Security lax at Detroit-Windsor border
10/20/2001I read The Blade editorial alleging lax Canadian security and immigration policies, the exception taken to it by Detroit's Canadian consul general, which appeared in the Readers' Forum, and viewed his appearance on The Editors.
It was disappointing you did not address the jeopardy that exists with the tunnel and bridge at Detroit/Windsor.
For the safety of all Americans and Canadians, scrutiny has to be implemented before the tunnel is entered, and before the bridge is crossed.
The United States permits free entry to the tunnel at Detroit. It is only on the Canadian side that any questioning occurs, too late to stop terrorist activity in the tunnel.
Canada permits free entry to cross the Ambassador Bridge at Windsor. It is only on the U.S. side that questioning occurs. Again, too late to stop terrorists on the bridge.
Tunnel buses which traverse between Detroit/Windsor primarily for the purpose of transporting workers between the two cities are not scrutinized. A terrorist could readily blend in with passengers for the short trip between borders.
While the transit system operates buses for groups such as nurses, the oversight is the tunnel buses which run every hour for the general public and can be boarded as readily as TARTA.
Lax security and immigration policies apply equally to the United States or there would not have been a Sept. 11.
KATHLEEN E. SWEENEY
Fair Oaks Drive
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I remember that snowy March morning in 1968, standing on the back porch and looking out at the frozen fields of ours and the surrounding farms. For a brief moment I could see the fields of summer, flush with the green foliage of corn and soybeans and the waving sea of golden wheat ready for harvest. This was my home and I would carry this picture with me for the next two years.
That same morning many young men were doing the same, preparing to leave home for the first time. I was 19.
All of my comrades and I knew we would get to see home one more time before shipping out, and then our fate was unknown. Even though my family surrounded me, I felt so lonely.
The men and women being deployed today are experiencing those same feelings. We must remain united and support the men and women in uniform, as well as their families until once again freedom rules supreme. My thoughts and prayers are with all of them.
JEFFERY A. SCHAEDLER
Sylvania
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Regarding your Oct. 13 editorial, “Close to the vest,” I got a kick out of the fact you accused someone else of arrogance. Boy is that the pot calling the kettle black! Nobody is more pompous than self-serving media types that under the guise of representing the public's best interest thump their chests in indignation when they are chastised for sticking their noses where they don't belong.
If President Bush thinks that big mouth egotists in the Congress (direct kin to the media) are talking too much, I trust his judgment more than I trust your ilk to provide me with anything I really need to know. The only “imperialists” in this situation are the puddin' head editorialists who are so full of themselves that they think they provide readers with anything but humorous asides. Stop taking yourself so seriously because you sure aren't.
MATT SIGLER
Perrysburg
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What is often taken for granted by U.S. citizens is now being challenged once again. The VOA (Voice of America) broadcasts short-wave programs around the world. I remember listening to broadcasts from many countries around the world as a hobby when I was a child. While many broadcasts from countries such as China and the USSR were clearly censored, the VOA never was.
People all over the globe (including Afghanistan) turn to the VOA for news and information as well as segments of western music such as Madonna and others.
They do this because by law, the VOA reports must be “ accurate, objective, and comprehensive” and “must represent America, not any single segment of American society.”
This is not to say that editorials are not broadcast, but they are clearly labeled as such and the employees of VOA take great pride in this mandate.
Recently it was reported in a Baltimore Sun article by David Folkenflik that in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. State Department sought to force VOA editors to withhold a news story that included remarks by Mullah Mohammed Omar, a senior Taliban leader. The report, which was delayed but ultimately ran, also featured comments by President Bush, a Georgetown University professor, and a spokesman for the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.
The former VOA director, who is now the president of Goucher College, said, “ I'm just heartsick over that. If someone succeeds in converting VOA into a propaganda organization, that's just a tragedy.”
It takes years to build editorial integrity, but only minutes to destroy. If the Voice of America is anything but free and objective, what are we?
JOE ALGE
Rexton Ridge Circle
People just don't get it. To rely on sprawl, excuse me, growth, to keep bolstering the economy is to shoot yourself in the foot. To tout jobs as an advantage is faulty thinking. Retail jobs generally pay between $6 to $8 an hour, hardly enough for a single person, let alone someone with children, to live on. Add to that the cost of transportation for those who need to take those jobs because there is nothing available in central Toledo.
To count on part of the tax windfall to keep supporting Toledo is also faulty thinking. How many malls in the Toledo area are staying afloat? What happens to that tax revenue when the novelty wears off and Toledoans find they can't support another mall? Take a look around Toledo and count up all the empty stores that are in perfectly good locations. That's what the Fallen Timbers area will look like in five years.
Toledo is obsessed with having whatever some other big city has, as if we're not good enough as we are. Toledo has an incomparable Metroparks system, art museum, and an improving downtown. It should be capitalizing on what Toledo uniquely has to offer instead of trying to be like every other city.
MONICA BIRSEN
Bowling Green
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How well I remember that I, the daughter of German-born American citizen parents, had to put up with a few ignorant people's insults when we went to war against the Nazi regime back in the 1940s.
That I was made to stand before the entire school body by the principal and profess my loyalty to the United States remains one of the most humiliating moments of my life. That my parents did nothing to comfort me and support me during those trying times remains a sore spot in my heart.
My advice to parents during these very trying times: Give your maligned children all the love and support you can, for they, too, are feeling the hurt of a few idiots' ignorance.
DORIS E. MEEK
Craigwood Road
Autoworkers must now pay the piper
As for the article on bankruptcy featured in the Business Section, I was truly appalled. Are we actually expected to feel sorrow toward the autoworkers whose overtime ended?
Most of the people mentioned were long-time employees of the Big Three auto companies. With their bloated hourly salaries, there should be no need to ever feel the pinch of a strained economy. Why, if making more than $90,000 for two years, would anyone need to have $88,000 in credit card debts? What ever happened to living within one's means?
The only thing I could possibly say to any of them is, you wanted it all and apparently got it. Now it's time to pay the piper. Bankruptcy, indeed!
REBECCA A. SHADLE
Ketner Avenue