Opinion

This is our story of why we decided to retire in Lancaster and why we will vote “yes” to re-elect Mayor Joe Shaw, the only real choice in this mayoral race.

We are Carole and Charlie Seng, both Lancaster residents. We took a long and unusual journey before we finally settled here permanently. We were raised in Fort Wayne, Ind., and lived there for many years.

On Aug. 19, I thought my life had changed forever and, in many ways, it did. By change, I mean I thought I was losing my dad to a sudden attack while he was shopping in Kmart. One minute, he was shopping for a bike, and the next minute, he blacked out and was lying on the floor, due to a dangerously low heart rate. There were no warning signs. In the blink of an eye, he could have been gone. There was a nurse in the store shopping. When she realized my dad wasn’t OK, she helped him and stayed with him until the paramedics arrived.

The Lancaster News headline, “Red Ventures not hiring locals?” summarizes the reason why so many job-starved Lancaster residents are not getting the prized call center jobs at Red Ventures. It’s because of our Southern accents.

That amounts to blatant discrimination. If a standardized American dialect was a prerequisite for employment, then why on Earth are so many of our customer service calls answered in India or some other foreign country?

A recent tragedy has resulted into a silver lining through organ donation.

Last spring, Jaylen Jackson, 3, was killed in the crossfire in an apparent gunfight.

Jaylen was shot while sitting in the backseat of  a car that fateful day.

The following morning, doctors informed her parents she wasn’t going to survive. Their suggestion was organ donation.

Jaylen lives on through the  giving of at least two organs.

I went back and reread The Lancaster News editorial, “Time to allow sale of alcohol on Sunday,” in the Aug. 1 edition. I think this is one of those times that The Lancaster News should have abstained. Since the paper did not take that position and is soliciting Lancaster residents to support the issue by signing a petition, I am stopping the delivery of the paper to my home.

I have informed my Sunday school class of this matter and will continue to pass the word to everyone I come in contact with in the Lancaster area.

John A. McManus

There’s a saying that I, and anyone older than 50, have heard. It goes something like, “Let the works I have done, what I’ve given and what I plan to do, speak for me. What I do should come from the heart and truly from the heart. Those deeds of goodness and kindness will be known by a higher power and should not be done for praise from man.”

Most everyone has a lot on their plate and it is easy to get frustrated. But one day our works – both good and bad – will be noted.

In his letter to the editor, Charles Bundy compared and contrasted the openness of the S.C. Republican Party toward African-Americans to the openness of the S.C. Democratic Party to this same group.

I must respond to that letter because from my experience there is nothing to contrast and compare.

Take a ride down Meeting Street. Drive slowly as you approach Market Street. Look right at the back and side yard of the house on that corner. I don’t know who lives there, but I have taken notice of the yard in my times passing. It brightens my day.

I am assuming a gentleman lives there as he is the only one I have seen outside. He has taken an unnoticed spot and turned it into an interesting lovely garden that shows creativity and imagination.

I just read with great interest how a few people think that someone who has been in Congress for 27 years should go back.

If  John Spratt hasn’t accomplished his goals by now, it is time to retire.

I worked for 18 years for a U.S. congressman in Pennsylvania and we scheduled monthly town meetings in all parts of our district.