Published: March 09, 2008 09:47 pm            

Letters to the editor - Monday, March 10, 2008

Harriet Tubman was remarkable

March 10 is a day when we should stop for a moment and remember a very remarkable person who contributed so much to the freedom of her fellow Americans.

Araminta Ross (Harriet Tubman) was born on the east side of Chesapeake Bay, near where she was raised at Bucktown, Dorchester County, Md. She was, from the time of her conception, the property of a young land owner by the name of Edward Brodess.

The year of her birth can only be approximated since, as Fredrick Douglass told us, few slaves knew their true date of birth. As a child, Araminta continually failed at her household duties when she was hired out to first one physically abusive neighbor then to another, so she soon found herself in the fields doing back-breaking labor alongside the adult field hands of the plantation. She was 9 years old when she went into the fields. At the age of 13, she was injured by a merchant that threw a heavy metal object at her, striking her on the left side of her head, near her ear. For the rest of her life, Araminta suffered random fainting or sleeping spells as a result of this injury.

The abuses she received as a small child and the injury she received at the age of 13 certainly had an impact on her determination to free herself and others, if possible, from the hated system of slavery that she herself was born into and saw her loved ones and friends suffering under.

Harriet Tubman, the name she became known by after her failed marriage, not only walked away from slavery as a teenager in 1835, but she returned countless times, leading hundreds of others, including most of her family to freedom in Canada by way of Pennsylvania, New York and across the International Bridge at Niagara Falls.

During the war of the rebellion, she worked as a guide, nurse and adviser for the Union Army and Navy in the swampy land along the coast of South Carolina. After the war she applied for, but never received, pay for her work during the war, even though Congress acknowledged the work of other (white) companions of hers who worked along side her and many who succeeded as a result of her advice and leadership.

Harriet died at her home in New York on March 10, 1913, at the approximate age of 93. At the time of her death, she was supporting and caring for several people in her home. Some were family members and others were just people in need of help that came to her knowing they would never be turned away.

She raised pigs, planted a garden, kept chickens and sold eggs. Often she would walk for miles to solicit help from old friends and acquaintances that knew of her past accomplishments and the work she was doing at her advanced age. They would always contribute to her needs when she asked.

She certainly was a Moses and a remarkable person, not to be forgotten.

Jerry Balog

Peru

‘Bring good paying jobs back home’

In response to Mr. Montgomery’s letter saying that he is fed up with people putting down Japanese imports: Well Mr. Montgomery, I don’t work at Chrysler or Delphi, but I have seen what imports have done to this city of ours, much less our country.

It is deteriorating our manufacturing base on which this country was founded. The last time I took economics, I remember the saying that when you are importing more than you’re exporting, that is not good business.

I have looked high and low for products made in the USA to keep people working here in the USA. I have a TV made in the USA, trouble-free, Mr. Montgomery, for 17 years. Can you say that about your Japanese TV?

Maybe if you bought products made here in the USA and, believe me, you can find them if you look hard enough, maybe you would have more money in your pocket to spend on higher-quality products made in the USA.

I did feel like you were putting down Chrysler workers who, indeed, contribute a lot of money to this town. Without them, this town would be a ghost town. Also, the last time I checked with a Chrysler worker, they didn’t receive free health care, eye glasses, day care, any of those free benefits.

We as Americans need to demand that Washington fight this unfair trade practice that brings in these imports and recapitalize on domestic industry to rebuild our manufacturing base.

This won’t happen overnight, but we can bring good paying jobs back home.

David Foster

Sharpsville

        

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