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Sunday, July 26, 1998     Page:

Caller challenges state Rep. Mundy
   
SAYSO
    The search for the impossible dream, at least in the vicinity of politics
from this area, would be to actually see Phyllis Mundy propose legislation
slowing up the gravy train that the school teachers have, or even suggesting
that some of the benefits be cut back. Don’t hold your breath, because it will
never happen. But I’m willing to give this gentle lady a second chance. Let
her tell me, and maybe some of the other callers, just how wide spread is this
practice of ghost voting in Harrisburg, who’s done it, and is she willing to
propose legislation to prosecute those who do it?
   
It’s apparent from the many calls made to the SAYSO column of The Times
Leader, that many people have varied concerns, some petty, some major, some
strange. Am I right or wrong, however, in assuming that if a certain complaint
is of a political nature, and somehow or another it conflicts with who The
Times Leader endorses or likes, it never gets into print. I’d just like to
know the truth on this one?
   
Editor’s note: We don’t think we’re doing that, especially since we run
comments on both sides of most issues.
   
It would seem that every time we get a day with hot temperatures that
exceed what’s considered to be the ordinary temperature for this time of the
year, “Goody Two Shoes” Al Gore is standing on television, ranting on about
global warming, bad streams, bad water, this, that and everything else. Yes,
it might be a little bit of global warming, but I’ve got news for Al Gore:
After he gets done speaking, the hot air is even warmer.
   
I just witnessed a segment on TV where it was a reunion of young men that
visited President Kennedy back in ’63, and included in that group of young
boys was President Clinton. And you know, I looked at him in this segment, and
I thought to myself, how could you, how could you, Clinton, do what you’re
doing to our beautiful country? How could you have such low morals and cause
so much dissension, and try to ruin the dream of the American people, our
beautiful country? What are you doing to it? And I really felt sick that he’s
our president.
   
I can’t understand what the big deal is about Ken Starr being able to
question Secret Service agents. We all know that 99 percent of them are decent
people, and we also know that 99 percent of decent people if it comes down to
keeping their jobs would lie through their teeth and say “well, I don’t know
anything, anyhow.” So, what’s the big deal?
   
ROGO put new windows in city hall for Lombardo. ROGO is Rostock, the
teacher and school director’s brother-in-law; Lombardo gets a new job with the
school district. You’ll never convince me it’s because of any qualifications.
   
I’d like to talk about the Pennsylvania Lottery. All these years the
Pennsylvania Lottery has been ripping off the Pennsylvania taxpayers and
citizens. Hardly any winners. One person wins 40, 50 million dollars. What a
joke. I’d like to see everybody that plays the lottery fax their headquarters
in Midland, Pa., and tell them and complain that the Pennsylvania Lottery is
the most corrupt and enticing piece of garbage that ever was made here in
Pennsylvania, and something has to be done about it. I think they should go
out of business for the good of the people.
   
I’m a father and a former heroin addict. I’m calling to congratulate Dr.
Cooper and the medical treatment center from Allentown on their trying to get
a clinic here in our area. I’ve traveled with my wife to clinics for eight
years, including the Allentown clinic, Easton clinic, Newark clinic, New York
City clinic, New Brunswick clinic, Norristown clinic, and also we have been
reimbursed for each mile that we travel. Usually our reimbursement check is
$1,000 a month. Now, first of all, I’d like to say that this is a waste of
money, and there are so many people receiving this money, and also, I’d like
to say that we had a terrible accident in which we were almost killed twice.
Also, I’d like to say that there have been 50 deaths from heroin abuse and
heroin related substances. With a clinic, it’s a proven fact that a methadone
clinic reduces crime. Within 3 months, the crime rate will go down 30 percent;
within 6 months it will drop 70 percent, this I guarantee and this I know.
I’ve taken drugs since I was 12 years old. I started on pills which led to
other things, and then heroin. Most of my friends, actually except for one,
are dead, and if they’re not dead, they’re infected with some kind of disease
or AIDS killer.
   
Editor’s note: We received similar calls.
   
Hey, Mayor McGroarty, did you see Tuesday’s Times Leader? Marie Kenney, 79
years old, she was displaced from the Sterling Hotel and now she’s been mugged
in Plymouth. Are you going to pay her a visit and offer some sympathy, or is
she out of your hair now that you yanked her out of the Sterling?
   
I’m calling (about) the tattoo article. Isn’t it funny how they’re trying
to get them to lower the standards so that they could do such a filthy thing?
Pretty soon they’re going to lower the standards and you’ll be able to murder
freely, rape freely, and rob and everything else freely. Oh, what fun!
   
Good morning, SAYSO. I’d like to voice my opinion on Betty Caffrey. I
happen to know Betty; she’s one of the finest people you’d like to meet. For
this person who wrote a statement about Betty, I would like to say to you, if
you were a good mother and gave love and attention, maybe you wouldn’t be in
this predicament with your daughter.
   
Editor’s note: We received several calls expressing similar sentiments.
   
I read the article in the Sunday paper written by Jim Erdman about the
Wyoming Recreation Board. It seems perfectly clear if only 30 people attended
the party, the residents must not support it. Why don’t you check the record
of the past board for the past five years and see the quality programs they
ran in the town? The summer camp, the cornfest with rides and entertainment
and food vendors, the car show, to name a few. Now with the new board they
have beer parties. Where does the money go from these parties? Let them form
their own organization and have the beer parties, and bring back the old board
to run the quality programs they started which have been canceled by this new
recreation board.
   
I’d like to take issue with the article in Monday’s Times Leader, where
Jennifer Henn writes, “ruler-wielding nuns teaching in Catholic schools.” I’m
taking issue with that, because I happen to be a nun and I taught for years,
and I wasn’t ruler-wielding. Thank you.
   
Yeah, this methadone clinic that’s going to open up in Wilkes-Barre. Well,
that just goes to show you that’s Mayor McGroarty’s idea of bringing business
to downtown Wilkes-Barre. Well, look, he brought a blood bank, he brought a
pawn shop, why not a methadone clinic?
   
Recently, I seen an article in your paper about boom boxes, and I totally
agree with this gentleman. And if rap is music, then I’m a nuclear scientist.
There’s no reason why these jerks aren’t given a ticket for disturbing the
peace. I work midnight shift and I can’t even get rest in the night, let alone
in the afternoon.
   
I wonder what Ron Felton would say if somebody complained that there
weren’t enough short white Jews in the NBA?
   
I’d like to make a brief comment about the methadone clinic and the
opposition that the DA is currently giving it. I feel there was a good article
in the paper today from a known doctor that the clinic is needed in many areas
because heroin doesn’t discriminate. People are, the article says, bankers,
lawyers, nurses, administration, yes they’re poor people, but everybody needs
a chance to get on their feet and get back to be functional people. Obviously
the DA doesn’t have anyone in his family addicted to heroin, or he would be
probably pushing for this clinic.
   
I have a suggestion for any of your readers that have a loved one in a
nursing home. I’m encouraging them to go and visit the loved one, not just for
the loved one’s loneliness, or anything like that. But, I recently had a young
family member placed in a nursing home for rehabilitative purposes, and I
would visit at irregular times. Due to my job, I’d visit at 4 o’clock in the
morning and then again about 3 in the afternoon. And I saw things that some
normal visitors who usually visits right after lunch, doesn’t see. I can’t say
that I actually saw abuse, but if I had an elderly parent or loved one, I
wouldn’t want them handled the way I saw. So, do some surprise visits.
   
One of your callers apparently seems to be quite upset about Ken Starr, and
went on to say they think what he’s doing is a disgrace to the human race, and
said that as a taxpayer, Ken Starr is making a bundle of money and he’s
dragging this case on so long, because us taxpayers are paying for it. Is
there too much money to spend to get the truth? And by the way, does this
caller realize that President Clinton took everybody but Dumbo the Elephant
with him on his trip to China and the cost of his trip makes Ken Starr look
like a piker?
   
Can someone please tell me why there is a walk sign and a right turn green
arrow at the same time getting off the Market Street Bridge? That pedestrian
has to be very fast.
   
Editor’s note: That problem has been corrected, according to the Traffic
Department. The city also plans to modify other controls at the intersection
in about a month.
   
Hello, we live in Kingston and have a major health concern. There is a
person who lives in our neighborhood who has three very large dogs, and even
though trash pickup isn’t until Tuesday morning, he puts out a large trash bag
full of dog feces on the curb, and it’s there until Tuesday morning. So,
aren’t there laws about this? Really, something should be done.
   
Editor’s note: Yes, there’s an ordinance. Trash should be placed on the
side of the street no sooner than the evening before the designated day of
collection. Although violators face up to a $300 fine, officials usually
notify the resident of the ordinance when they receive a complaint. If you
have a complaint, call the Municipal Building at 288-4576.
   
I’m calling from Wilkes-Barre, and I’m calling about the shoppers in
Wilkes-Barre. I have a young daughter who is in the store and we go shopping
in Wilkes-Barre, and being the “Valley With A Heart,” everyone slams the door
in her face. We’ll be walking into Boscov’s and the doors go the opposite way,
and nobody will hold the door open. I can’t understand it. This isn’t how I
was raised, and I can’t figure out where these people were raised either.
   
I’m calling about that guy from the county office that said in your paper
about a week ago there’s enough homes for mentally ill people and that there’s
no waiting list to get in. I had to wait for a group home opening to get out
of Clarks Summit State Hospital, and then when I left it too early because I
thought I could live on my own, I ended up in the hospital. After I got out I
had to wait again for an opening to get back in to the group home to learn
things I need to know. I know four or five of my friends also had to wait.
   
Why are we now paying for a Harrisburg lawyer to represent Mr. Perrone and
a GNA school board and another lawsuit? I’m getting sick and tired of my taxes
going for lawyers’ fees. I belong to the taxpayers association, and we can’t
afford two schools and these lawsuits.
   
Editor’s note: We received similar calls.
   
I would like to pose a question, how can Wilkes-Barre become a progressive
city when we waste our time idly at dysfunctional traffic signals?
   
Thom Greco and Bill O’Boyle is doing what should have been done after the
72 Flood. Get everybody involved, including the people, not the politicians.
   
This is in regards to the article in the Sunday Times Leader, “Ghosts in
the Glen” a look back at the old Rocky Glen. Well, I think the way
Wilkes-Barre looks right now, it looks like a ghost town. I was recently in
the city to go to Marquis Art And Frame, and the city is horrendous. The only
people that are on the streets are obviously druggies and people that are
lawyers. There’s no businesses, buildings are torn down, vacant buildings
stand for rent. It looks horrendous. Who would want to even bring their
business into the city, into the Main Street of the city? I think that Mayor
McGroarty should go into Scranton, sit down and take a six-month or a
three-month course with Mayor Connors to find out how to rebuild the city,
because he doesn’t know nothing, and he’s dragging the city down and it looks
disgusting.
   
Editor’s note: We deleted some of the mean adjectives but left the message
intact.
   
This is Sunday, July 19, and I’m calling about the response the editor gave
to a person that asked in today’s SAYSO column, as to why you don’t fly the
American flag. I must say, I’m amazed at the lame excuse you gave. Someone in
charge at the paper should be ashamed of that response.
   
Editor’s note: We’ve received several similar calls. We are looking into
getting a second flag for our main building.
   
I’m calling about the person who is picking on the person who didn’t like
the “Rugrats.” You know, I don’t like that comic either. I think that comic
should go. The comic pages should be geared for the adults of the valley, and
getting the adults to read the newspaper.
   
I’m reading about the article in the paper about the methadone clinic. The
man states he was a heroin addict and paying for it for 12 years, and he’s
condemning Peter Paul Olszewski for not wanting a clinic in Wilkes-Barre. I
agree with the district attorney, us taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for his
habit. If he wants to go to Allentown, let him live there and pay for it
himself.
   
Hi, SAYSO. Well, for all your readers who read it, I’m talking about the
Sans Souci crash. You don’t even know what you’re talking about. You’re just
saying, well, this and this and that, and you know, you don’t even know the
whole story. All those people in there were my friends.
   
Yes, here it is, Sunday, July 19th, Times Leader has in the headlines
“Athletes not tomboys.” What do you people do make the paper up on Friday or
Saturday and then go to bed? Over 600 people were killed in a tidal wave and
you put it back on page 4 or 5.
   
Editor’s note: We are first and foremost a local paper. We’re sorry you
disagree with our news judgment but rest assured that we put out a fresh paper
each day, not in advance.
   
I’m calling about the 12-year addict who can’t afford to go to Allentown
for treatment. He can’t afford to go there, but he can afford to buy his pills
and his drugs. We can’t take responsibility for him; let him do it himself.
   
I see where ex-Wyoming valley football coach Jim Cantafio, who also
masqueraded as a teacher, had high praise for Superintendent Andrew Marko and
the old school board run by Ray Lowery. If the rest of the teachers could get
half of the support as Mr. Cantafio did, all of Wyoming Valley West students
would be attending MIT or Harvard.
   
In regard to the accident on the Sans Souci Highway, people are saying,
well, people make accidents and they do stupid things. Where were the kids’
parents that allowed them to go in the car with this girl? Don’t anyone’s
parents get involved anymore to find out who their kids hang out with? When I
was growing up, my parents did it all the time.
&n