Hit big, bad firms where it really hurts

9/6/2005

Almost every day you read an article in the paper about job cuts, wage concessions, cutting benefits etc. And more often than not, you read about mega-buck bonuses for high management.

If unions strike, members are just replaced with nonunion workers.

Strikes are supposed to cripple production in order to force the companies to negotiate in good faith.

It seems to me companies prefer a strike because then they can bring in people at a lower wage. In other countries, when one union goes on strike, they all do.

Unless we want to be a country of low earning, uninsured, with no benefits after retirement, it s time we stick together as a people.

Our unions need to send a message to big business:

If airlines strike, all should.

If food workers strike, all should.

If a company either brings in replacement workers or moves production overseas, boycott.

Senior citizens can barely afford to live now, and every day I read more and more companies want to cut benefts.

Blue-collar America and unions are being held hostage by big business.

It s time we fight back in the only way we can: Hit the companies where it hurts their pocketbooks.

SHARIE PLEWA

Temperance

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

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

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell and social and religious conservatives have nothing in common with Martin Luther King, Jr., and it was hypocritical of Mr. Blackwell to quote him at a recent meeting of the Ohio Restoration Project.

Dr. King was a pacifist, against the Vietnam war, a champion of the poor and disenfranchised; he had a college of peace studies named after him.

Through peaceful resistance and nonviolence, he gave people dignity and worth and contributed more toward human rights than any war ever has.

The war against Iraq, and the current state of the conservative movement in America are antitheses to Dr. King s values and teachings, and I was insulted that Mr. Blackwell and the religious right could have the audacity to compare themselves to him.

Sally J. Keller

Sabra Road

As a former school board member for 14 years, I wish to go on record as opposing the charter schools.

Your article on Aug. 18 states that this school system is performing dismally.

These schools have hurt the public schools, as each student that leaves to enter a charter school takes away thousands of dollars from the state of Ohio.

Charter schools are responsible for the growing deficit in the Toledo Public Schools as well as other school districts.

This in turn forces the public schools to request large levies from the taxpayers.

Since I and many thousands of others are on a fixed income, I shall not vote for any tax increases until the state legislature remedies the situation.

Sharon L. Zahn-Davis

Valleybrook Drive

Why does the Blade simply parrot the propaganda spewed forth by the oil companies mouthpieces and minions regarding oil prices? Most of what they claim can be disproved.

They claim the gas prices are high because of the high price for a barrel of oil. Since when do the oil companies purchase all their crude oil on the spot market? Does that mean that after spending millions of dollars of their own money on exploration, drilling, and recovery the oil companies have no ownership of the oil from the wells?

If the supply of oil and gasoline is as tight as they claim, why is it we can buy as much as we want? During the oil shortages of the 1970s, gasoline sales were rationed. Why then and not now?

The rest of big oil s claims can be disproved just as easily by comparing what they say to the actual truth.

One last thought. Why does so little of the oil from Alaska actually stay in the United States?

STEPHEN R. KELLOGG

Champion Street

I spent many hours in Columbus last week listening to various educational organizations discuss the systematic dismantling of our public school system for private gain.

I went as a volunteer unpaid observer to decide if the situation is as bad as these groups are publicly saying. I can assure the taxpayers of Ohio it is.

Your publication of Gov. Bob Taft s roast speech, in which the governor of Ohio brags about appointing Tom Noe, not a college graduate, to the Ohio Board of Regents and jokes about using him in a new advertisement to promote college enrollment and completion in Ohio, goes a long way in showing the true priority of education in this state.

The people you associate with, your friends (Mr. Taft states Mr. Noe has been a good friend for a long time), and your business acquaintances (i.e., political appointees) reflect true commitment to stated goals.

I am personally embarrassed to have such a shallow person leading our state.

Cindy Niggemyer

Ottawa Hills

Horror of horrors: The price of gasoline and diesel fuel has almost reached the price of bottled water. No wonder we are upset.

John Gottschalk

Elmhurst Road