I have owned a small company, Hoffman Trucking, for more than 10 years and have seen firsthand and up close the effect that corporate greed has had on our economy.
When times are slow and people are not making purchases, then truckers and trucking companies everywhere suffer even more than the average American, because we get hit twice: Once when big businesses dominate the industry by employing truckers who work at starvation wages; then again when they bleed the rest of their workers dry of spending money, almost entirely stalling the shipping industry.
Just as the rhetoric now blasts banks that are “too large to fail,” there should be criticism of corporations and stores that are “too large to compete with.”
One way to get to this point would be to no longer let them profit off of the exploitation of their employees, and the first step toward this goal should be the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.
The act would no longer allow employers to scare their employees into submission and acceptance of unlivable wages and poor working conditions.
As a small-business owner and a truck driver, I feel that this measure would not only put more spending money into the pockets of consumers, but it also promotes healthy competition – which small businesses and small-business owners need now more desperately than ever.
Gregory Hoffman
Nanty Glo
Talk of Obama being a socialist is hot air
How many letters have been published in the Readers’ Forum claiming that President Obama is ushering in a socialist system in this country? It is not rocket science. The answer is, too many.
How many of those who have written on this seem to have a clue? Again, it is a no-brainer. The answer is none of them.
A revolution takes place when one social class overturns the rule of the dominant class. For example, in the American Civil War, the second American revolution, the northern industrialists came out on top of the slave-holding class.
For a socialist revolution to succeed, the working class would have to overturn the ruling capitalist class, dismantle the capitalist state and establish a workers’ state or the dictatorship of the proletariat, as Karl Marx referred to it. This state would socialize the means of production under workers’ control and suppress any attempt at a counter-revolution.
None of this is going to happen under Obama’s rule. So all of this talk about him being a socialist is just hot air.
However, I will say this. There are more genuine socialists in the country now than there were before the Bush years. In many ways, Bush was the best thing that could have happened for the American socialist movement.
Finally, I think that it is important to point out that no socialist group in this nation supports Obama. Check out these groups on the Internet.
Nick Brisini
Hastings
Homosexuals are to be accepted
In Alyssa Goisovich’s letter on July 22 (“We will all face judgment day”), she states: “Those people who consistently try to say homosexuality is in the Bible and it is a sin, their argument will always be a failure. Homosexuality is not referred to in the Bible whether it be good or bad.”
Obviously, the writer did not do her homework. Here are some Scripture passages that contradict what she wrote.
Start with Genesis 18:16 to get the whole picture. Don’t miss verse 20 (sin); finish the chapter. Go on to Chapter 19:4-11. Read it carefully. Read on to see what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah.
Incidentally, the sin of sodomy is named after the town of Sodom. Doesn’t that tell us something?
Then, refer to Leviticus 18:22 and also Leviticus 20:13. Then look up 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 1:10-11 and Romans 1:26-27.
Then, look up in the Catechism (every serious Catholic should have one) paragraphs 2,357, 2,358 and 2,359, especially 2,357 found on Page 566 in the second section. In paragraph 2,358 is found the sentence: “They (homosexuals) must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity.”
Paragraph 2,359 contains the sentence: Homosexual persons are called to chastity.
Finally, my advice to the writer is this: When Bernie Bolha writes something, don’t criticize him, listen to him. He knows what he is talking about.
Richard A. Ruth
Johnstown
Give Obama more than 7 months to fix nation
I may be only a high school graduate and a college-bound young man, but I do know a few things about reality.
Every week, I read articles saying that President Obama is not doing the great job expected of him. And on TV, they show how his approval rating has declined since he was been sworn in as president in January. They say the reason his rating has gone down is because people expected him to fix all of our nation’s problems by now.
What more do people want from him?
He is only human.
He is not some god who can fix the country within a few months of taking office.
It took President Franklin Roosevelt years to get this country out of the Depression.
Give Obama time to do his job.
And if he hasn’t done what was expected, then you can vote him out of office in four years.
Mark G. Stephens
Patton
