No wonder Ormond is smiling

4/13/2006

I read, with sickening interest, the April 8 article regarding Manor Care CEO Paul Ormond's compensation of $17 million for 2005. What a wonderful message this sends to the folks that are paying for friends and/or family members in his nursing home facilities. No wonder the health-care costs in this country are so high. No wonder Mr. Ormond is smiling in the photo.

What compensation did the managers, health-care professionals, house-cleaning staff, food service workers, and other health-care technicians receive at Manor Care?

No one is worth that amount of money per year. He is merely part of the team providing special care for these people who cannot live without it.

These same arguments can be applied to the professional baseball, football, and/or basketball players who receive such ridiculously high compensation. They, too, are just part of a team effort.

Professional golfers and tennis players, on the other hand, must truly perform well as individuals to earn such compensation. Again, in professional sports as in the health-care industry, the little guy pays through the nose to participate.

Somehow the practice of paying these players and/or CEOs such extravagant compensation must end. How much money does someone need to live comfortably these days? If the little guy can't do anything about this, maybe it is time the government does, by placing a cap on compensation paid to these folks.

Carl R. Nagel

Holland

You recently reported that in 2005 Paul Ormond of Toledo's Manor Care Inc. earned $65,400 per week-day, while (in the same paper) it was stated that in 2002-2004 the average American family earned $44,473 a year. This should boggle anyone's mind. (I doubt using the 2005 statistics on the median income of the American family would have much effect on the disparity between the two.)

I know of a couple who lived in one of the TMC's facilities who had to sell the family farm and use what little bit it brought to pay for their care until it was gone and they could go on Medicaid. I wonder what percentage of Mr. Ormond's salary could have benefited this family as well as many others like them without being much of a hardship for him.

D.L. Barhite

Wauseon

Closing the Berdan and Haverhill interstate exit would be a disaster for West Toledo. This is the path that General Motors Power Train workers use from East Toledo, Northwood, and Oregon to get to Alexis Road. On Sunday, many members attend the many churches in our area. People visit the firefighters museum, the West Toledo library, and several trade unions on Lewis avenue.

Gladieux, Mancy's, Rudy's, Sofo's, and Superior Uniform use this exit as well. The closing would follow the pattern of deterioration of the neighborhood (like Nebraska and Detroit, Dorr and Detroit, Bancroft and Detroit, and Monroe and Central near Detroit).

We are not opposed to a grand entrance to the Toledo Hospital or the closing of Jackman Road. In recent years the Five Points officers attended many meetings of the city beautification committee and the 20/20 plan for the village concept and preservation of the historic area. At each meeting they discussed a grand entrance into the West Toledo area from the Berdan Haverhill exit and entrance.

The closing of the I-475/75 Berdan full-service interchange would hinder future development of the DaimlerChrysler property. This area would become a brownfield.

Instead, this area deserves a symbol of the historic Jeep, which played an important part in World War II. A Jeep museum would help economic development. We support downtown development, but this is an opportunity to preserve this historic West Toledo area.

GUS G. COUNTY

Sylvania Avenue

Sports success was once based on hard work, self-improvement, and sportsmanship. Sidestepping sportsmanship to win left you a high-scoring loser. But today, sportsmanship has given way to "win at any price." Crush the opponent, then brag about it. Common courtesy and caring about others in our daily lives has taken a similar path, as "win" at any price has even overflowed onto the highways, costing lives.

Business success used to be attained by improvement of product quality, design, manufacturing process, etc. Today, product improvement has given way to "crushing" or buying out the competition. American quality and efficiency neglected, foreign competition overcomes with improved and often less expensive products.

Our nation's foreign policy success used to be based on helping the people of other nations. Today, with 9/11 as an excuse, the Christian philosophy of helping has given way to a dark kick-butt policy bringing death and destruction. As we attempt to proudly beat others into submission in the name of democracy, our economy suffers perilously, our enemies increase, and the loss of thousands of lives continues needlessly.

Our foreign policy has further shifted from the high moral ground of world human rights leader to the darkness of torture and deceit. When caught in the act, our politicians start with denial, use 9/11 as a feeble excuse, then shamefully shift blame and penalty to our young soldiers, to save themselves.

Leaving the philosophy of self-improvement to take the dark path of opponent destruction has allowed others to dominate the moral high ground, while we blunder ever deeper into moral darkness. It's time to return to the true Christian principles of caring, improving, and helping, rather than hypocritically proclaiming Christianity while killing and destroying.

DAVID A. WARNER

Rowland Avenue

Well, Doonesbury has nailed the truth to the wall again. Right now we are doing more to help al-Qaeda recruit more terrorists than they know what to do with. If an Arab country sent invaders over here to change our system of government because they thought theirs is better, would we sit back and let them do it?

Don't ever lose Doonesbury. It says those truths that we rarely hear so clearly in scholarly articles or editorials.

Dee Maltby

Wayne, Ohio

Isn't it ironic that the same day Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury) glorifies Iraqi insurgents by saying they are "avenging the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians," three of his terrorist coward friends murder 79 of their fellow citizens at a mosque?

Jerry Noss

Whitehouse

A Readers' Forum contributor complained on April 4 that a Henry County commissioner accused of menacing by stalking was identified as a Republican. He obviously felt The Blade unfairly politicized a serious charge against an elected official. It's also pretty obvious that he felt there was a bias (liberal, of course. Yawn.) committed by The Blade.

Let us pretend that some other county commissioner in northwest Ohio, a Democrat, was accused of menacing by stalking. Let us also pretend that the fact he was a Democrat was omitted by The Blade. Would the April 4 letter writer then complain that the issue wasn't politicized?

I think we know the answer.

Keith W. Morris

Swanton

I was all set to compose a long dissertation about the similarities between the Judas story and the Scooter Libby story, but I changed my mind. The only similarity is that they both portray acts of betrayal.

One is an account of a man who turns in his boss, at his boss' request; the other of a man who turns in a third party at his boss' request.

One story is poetic, the other pathetic.

J.W. Hendrikx

Perrysburg