Lucas County Fair was a great success

8/12/2004

The Lucas County Fair Board deserves recognition for its efforts to make the 2004 Fair more attractive to participants and fair-goers.

I have attended the Lucas County Fair for the last 34 years as a 4-H parent, 4-H leader, and now a 4-H grandparent. The fairgrounds looked and were managed better this year than in many, many years. The roads were paved, the older buildings were cleaned and repainted. Years of accumulated trash had been hauled away.

Unlike neighboring counties, Lucas County is an urban county, which makes it difficult to present a truly agricultural fair. Our agricultural and 4-H exhibits are small but were neat and well represented.

There was also a very nice baby animal exhibit, attractive displays of antiques, collections, baked goods, flowers, and vegetables. I spoke to a gentleman from the Old West End who had won a blue ribbon for his backyard honey. You don't have to live on a farm to take part in the fair!

One old building, freshly painted, displayed a collection of horse-drawn carriages. A free magic show and wonderful roaming clowns entertained crowds of children. Several excellent pony shows took place in front of the pony barn and 4-H boys and girls showed prize hogs, cattle, and sheep in the open show arena. The 4-H cafe volunteers served excellent and affordable food and raised money for the club.

Many volunteer hours are required to make it possible for the Lucas County 4-H children to show their animals and projects. The fair provides an experience they will always remember. The fair board, its employees, and volunteers deserve a special salute for making the fairgrounds as clean and attractive as possible.

Suzanne M. Speck

Maumee

Having read a July 30 letter in The Blade, I remain amazed that people still think that our current President Bush became a rightfully elected president in 2000 when, in fact, he did not.

The confusion in the voting results in Gov. Jeb Bush's Florida, combined with the efforts of Katherine Harris (then Secretary of State in Florida), worked to Mr. Bush's advantage. When the U.S. Supreme Court became involved, he knew that the majority on the Republican-biased court would support him.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, worried about Al Gore's winning, cast the deciding vote. From that day forward, this Supreme Court became tainted, for it had interfered in a presidential election.

Despite the Electoral College vote in Mr. Bush's favor, the popular vote was greatly in Mr. Gore's favor - namely, about 530,000 more votes for him than for Mr. Bush. Moreover, Ralph Nader (who, apparently, approves of Republicans helping him get on state ballots for the upcoming election) took significant numbers of votes in New Hampshire and Florida away from Mr. Gore, resulting in those states' electoral votes going to Mr. Bush and, thus, the Bush presidency.

Dishonesty within the Bush-Cheney team is likely to occur again during this November's election, for a staunch supporter of this team, the head of the Diebold company, pushes to have his voting machines installed everywhere without a paper trail, making recounts difficult or even impossible.

Voting for John Kerry and John Edwards in 2004 will restore truth and credibility to the White House.

Wallace L. Pretzer

Bowling Green

An Aug. 3 letter, "Democrats lying about war on terror," said that Democrats "rant that the President lied about the threat of Saddam Hussein and liberated Iraq for no good reason."

In the beginning of this war America was told by President Bush and his administration that we were invading Iraq because it possessed weapons of mass destruction and planned to use them against Americans - Saddam was a threat.

If Saddam had anthrax, poison gases, etc., he certainly would have used them in an effort to stop or slow his enemy's (America's) attack. Americans know that no WMDs were used on our soldiers as they invaded and none has been found in Iraq.

Our brave men and women are still in Iraq and still paying the ultimate price, but for what? Now that President Bush's original reason for going to war turned out to be bad intelligence, we liberated a country from a dictator who wasn't a threat after all. Who turned out to be lying? A lie is a falsehood, even if it is based on "false intelligence."

The letter was right about one thing: Fortunately, smart voters will not buy President Bush's rubbish.

Adam Back

Homeland Drive

A recent letter writer reacted to Mayor Ford saying he was taught to be "twice as good as the white males you compete against." In a subtle right-wing attempt at some form of angry sarcasm, he wondered "if minorities who got police/fireman careers over Caucasian applicants who scored higher on the civil service exam feel the same way, thanks to affirmative action."

I, like the writer, don't know how many Caucasians actually fall into that scenario. One would think individual exam results would be kept confidential, so I don't know how he could support his claim, but I doubt it compares to the vast number of minorities and women who have been passed over or never considered for a great number of jobs simply because they weren't a Caucasian man, regardless of how much better the minority may have scored on any exam or application. Thus, giving us one of the reasons affirmative action was created in the first place.

The need to be twice as good was taught to us because it had been proven that many people in charge of making hiring, promotional, and accepting decisions could not be trusted to treat everyone fairly and equally on their own. I understand what the writer is getting at, but that was a cheap shot, not an attempt to create real dialogue.

William White

Monroe Street

During John Kerry's visit to Bowling Green, it was reported that about 20 people passed out from the heat.

Did they really think they'd have anything but hot air when they decided to listen to him speak?

Trish Moore

Sylvania Township

With all of the political statements abounding today, there is an interesting and basic different philosophy that is represented by two men named Moore. Today we are hearing about Michael Moore's film bashing George Bush and the Republicans. The film is so slanted and unfair that it is goes beyond entertainment with its "sham" of the truth and the facts.

Yet Michael Moore is, yes, laughing all the way to the bank.

On the other side of this comparison is a man named Roy Moore, who formerly was Chief Justice Roy Moore from the state of Alabama. Justice Moore was removed from his judicial position in Georgia because he would not remove a stone replica of the Ten Commandments from his court.

Roy Moore is a man of high integrity, decency, and honesty. Yet he is without a job and is not laughing all the way to the bank because he stood for what he believed to be right.

I do know that we still have many in the United States of America who are willing to stand up for the truth and righteousness, but I would ask the question:

Which kind of "Moore" are you and which "Moore" do you aspire to become?

Steve Von Gunten

Ryewyck Drive

A July 27 editorial concluded with a reference to "President's Bush's callous Band-Aid approach to health care " That's the usual bashing we hear a lot. I remember that, when the Clintons occupied the White House, Hillary expressed her intention to fix health care. I do not remember that she accomplished anything. President Bush went as far as he could with all the opposition in Congress. Perhaps John Kerry could help with this problem with something other than rhetoric.

DON MOONEY

Erie, Mich.