Workers victims of bad decisions

So, the AK Steel works in Ashland gets idled because the company closed and consistently refused to refurbish many of the facilities over the years while continuing to upgrade the Middletown Works, which now gets to retain its jobs and workers.

Once again workers in this area get to bear the brunt of someone else’s bad business decisions and pay the price of neglect.

I think it’s about time we bring in some of this “new” economy and move into the future with some “green” sustainable jobs and the like. People in this area should be producing wind turbines, solar panels, etc., and should be working for companies that care about our local economy.

If AK Steel continues, I also think we’d be better off with a company run by and for the workers and not some multinational corporation that is based elsewhere.

Dan Taylor, Huntington, W.Va.



We are stealing without shame

In addition to his family, is it reasonable the farmer who prepares, plants, and tends his garden is entitled to its fruits?

Assume a citizen works 40 years and saves $120,000 in a retirement account in a local financial institution. Isn’t it mathematically accurate, excluding interest, the principal will deplete after 60 months? From where would future benefits derive? Is it not criminal to transfer funds from one person into another person’s account?

Resting upon what moral foundation do those who contribute little or nothing to Social Security receive benefits? Planting nothing and assuming not incompetent, what right do benefactors have to another’s garden fruit without permission? In addition to his family, is it reasonable the farmer who prepares, plants, and tends his garden is entitled to its fruits?

Upon what moral foundation, do you or I receive Social Security benefits beyond contributions paid by us or our employer? Would you agree we are not entitled to what grows in our neighbor’s plot?

Producing no economic benefit or generating taxes from profits from the sale of goods, government cannot provide benefits to anyone other than what it transfers, without consent, into another’s account.

As we have indicated, the transfer of funds from one person’s account into another’s is not only criminal, but immoral and unjust. Have we become so hardened it is no longer shameful to steal from our neighbor and children?

John T. Lykins, Portsmouth, Ohio



Just accept people for who they are

Most of the time, you portray people who you say are bad as wearing black. I sometimes find myself rooting for them. They are minding their own business and the “good guy” comes along to “save the day.”

If people in today’s society would accept people for who they are, then people would not have any reason to do anything that our society labels as “unfit.”

Tony Moore, Russell