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Men no longer need to suffer alone in silence

Editorials

While we have traditionally celebrated Father’s Day in June, this month has also been set aside to highlight awareness of men’s struggles with mental health and depression. The National Alliance on Mental Illness continues to advocate for breaking the cultural stigma that men have to “tough it out” on their own while wrestling with internal issues. Current statistics show what many mental health professionals are calling a “silent crisis.” Many men do not like to talk about how they are weighed down emotionally, and this suppressed affliction often leads to anxiety, stress ...

Politician names on public works are free ads

Editorials

When workers scraped Donald Trump’s name off the Donald Trump and John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center, they should have kept going. They should have taken Kennedy’s name off as well and restored the building to its original, simple title, the National Culture Center. After President Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, Congress renamed the center after him. The New York International Airport, charmingly referred to as Idlewild, suddenly became the John F. Kennedy International Airport. And hundreds of schools across the country plastered “John F. Kennedy” on their ...

Orchids & onions

Editorials

ORCHID: To the Pride and Joy Foundation of Warren for hosting a successful fundraiser recently toward its noble mission of improving childhood literacy among city school students. The event in Quinby Park on the Southwest Side included a car show, live music, food and basket raffles. The foundation sponsors an innovative summer reading program for children at Highland Terrace in the city. The funds raised will help defray costs of electronic tablets for children to use during the program. According to Sher-ee Glover, president of PJF, “We want to help children so they are not behind ...

America’s other Independence Day has arrived today

Editorials

Today the Mahoning Valley joins the rest of the country in celebrating a national holiday of freedom and independence. No, we’re not leapfrogging two weeks ahead to the massive America250 Fourth of July hoopla. Rather, June 19 marks Juneteenth or as former President Joe Biden proclaimed it for the first time in 2021, the Juneteenth National Independence Day. The two federal holidays remain intimately entwined. This year marks 250 years since the 1776 Declaration of Independence, which proudly pronounced “all men are created equal.” But for millions of enslaved African ...

Legislature won’t answer call to abolish death penalty

David Skolnick

Gov. Mike DeWine’s call to end capital punishment in Ohio doesn’t have a chance of passing the state Legislature, which won’t even consider it at this point. But DeWine’s long-awaited and expected announcement Tuesday at least renews the conversation. There’s been a de facto ban on the death penalty since DeWine, a Republican, became governor on Jan. 14, 2019. That same day, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael R. Merz issued a decision calling into question the state’s death penalty protocol of using drugs through lethal injection as inhumane. DeWine said it eventually became ...

Everyone should be free to stay in or get out of Social Security

Editorials

Trustees of the Social Security program just issued their annual report. Each year, the picture of the program’s solvency is dismal. But this year it’s even worse. Rather than falling short in 2033, as reported last year, this year the shortfall is projected to be in late 2032. That’s six years from now. Without action taken, benefits, per the report, will be cut 22% late in 2032. That means that every young working person is now forced to pay, by law, 12.4% of their pay — half paid by them and half paid by their employee — into a bankrupt system. As I recall, ...