Simulations will not be tolerated
4/9/2003The city of Maumee has successfully gotten a federal judge to shut down parts of the XO club because the dancers reportedly simulated sex acts. Apparently, in this “free” country, one can be hunted down, prosecuted, and fined for simulating certain acts.
As a responsible, civic-minded person, I feel it is my duty to turn myself in. Last week while in the city of Maumee I was playing a video game in which I simulated driving 120 miles per hour down a crowded street. I must be punished.
But I am not alone. My 6-year-old neighbor is also a blight on society and should be punished as he had the barbaric instinct to simulate a game of cowboys and Indians. In that simulated fight, he simulated shooting me, and I simulated my death due to a simulated bullet wound. I can also simulate an eyewitness so we can adjudicate this matter in as free and fair a manner as possible.
For the sake of our freedom and the future of our children, we must put an end to such acts of simulation. I admonish the obviously overworked law enforcement officers and morally clear thinking prosecutors and city administrators of Maumee to stay ever vigilant in their righteous fight.
Keep this country free and keep our children safe. Crack down on all acts of simulation immediately. Especially those that take place behind closed doors, in dark rooms.
DAVID FRIEDMAN
Country Creek Lane
Numerous letters addressed the right of free speech as exercised by Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks. The letter writers seemed appalled that radio stations across the country were destroying the recorded media of this popular group, and likened it to censorship. As I see it, the stations destroying the media were simply exercising their right to free speech, as well. How unfortunate that this simple freedom is not fully understood or appreciated in this country.
H. L. Mencken, U.S. journalist and critic, paraphrased a biblical proverb when he said, “Before a man speaks it is always safe to assume that he is a fool. After he speaks, it is seldom necessary to assume it.” Isn't it a shame that fools don't exercise their right to remain silent?
JOHN J. SCHMIDT, JR.
Watson Avenue
I find it hilarious that those who are most offended by the public outcry against the thoughtless remark by the Dixie Chicks' lead singer and defend her First Amendment rights to free speech, seem to be the first to downplay the First Amendment rights of their critics.
The First Amendment may guarantee you the right to say something stupid, but it certainly doesn't defend you against the natural consequences of others pointing out your stupidity by expressing their opinions of it.
I've not yet read one critic's comments which indicate that anyone thinks that she didn't have the right to express her opinion. Her critics are also expressing their opinions, especially those radio stations that were wise to put distance between themselves and the group.
Backing a tractor over a pile of CDs is just another way of expressing rights guaranteed in our First Amendment. Let's celebrate that one, shall we?
SCOTT KNAPP
Burnham Avenue
The attempt by supporters of George W. Bush to blackball and direct hatred toward anyone who refuses to support Mr. Bush's genocidal war against the people of Iraq brings back memories of Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
The latest case in point is anger over remarks made by a member of the singing group the Dixie Chicks. Have the Bush supporters forgotten the highly questionable way in which Mr. Bush assumed the presidency?
He was not elected by the American people, and certainly was not the choice of the majority of Florida voters in November of 2000. Keep in mind, many of these Bush supporters are the same people who spent eight years calling President Bill Clinton every obscene name in the book.
Other than a few world leaders hoping for large U.S. money handouts, the world is against the United States in this effort. In just two years Mr. Bush has made America the world's bully. The man's arrogance knows no bounds. Being a Texan myself, I, too, am ashamed that this man comes from my home state. This caused me to run out and buy three Dixie Chicks' CDs.
DANIEL T. MICHAEL
Adrian, Mich.
Is it wise to ground Toledo's helicopter equipment and personnel while on terrorist high alert? Why not maximize their potential to perform additional community duties?
Considering the rising cost of gasoline and vehicles, isn't the mounted patrol more economical, if only for a less costly way of transportation for these officers? Some horses were donated and upkeep is minimal.
Has the city forgotten about the great job the mounted patrol did with the unruly Insane Clown Posse crowds? At that time, city leaders thought the mounted patrol were heroes. At a Mud Hens game, you can see uniformed mounted patrolmen on very large horses overlooking the crowds of adults and children.
They are a visible and approachable symbol of authority and control, and an example of the city's best protecting large crowds of adults and children.
News media show the mounted patrols of major cities, such as New York City, protecting and controlling citizens. Horses can go where vehicles, bicycles, and foot patrolmen can't. Toledo's mounted patrol is a working, not ceremonial, unit. Toledo citizens and visitors deserve the best in safety programs as other more progressive cities. Not adding additional needed officers is bad enough, but why take away a proven effective police program?
Save money by reducing lighting, heat, and air conditioning at Government Center, pay city invoices net/10 days to get discounts, eliminate Mayor Jack Ford's bodyguards, and purchase economy vehicles and save gasoline. City officials should drive their personal autos. Do not invest $150,000 in such trashed buildings as the COAD Building in East Toledo.
Common-sense dollars can be saved everywhere in Toledo, but the helicopter and mounted patrol should not be those areas.
WENDY HESKETT
Oregon
Education or indoctrination?
Today's colleges and universities are not, to use the current buzzword, “diverse” places. Quite the opposite. They are virtual one-party states, ideological monopolies, badly unbalanced ecosystems. They do not, when it comes to political and cultural ideas, look like America.
Since the 1960s, universities have become havens for displaced radicals and political agitation. Colleges like to characterize themselves as wide open places, where all ideals and principles may be pursued freely.
In reality, you will find a much wider and freer cross-section of human reasoning and conviction in the aisles of any grocery store or city bus.
They teach a smorgasbord of attacks on western civilization that are a part of the so-called multicultural agenda. The idea that the curriculum should be converted to any partisan purposes is a perversion of the ideal of a university.
Let's teach more than just left-wing liberalism. It should be education, not brain washing. Enough already!
WILLIAM E. SEBRING
Clover Lane
Jump right on the savings
To the Northwest Ohio Pharmacy Card Network and Wade Kapszukiewicz on their efforts to save us a few bucks on prescription drugs, I say now I only have to spend $800 instead of $850 per month. My Social Security check is $650 per month.
Anybody got a calculator?
PATSY RIOS
Woodstock Avenue