual assault victims. It is important to note that for nine years rape crisis and
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domestic violence services received no state increases, and in fact have sustained cuts. Neither the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence nor the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, which fund local centers, has been the subject or rumor of “waste, fraud or abuse” of DPW dollars, In fact, both organization are known as models for responsible administrative oversight and positive service outcomes. I have contacted state Rep. Gerald Mullery, D-Newport Twp., about my concerns over these proposed cuts and he has assured me he will fight to have the funding restored. I encourage everyone to contact their state legislators and let them know the proposed cuts to vital services are not acceptable.
neighborhoods. Before my dad passed away, we spent a lot of time talking about the way things had changed in the Democratic Party. The change was not good. It moved into being more and more progressive/socialist and no longer stood for individual liberty and freedom. Under today’s norms, John F. Kennedy would be classified as a conservative. My dad believed deeply that we should all work hard, get the best wage that we can, and be able to keep what we earn. As a brewery worker, my dad thought much like other hard laborers in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and that included the miners. The miners, the brewery workers, the coal men and other factory workers were rugged individualists. They all loved freedom and liberty; they worked hard to enjoy the small breaks in the action. Their love of freedom and family helped them get up every day to put in that long day’s work. And, yes, often the tavern awaited them for a quick 15 minutes on the way home in the dark. Work is good for the heart. Unions helped them even the score with management so that their wages were higher than mere subsistence. I did benefit from my dad’s notion of work. As a very young boy, he picked coal along the railroad tracks to heat the home.When I was 5 years old, my first job was as an entrepreneur. I used either an old pint-sized Radio Flyer Wagon, an old wheel barrow, or a twin-sized baby carriage to collect papers and rags from my “customers” every Sat-
Patrick Rushton Fairview Township
Reader laments Democrat changes
W
ouldn’t the hardworking parents of the baby boomers be surprised? Something happened to the Democratic Party since I first joined at the age of 23. I spent my first two years as a voter registered as an Independent and then my father helped me understand that in Pennsylvania, being Independent meant I could not vote in the primaries. So, I changed to Democrat, like my dad. We were very close and talked a lot about how things were in America and in the
JOHN M. WILDES,
urday. I would take the stash to a junkyard. I made about a quarter to thirty-five cents a week. It gave me an understanding of what it takes to work and it put something in my pocket. It was a great life lesson. I later moved on to shoveling sidewalks, cutting grass, working in a 5 & 10, and then I spent time spotting pins in a bowling alley. When I was 12, I inherited my older brother’s paper route, which I turned over to my younger brother when I graduated from Meyers High School. I finished my high school manual labor career working on a soda truck. That was how things were for the families of working men and women. If you didn’t find some ways to make a few bucks, you would have nothing to spend. We did not get to keep all our income as family needs came first. It’s just the way it was. Things have really changed and today, I do not think my father would call the new Democratic Party the party of the working man. Democratic leaders across the country seem to believe the purpose of the Democratic Party is to make people dependent on government. One of the big differentiations between the Democratic Party leaders and myself is that I believe if you work hard, you should keep what you earn. You should not be obligated to pay the freight of someone whose only problemis that they do not want to work. In our democracy, those who are able to amass a huge bounty and those who are able to earn even a meager living do have obligations to the poor and the sick and those struggling with life. However, that should be done through trustworthy sources such as Churches and charities. Income re-distribution by government is not the way to create a set of rugged individuals like our parents and grandparents that will help keep America strong.
THE TIMES LEADER www.timesleader.com
I am nowhere close to being rich but today’s America permits me to get there. Those who really make it and become rich do so honestly and should not be denied their day in the sun. They work for it. I am very happy that there are more and more rich people every day. It is called the American Dream. I do not want the government taking what they have earned and giving it to somebody else so that some politician someplace can get re-elected. Your money and your resources are yours and mine are mine. Yes, I am for helpless people but I am not for making people helpless. Brian Kelly Wilkes-Barre
Voter worries about candidates
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just watched the intro of Michele Bachmann’s interview by Mike Huckabee. Beginning with the usual first question response of “That’s a great question...” blah blah blah, I immediately turned it off. Though I believe her more qualified than our current White House occupant who has displayed more than his share of foibles, I’m disgusted with the cookie-cutter pandering we now have. None show character worthy to even carry the coat of the likes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln. Our country is in dire times with worse ahead. We desperately require an unbiased leader of fortitude and conviction. Are there no survivors for our country to draw from following the aftermath of the “Tune in, turn on and drop out” drug-infested generation? Is no humanity retained after the “If it feels good, do it” and “I, me, mine” generations? And for a country founded on Christian/Judeo principles, we see the imposed banishment of any form and/or reference to God by loud lobbyists.
It is time for Americans to take a stand, but will we ever see a leader to stand with? Edward Frankavitz Dallas
Taking aim at pigeon shoot
In the late 1980s/early ’90s, I had the “privilege” of attending several pigeon shoots in Hegins, Pa. My friends and I witnessed the depravity and callousness of participants and their families (including small children), in a carnival atmosphere deserving comparison to spectacles offered in Roman times to bored and degenerate crowds craving blood and gore. Participants took shots at pigeons that were released from small, dark traps; they were blinded by daylight, disoriented, hungry, thirsty from days without food and water. Of the injured pigeons (very few were actually killed!), some were able to fly away, taking refuge on rooftops and trees, only to die later, while others fell, flapping and writhing on the ground. Teenage boys approached them nonchalantly, grabbed them by their necks, swung them around, hoping to break their necks, or tore off their heads; one laughing “nice young man” even threw a headless pigeon at me. Thankfully, that particular pigeon shoot in Hegins is no more. Let’s hope that decent human beings will object to this bloody spectacle once and for all by calling their legislators, urging them to please support SB 626 – to stop a cruel “sport” that uses thousands of live pigeons for mere target practice. Has anyone heard of skeet shooting? It’s certainly a lot more sportsmanlike than taking shots at small, helpless and disadvantaged birds! Natalie Jarnstedt Greenwich, Conn.
Northeastern Pennsylvania Council Boy Scouts of America
WE SALUTE YOU.
28th Annual “Distinguished Citizens Award” Dinner
JOHN M. WILDES
Purposes: To honor leading citizens and role models in our community. Raise the necessary funds to provide a quality Scouting Program for over 4,500 youth.
June 1, 2011
BRANCH: Army
Genetti’s Hotel and Convention Center Wilkes-Barre, PA
RANK:
Dinner Reception & Gathering at 6:00 p.m.• Dinner served promptly at 6:45 p.m.
E8
YEARS SERVED: 26
WAR FOUGHT: Iraq
HOMETOWN:
“Iron” Mike Ditka Featured Speaker Football Legend
Hanover
Charles E. Parente Honoree
Thomas G. (Tim) Speicher Honoree
Matthew Cartwright Dinner Co-Chair & Master of Ceremonies
Greg Collins Dinner Co-Chair
Sponsor Packages (Ticket and Table Reservations due by May 25, 2011)
NUMBER
❏ Eagle $15,000 ❏ Life $10,000 ❏ Star $5,000 ❏ First Class $2,500 ❏ Table 1,500 ❏ Individual Reservations ____ x $150 per person - $____ ❏ Contribution only $____
ONE
❏ We will be attending Dinner. ❏ Not Attending: Please donate our seats to Scouting.
AUD AUDITED
N WS NEW NEWS NEWSPAPER
Advertising Packages (Your artwork for the Program Book is due by 5-23-11)
LUZERN UZERN COUNTY IN N LUZERNE
❏ Full Page - $1,000 ❏ Half Page - $500 ❏ Quarter Page - $250
_____________________________________________________________________ Contact Person
Organization (if applicable)
_____________________________________________________________________ Address
City
State
Zip
_____________________________________________________________________ Phone
Fax
❏ Check enclosed for $_____ (Payable to NEPA BSA) ❏ Please send me an invoice ❏ Charge to: ❏ Visa ❏ Disc. ❏ MC Account #_________________________________ Expiration date: __________ Authorized Signature: ____________________________ 266352
A
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SUNDAY, MAY 29, 2011
Mail to: Northeastern Pennsylvania Council - BSA, 1 Bob Mellow Drive, Moosic, PA 18507-1776 Contact: Becky Mozeleski: rmozeleski@nepabsa.org 570-207-1227 Fax: 570-207-1232
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