Tort reform editorial ignored facts

7/13/2003

I can't say in strong enough terms how disappointed I am with your July 9 editorial, “No class in this action.”

When your reporter called my office to see if I would support a class action lawsuit reform bill that was designed to provide special protection for Enron the answer was, “Of course not.” Yet, your editorial disregarded this and seemed to suggest otherwise. Anybody who knows me knows such a suggestion is just a joke.

Additionally, your editorial failed to report that the Senate class action lawsuit reform bill I support does not contain the same language as the House bill that is the subject of your concern. Again, however, your editorial disregarded this and tries to suggest otherwise.

With such a selective policy toward the facts, how are people in the Toledo community supposed to learn the truth and be able to make informed decisions?

I'm glad, at least, to learn that The Blade supports tort and class action lawsuit reform. Manufacturing concerns and the communities they support have been devastated by the “litigation tornado” that has swept across our country. If anyone doubts this let them look at the impact asbestos lawsuits have had on Owens-Corning and the Toledo community.

It's my hope that real reform can be enacted while Ohio still has a manufacturing industry.

GEORGE VOINOVICH

United States Senator

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was admitted to Yale Law School through an affirmative action program. Now he wants to take it away from other disadvantaged minorities.

President George W. Bush was admitted to Yale not because he was qualified, but because his father was an alumnus, and he was considered a “legacy.” In addition, the young Mr. Bush was admitted to the Texas Air National Guard, not because he was the most qualified, but because his father, then a congressman, pulled strings to have his son moved to the front of a long waiting list.

No doubt some other less connected young man was sent to Vietnam in Mr. Bush's place.

Like Martin Luther King, Jr., I have a dream. I long for the day when people are judged not by who they know, or by the size of their family wealth, but by the content of their character!

DAVIS HENDERSON

Adrian, Mich.

Words of Mass Deception (WMD).

The Bush Doctrine:

Dick Cheney wrote it.

Donald Rumsfeld enforces it.

George Bush sells it to the American public.

JAMES LARAMORE

North Cove Boulevard