— As longtime hockey season ticket holders, we were excited to see the Tomahawks come to town. Anything Rick Boyd (general manager and director of hockey operations) has been involved with has always been first class, so our expectations were high.

Not only were we not disappointed, but our expectations were far surpassed by the reality of hockey’s return to Johnstown these past two weekends.

Everything was well organized and obviously planned to make the fans feel welcome.

But the biggest reason that we plan to return for every Tomahawk game this season is the attitude of the players. They are not just in Johnstown for a brief stop on their way up the hockey ladder. They are here because they want to be on Johnstown’s team. They play not only with skill, but with heart and enthusiasm, and win or lose, that is what Johnstown fans are looking for.

We don’t want to see an anonymous group of players going through the motions. We don’t want to have to read the program halfway through the season just to find out who the home team players are. It is refreshing and exciting to see a team that is already becoming part of the community, and is committed to being our team.

Let’s return the commitment and give them our full support. Go Tomahawks!

Ken and Joan Roberts

Johnstown

How many deaths will it take to stop bullying?

Bullying has become an epidemic in this country, and now I understand that it is an epidemic internationally. My case in point is Canadian Amanda Todd (above). This 15-year-old made a mistake when she was 13 and has been paying for it ever since by being victimized.

Even after her suicide, the tormenting continues via Facebook. Recently, I saw a picture of a girl hanging and it was captioned “Todding.” I let it go because I knew it had made national news and I assumed Facebook would remove it.

The next day, in my news feed, there was a photo of a young man drinking a bottle of bleach. This one was captioned “Am I Amanda Todd yet?”

I reported this disturbing picture to Facebook, only to be told that although they don’t condone “hate speech,” they will not remove it. I’m sickened by this and I hope that every other adult is as well.

Some people say that bullying is only physical abuse. I say that bullying is any action done to another to make them feel pain, whether the pain is physical or emotional. It’s not “kids being kids” or “just kidding”; it is bullying. We need to call it what it is and stop it when we see it.

How many more deaths will it take before this epidemic comes to an end?

Amy Pribicko

Johnstown



Romney: Etch A Sketch of the imagination

There’s nothing there!

Defining Mitt Romney is impossible because there is nothing there. Romney is not an Etch A Sketch because that apparatus at least produces a real image before it is wiped away. Romney is, if anything, an Etch A Sketch of the imagination. A real Etch A Sketch is a mechanized toy that produces images that are made mechanically to disappear.

Romney’s screen, knobs and internal workings – rods, wires, powder, etc. – are not things of the imagination. With an Etch A Sketch of the imagination only, what one thinks are on the screen are perceived. Things are not made to disappear. They were never there in the first place.

Romney lives “creative destruction.” You create something for him and his associates and all the while he is in the business of destroying what you have done for him in order to make himself monetarily rich.

There’s nothing there.

Look again and you will see nothing was ever there.

David Swain

Johnstown



President sabotaging American economy

President Obama says that if somebody wants to build a coal-powered generating plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that is being emitted.

He further says that will also generate billions that can be invested in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches.

This is what the president told the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle on Jan. 17, 2008.

We know about his views on the Keystone XL Pipeline to transport oil.

The price of gasoline is now $3.95 per gallon. What kind of president would crush industries and create massive unemployment?

 Twenty-three million people are unemployed; why would you want to increase that number?

Obama sabotaged the American economy so people would rely on him and his socialism. Our friends don’t trust us and our enemies don’t fear us. For nearly four years, we have not had a leader in the Oval Office, but now we have a chance to elect one.

Don’t fail America.

Ron Marol

Moxham



Economic problems of our own making

I am not a professor of economics. I’m just a casual observer.

However, this is what I see: Made in (Communist) China, Made in Mexico, Made in Korea, Made in India, Made in Pakistan, Made in Japan and last, but far from least, Made in (Communist) China.

Oops, I mentioned that one twice.

That’s why I believe we have unemployment. Made in America.

Thomas Hoffman

Bella Vista, Ark., formerly of Johnstown

A rare glimpse of candidate’s uncaring side

Recently, the Republican presidential candidate made some candid remarks, claiming “my job is not to worry about those people” – meaning the “47 percent ... who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to take care of them.”

Possibly, the most disturbing aspect of that statement is that Mitt Romney thought he was speaking privately.

In effect, we were given a rare glimpse of the pure, unabridged, undiluted personality of the man, instead of a carefully manipulated political image.

That man is not, simply put, a nice one. Or a responsible one.

The plain fact is that a large portion of the 47 percent the candidate was referring to are the people who were disenfranchised by the fiscal misadventures of the previous Republican administration: The people who were downsized, who lost their homes, who mostly lost their piece of the American dream.

The Republican candidate’s remarks stink of hypocrisy, of trying to elude responsibility for that segment of the population his political party was largely responsible for creating.

Since the Great Depression of the 1930s, it seemed as if Democratic administrations are the necessary antidotes for the economic blunders of the Republican administrations.

Many of us sleep better at night knowing that the present occupant of the White House is a man whose family was born not to inherited wealth, but rather to a family who in the past has been short of money.

Like most of the 100 percent of Americans he represents.

Carl Schultz

Johnstown



Life, religious freedoms, marriage non-negotiable

Lies, lies, lies. This administration is perpetuating lie after lie.

Facts:

• In the 1990s, Barack Obama was a member of the third party, “New Party,” a leftist Socialist party.
• As a senator, Obama voted four times to oppose a bill that would save babies of botched abortions, hence just let that child die.
• Obama is being supported by billionaires and millionaires. Poor people do not attend $40,000-a-plate fundraisers.
• At the DNC, a sham vote of three times to reinsert God and Jerusalem back into their platform did not even receive a majority vote, let alone the two-thirds required amount.
• Occupy Wall Street has cost governments millions of dollars in property damage, extra police protection, court costs, etc. The Tea Party has cost zero.
• Black religious leaders are urging their congregations to stay home and not vote because of the gay marriage issue.
• Debt began to increase in 2007 due to Democrats Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi heading both houses of Congress – the tax and spend team.
• Obama refuses to call the Fort Hood massacre a terrorist act. He calls it workplace violence. Yet this administration has referred to pro-life advocates as “terrorists.”

Also, on 9/11, al-Qaida attacked our Libyan embassy, killed Americans, and he blamed a YouTube video. Incompetence or deceit?

More importantly, a society that prefers money and entitlements over God’s law is in dire trouble. Some items are non-negotiable: Life, marriage and religious freedoms. Go to the website cc2w.org.

Paulette Cononie Torchia

Johnstown

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