Decisive action can save the day

10/10/2003

Congratulations to Noel Tammerine and the other brave citizens on that America West flight. It sounds like Mr. Tammerine saw a bad situation that was perilously close to getting out of hand. There was a very real threat that if something wasn't done immediately an infant, a flight attendant, and possibly the entire aircraft would be in danger.

Pre-emption at its very best! Obviously Mr. Tammerine didn't hold lengthy meetings with the other passengers to discuss what should be done about this disturbed man and the dangers he represented for all of the passengers and crew. He didn't send him threatening letters and pass sanctions against him that would obviously have been ignored by this madman. He acted.

Because of the bravery, decisiveness, and actions of Noel Tammerine, a threat to the well-being of all on Flight 234 was eliminated in short order and the aircraft landed safely.

Thank God Mr. Tammerine didn't have the bad luck to be on a United Nations charter flight when this happened. They would still be circling aimlessly trying to obtain a majority regarding how to best deal with the threat from this madman. Very possibly the infant would have been killed or injured, along with the flight attendant and many of the passengers.

This world needs more people like Noel Tammerine.

SCOTT SANFORD

Sylvania

Quality of life for men and women who were injured while serving our country hit rock bottom with news that they must pay for all meals while recovering in hospitals stateside. It is unconscionable and a slap in the face to those individuals who have made a physical sacrifice, such as a limb or general well-being, while fighting for our freedom in two foreign lands to be billed for a basic service!

How can President Bush sit down to a Texas-style breakfast on a typical day in the White House knowing that all his basic needs are subsidized by a standard presidential administration allowance and that nothing comes out of his pocket while, just a few miles away in Walter Reed Army Hospital, a soldier recovering from combat injuries sustained in Iraq enjoys the same kind of meal - at his own expense.

If this is the weasel-cheap way the Bush Administration intends to treat our returning wounded soldiers, maybe it should incorporate these ideas at the next White House state dinner. Visiting heads of state can pay plastic for those a la carte meals or sip champagne from a cash bar. Taxpayers would be pleased, knowing everyone is paying their fair share. And don't forget to tip the waiters!

I call on the Senate to do as the House of Representatives has done and abolish this unjust tax on our brave soldiers. They deserve a better recovery in military hospitals for the suffering they have endured.

STEPHAN C. RISHER

Sylvania

Shouldn't our news media be held to the same high moral standard expected of corporate America?

If it's wrong to “cook the books” for profit and competitive advantage, why is it OK for our mass media to “cook the news” for cultural and political advantage?

EDWIN F. DURIVAGE

River Road

Movie review missed art of Allen's genius

Christopher Borrelli's contemptuous review of Woody Allen's new movie, Anything Else, misses the layered art and sociology of Allen's genius.

To quote some underinformed woman's negative opinion of her first (this is the big hint, folks) fling with Woody Allen's genius only serves to inform us of her ignorance. True, Allen's fans are probably intellectual groupies who read and discuss philosophy and sociology as real entities, but is the only measure of a director/producer necessarily tied to the mainstream habits of social mediocrity?

So what if Allen repeats himself? Did anyone ever tire of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy's repetition of a joke? Even Adolf Hitler allowed their movies to be shown during the occupation of France in World War II. I dare say they repeated formats, including music, but who would argue with their success?

Why does Mr. Borrelli care if “contemporary music” was used? Do you think a Philip Glass soundtrack would do better?

Smart women fall in love with characters like Woody Allen. Bright kitties prefer bright kitties. What kind of a woman likes macho with no brains or eccentricities?

I would rate the movie four or five stars.

NAN LENHART

Bowling Green

Bravo for Molly Ivins' Sept. 25 column, “What could we possibly have against Bush?” I couldn't have said it any better than Ms. Ivins did.

Some will argue that if we speak out against the President we are un-American. They think that speaking against the war in Iraq is a disservice to the men and women who put their lives at risk.

My heart aches for the pain and suffering befalling all of the innocent people who have lost loved ones in this conflict. This includes those in Iraq and other countries as well as our own best young people. We will never know what these fallen victims may have contributed to society if their lives were spared.

The cost in billions of dollars is minimal compared to the loss of lives, which is incalculable.

Although I believe the intentions of the President are sincere, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Now that the damage has been done we must accept our responsibility to restore the country. The longer this is delayed the more innocent people will continue to lose their lives and the more America will suffer in the eyes of the world.

ARTHUR SCHUSTER

Heatherwood Drive

I read that Toledo is not regarded as a city of creativity because of our lower numbers of domestic partner relationships - i.e. gays. This is a preposterous measure of creativity and I don't see what it has to do with a city's future for tech investment.

The gay community is generally creative in the arts, but it was a straight Christian who invented the Post-It notes. And I never heard that Thomas Edison or Henry Ford was gay.

Moreover, gays don't procreate. So where is the future of a city and its business life if there are no children? I recognize that many homosexuals do run upscale bookstores and coffee shops, but again, I ask for whom in the long run? This “gaying of America” will produce mostly disease and death and no children for the future.

We better start telling the truth about sodomy. It's literally an unnatural, unsanitary, promiscuous way to have sex, and we'd better wake up to that fact. Nobody is born gay. It starts in the mind and can be rejected at the first thought, the way most folks reject any notion of incest or bestiality. We just “don't go there.”

A second shock was the article about school aid being denied to theology students. The ministry used to be a respected career choice, the Bible a respected college major, and the government did not discriminate against such students.

New York City pays $19,000 a head in a high school for students who think they are gay and proud of it. But Michigan's government can no longer find a reason to help ministerial students go to college.

Something's very wrong with this picture. Homosexuals deserve compassion, not affirmation for a doomed lifestyle.

BARBARA MASON ROHRS

Maumee

Caveman thinking

I was livid when I read the Sept. 29 letter saying women should never be allowed to sit behind the wheel and drive. Where has that guy been, under a rock? Women are allowed to vote now. I suppose he doesn't think they should vote either. I have been driving for quite a few years and have never had a ticket or an accident. I wonder if the gentleman can say as much for himself.

N. CHESSER

Sylvania