Throw book at looters in New Orleans

9/4/2005

I was so mad that I could have spit nails! When I watched the news and saw those people down there looting their city, it literally made me sick in the pit of my stomach and madder than I have felt in a long time.

Those poor victims of Hurricane Katrina need food, shelter, water, and medical care; in the meantime, some citizens are looting.

This is the most un-American and pathetic deed that I have seen in a very long time and it made me sad.

Those people should be so ashamed for doing such a deed. Instead of stealing and taking and making things worse, they should be thinking about how they can contribute to the city and its residents.

Those looters should all be identified and have the book thrown at them. Better yet make them all wear T-shirts that say, When my people and my city needed help, I was stealing diapers and cigarettes.

It makes my heart ache when I think that I live in a country that has in it people with such low morals.

God bless all who need our help and support down there.

STEVEN M. CUMISKEY

Genoa

Look to Canada for tighter border

The Blade continues to push for passports for U.S. citizens traveling to Canada, insisting they are necessary for our security.

Unfortunately, only law-abiding terrorists entering the United States from Canada at places like Windsor will be deterred.

Other terrorists can enter by walking or swimming across the roughly 4,000 miles of unguarded border.

Aside from The Blade, I suspect main support for passports would be from the Detroit casinos to limit competition from Windsor.

For the rest of us it is added expense and hassle without markedly increasing our security.

Protection against terrorists entering through Canada is best secured through action taken by Canada. Canada is as concerned about preventing terrorism as we, and it is acting accordingly.

Also, Canada can use passports to prevent terrorists from entering Canada since getting into Canada requires flying or an ocean voyage.

Aside from entering from the United States, one cannot enter Canada by walking or swimming across an unguarded border. It is practically all ocean or Arctic ice.

So getting into Canada requires going through an airport or a harbor, hence, customs, where passports are checked.

Rather than recommending passports as The Blade does, which is at best a halfway measure, it would be more productive to work with Canada with their effective passport system to provide the security we are all seeking.

ELMER P. LOTSHAW

Waterville

Ohio should protect Lake Erie watershed

When Ohio s proposed largest dairy farm in Hardin County states, in a Kenton newspaper, that getting a tax break is not necessary, and their web site states they seek no tax assistance, then no tax-exempt bonds should be applied for or issued.

Furthermore, Dutch-owned Vreba-Hoff has numerous manure-runoff violations at its facilities in Ohio and Michigan.

In what Vreba-Hoff claims is a voluntary settlement in response to a lawsuit filed by the State of Michigan, a wastewater treatment plant at the Hudson, Mich., facility is to be built by December. (The project has not started.)

Also troubling is that building and health departments would require wastewater treatment for a 50-house, 150-person subdivision, yet 4,500 cows equal to 135,000 people on just 160 acres have no such wastewater treatment requirement.

Agricultural zoning laws designed to protect the American farmer are being exploited by the Dutch and others.

These megafarms emit noxious odors, attract flies, and devalue nearby property.

The port board worries about a slippery slope of social consciousness, when, on the other hand, it should worry about burdening taxpayers with unnecessary tax breaks and a company with numerous violations and a bad track record.

Furthermore, the recent port board meeting permitted only the company and its representatives to speak.

Farmers and residents who traveled an hour or more and others against the dairy farm were denied any time.

The company freely commented throughout the hearing and the opposing views were silenced.

The port board should hear both sides at meetings.

And the board should say no to these unneeded tax-exempt bonds. Ohio should adopt laws that force cow manure to meet the standards of people manure to protect our Lake Erie watershed.

SANDY BIHN

Oregon

Pat and George W. God s chosen two

It is so affirming to see the love offering that I send to Pat Robertson being used to eradicate the evil rulers of the world.

I think I read in some version of the Bible somewhere that it s allowable to take out the bad guys.

And a godly man like Pat Robertson is the messenger from on high to proclaim this holy directive.

Pat and George W. Bush have been chosen by almighty God to decide who lives, who dies, who stays in power, and who is crushed.

With saintly leaders like these two, we are safe and morally correct.

They are helping us understand the right interpretation of Scripture, otherwise known as the Bible According to Bush.

At least half of America seems to be in agreement with this interpretation.

It is comforting to know that we don t need to tax our minds by questioning or understanding truth when lies are so much easier to accept.

SHELLEY FERNER

Swanton

Eisenhower made right choice

For a historical perspective on the Iraq debacle and the president who created it especially for the benefit of the diehard war supporters it may be instructive to recall how President Eisenhower dealt with the similarly intractable problem of the Korean War.

The very different responses of the two presidents to these crises tell us a good deal about their character and competence, or their lack thereof.

It is important to remember that in contrast to President Bush s willful, unilateral attack on Iraq, American troops fought in Korea as part of a United Nations effort to repel North Korean aggression.

But once President Eisenhower concluded that victory against the combined Chinese and North Korean armies was unlikely, he decided to end the fighting.

Moreover, having experienced the horrors of war first-hand, he was unwilling to risk the lives of American soldiers in a futile continuation of warfare.

Mr. Bush, on the other hand, having shirked military service in Vietnam, insists on pursuing unachieveable objectives rather than to admit his miscalculations and deceptions.

Fortunately, most of us Americans are no longer fooled by his falsely optimistic rhetoric and changing rationales for being in Iraq.

They find it increasingly intolerable to put up with the arrogant incompetence that has already caused the needless deaths of almost two thousand young Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis not to mention the waste of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars for a cause that has greatly diminished the prestige of America among other nations and made us less secure against terrorism.

Because I remember what it felt like, some 53 years ago, sitting on some godforsaken hill in Korea and facing the risk of dying in a war that was unpopular and futile, I think that the time has come to quote General Eisenhower to bring the boys home.

ERHARD KOCK

Manchester Drive

Cindy Sheehan joins list of the misguided

Cindy Sheehan, myopic and misguided, has joined the list of women who have chosen to give aid and comfort to the enemy in time of war. The list includes such infamous names as Axis Sally, Tokyo Rose, Joan Baez, and Jane Fonda.

Despite the determined efforts of Axis Sally and Tokyo Rose, this nation managed to defeat its enemies in World War II. Although Ms. Baez and Ms. Fonda were successful in helping to bring defeat to America in Vietnam, to their great regret the nation gained the ultimate victory over communism in the Cold War.

God help us if Cindy Sheehan and her ilk achieve any success at all in this war we are now fighting for the very survival of the civilized world.

ROBERT K. DeARMENT

Sylvania

Remember Robertson and his 9/11 comment

Pat Robertson s call to assassinate Hugo Chavez rightly elicited a flood of news reports and commentaries. Sunday s Blade, for example, carried one of each, plus several letters. Not once, however, have I seen or heard any mention, anywhere, regarding Mr. Robertson s disgusting comments just minutes after the planes plunged into the World Trade Center towers on 9/11.

That morning, as I, shaken, surfed the television stations in search of the very latest news on the tragedy, my remote landed me on Pat Robertson s program. His son was asking Mr. Robertson what he thought was going on. Senior explained that it was God s doing, meant to punish America for all the pornography, homosexuality, and abortion we tolerated. He then described the event as wonderful his exact word. This, he explained, because it would have the effect of bringing more people to the church.

Fortunately for him the overwhelming events of the next several days eliminated any chance that these terrible statements would be noticed and held against him. Ironically, he was castigated for nodding agreement with similar sentiments (minus the It s wonderful part) expressed by Jerry Falwell a week later on Mr. Robertson s show.

Even then, Mr. Falwell took most of the heat for that later event. It appears that Mr. Robertson s most reprehensible remarks are also his least reported and known.

FRANK WARD

Goddard Road

To Noe, Taft from Crosby, Stills & Nash

Note to Gov. Bob Taft and Tom Noe: Don t let the past remind us of what we are not now. (Crosby, Stills & Nash, 1969, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes. )

JAMES C. KOELSCH

Metamora