Morals are being held hostage

4/5/2005

I feel less human today than I did two weeks ago.

I know that a young lady was purposely starved to death, and I was helpless to "rescue" her. I didn't even know how to try. This questions my very humanity to my core.

We would never have considered putting Terri Schiavo to death execution-style on television while all of America watched. And yet, I never believed that "we" would starve someone to death while America watched either. We wouldn't even do that to our pets! The very heart of our country has hardened.

I better understand the Germans-with-conscience during World War II, knowing the death sentence placed on the Jews, yet feeling helpless to stop it.

My morals are held hostage. If I cannot trust my own judicial system, what "allied force" can I hope will fly across the ocean and bring freedom to my conscience?

Will we have to wait until Stephen Spielberg produces the movie "Schindlers' Daughter" before we recognize the atrocity here?

Shannon Stepp

Rossford

If you claim to be at all objective, you should demand that the U.S. Supreme Court rule the display of the Ten Commandments unconstitutional.

Not only that, but have you asked yourself why should the government promote faith - any faith? That should be the responsibility of believers with the realization that some of the public will follow and some not follow - which is as it should be.

If the "faithful" want the Ten Commandments so badly in public, how about a Buddha, kinda cute; or a Hindu display, or the American Indian, and the list goes on and on If in reading the above you picture a Halloween-type display - well, maybe that description about fits and points to the asinine nature of the argument.

In viewing the believers in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, I couldn't help but be reminded of the raised fists of the Black Panthers of the 1960s. Is that the image believers wish to leave us with?

DAVID REINDERS

Perrysburg

Do you notice as soon as the weather gets a little warmer and we start driving with our windows down that smokers are driving around with their windows down, too?

Only they are blowing their smoke out the window and then carelessly tossing the lit trajectory onto the street (or wherever it happens to land). If smoking is so wonderful why don't they keep their windows up and use the car's ashtray as a receptacle?

If smokers cannot understand why we nonsmokers abhor cigarette smoke and dislike being in a room full of second-hand smoke, let's hear why they don't roll up the windows of their cars and breathe in their own smoke?

Anyone?

Theresa Rudnicki

Cloister Court

As a former member of the board of directors of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, I take exception to your editorial chastising the board for giving its president, James Hartung, an increase in salary, taking his salary to $155,000 per year. You completely missed the point: It could have been a whole lot worse.

The board really acted in a very wise and prudent manner.

Just think.

If cargo shipments had not been down for the last four years, if air traffic at the airport had not declined 21 percent, if airlines were not leaving almost on a monthly basis, if economic development was not almost zero, if long-time businesses were not leaving the area, the board may have raised his salary to $250,000 a year!

So you see? The board, in fact, saved the taxpayers about $100,000 per year. Now that is a great example in this age of Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, etc., of a board acting in the best interest of the people who are paying President Hartung's salary - the taxpayers of Lucas County.

Jerry Chabler

Sylvania

As Queen Mother of a Red Hat Society Chapter, I must reply to Mary Alice Powell's column. Women 50-plus years of age become members for the simple pleasure of friendship, fun, and laughter.

We have already been supportive wives and caring mothers, held full-time jobs, and volunteered for school functions and charities. We took college courses to improve our employment, cared for parents, grandchildren, and friends, and we are active in our church and politics.

We may stay in our hometowns to continue our giving and caring during the cold winter months, so putting on a red hat and purple outfit is our way of saying "we're having a good time"!

We've earned it and once a month or so we meet to declare our joy and laughter in living and sharing the fun times.

I hope Ms. Powell takes time to understand the real goal of the Red Hat Society, embrace it, and enjoy life.

SHIRLEY THURBER

Greengate Drive

While The Blade was canonizing George Kennan in its March 29 editorial, it simply couldn't resist yet another jab at the real "villains," George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfield, and Condi Rice.

While you wish to give sainthood to Mr. Kennan and his policy, there are others who have a different view of his policies. Perhaps The Blade in its wisdom might someday present other sides to the issue.

Nowhere in your editorial did I see President Reagan's name mentioned, or the part he had in dismantling the Soviet Union. But that is no surprise.

We all know The Blade's views of good and evil, right and wrong:

Liberal Democrats - Good. Conservative Republicans - Evil.

Carol Taylor

Bedford Township

The Blade's March 27 article by Clyde Hughes on Native Americans was problematic. The reference to "Indian Holiday" in the headline was an ethnic nightmare. Not only is the term insensitive, its not factual. The term was first used by Christopher Columbus, who thought his Caribbean landing was in the Indian Ocean.

The idea that "Native American" and "Indian," are synonymous terms is not based in historical fact.

The Blade should know better.

Ravi K. Perry

Potomac Drive

As one who knows firsthand about having and rehabilitating historical landmark buildings, we think Tony Packo's is being most prudent in having the proper approvals before moving forward on its near-ballpark location.

We rehabilitated the three-story building that houses "Frickers at the ballpark." The building renovation was a labor of love and it came out great. Even though Toledo city officials have been most helpful, it is frustrating to see how slow the rest of the process works.

Packo's needs to be near the ballpark but, more importantly, Toledo needs Packo's to be there, sooner better than later!

JIM SMYTHE

Right Field, LLC

Corey Road

I'm confused. Those with religious leanings talk loudly and passionately about the sanctity of life regarding Terri Schiavo and abortion. Yet they turn a deaf ear to the lives of those on Death Row and the 100,000 Iraqi citizens (according to the British Medical Journal, The Lancet) who have been killed in a war of dubious purpose. Am I to believe that lives are selectively sacred?

Karen Wolf

Bowling Green