LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Column hits nail on the headline

3/19/2012

The headline on Joe Nocera’s March 14 op-ed column was spot-on: “If brokerage gets a free pass, that would be a crime.”

Jon Corzine, former Democratic governor and senator from New Jersey, ran a brokerage company that filed for bankruptcy; $1.6 billion in consumer assets is missing.

Mr. Corzine had been a fund-raiser for the President. Mr. Nocera wrote that it’s suggested “that the Justice Department won’t prosecute Mr. Corzine because it would hurt President Obama.”

If Mr. Corzine walks, Mr. Nocera wrote that it would hurt financial markets and democracy. It also would be another black eye on this administration’s Justice Department.

John Wieck

Pinestead Drive

Poor, poverty 2 different things

Your March 11 editorial “The poor and the political” addresses the issue of poverty and the poor. It was a sophisticated analysis that lacked a simple explanation of the difference between poor and poverty.

Poverty is a condition that is caused by and can only be dealt with by government, agencies, other persons, or groups. Poor is a personal condition for me and my family and that is in my control.

People who understand this difference will respond to being poor as a temporary condition that they have the power to change.

Larry Manley

Findlay

Listen to what candidates don’t say

Many politicians say that they have a plan for this and a plan for that while running for office, but during their campaigns they won’t reveal what their plans are. So how are we to decide who to vote for?

It’s easy to speak in generalities, and the media let them get away with it. Both major parties are guilty of being evasive about specifics and will not be nailed down to definite decisions.

Give any politician a direct question and he or she will dance around to avoid a direct answer.

It’s astounding that voters stand for this. My seven decades have taught me to hear what candidates say, but to pay the most attention to what they avoid saying.

Ron Marshall

Islington Street

Romney’s business stand bad news

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said he will side with big businesses (“Romney says rely on business, not government, to fix economy,” March 3). But big business created a poorer middle class and made only executives rich.

Every working person should join a union and not buy from a company that does not have a union. We are letting big business rake us over the coals. That will continue as long as Republicans are elected.

Addie Adams

Letchworth Parkway