Tax renewal should be on Nov. 4 ballot

11/28/2007

I read with interest the Nov. 21 story in The Blade that Mayor Carty Finkbeiner wants to place the three-quarter percent temporary (?) income tax renewal on the March 4 ballot. He knows full well that fewer people vote in primary and special elections than in a general election so his chances of getting it passed are greater.

This is another backhanded tactic of the mayor. Let's have the vote at the Nov. 4 general election when more people will be voting, especially since it will be a presidential election.

The people of Toledo should be reminded that this temporary tax increase enacted in the 1970s was supposed to save our weekly trash pickup.

Now that we have to pay an extra $5.50 for trash pickup, we are being double-taxed. Or is it triple-taxed, since trash pickup was included in the original city income tax?

As for our illustrious mayor needing his dog at work for stress relief, I remind him of the old saying, "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen."

Karl Fink

Autumn View Court

Schools can't solve society's problems

The Nov. 3 Blade editorial about the condition of the city schools lays the blame at the feet of Toledo Public Schools, citing school violence, lack of challenging classes, uncaring teachers, meaningless homework, and educational deficiencies that stem from the elementary and middle school experience.

Please allow me to address these issues. In my more than 40 years of teaching, I have seen a few ineffective teachers but I have never seen a teacher who would not help a student.

My Math IV students at Scott High School in the 1970s were graphing general second-degree functions in two variables by rotation and translation. And this was before graphing calculators.

At Ottawa Hills High School, my calculus students were wading through delta-epsilon proofs of limits of functions that were products. Some may consider these as challenging.

As for violence, meaningless homework, and educational deficiencies, these are not problems of the schools but are problems of the home. Parents are to be on top of what their children are doing in school so there should be no deficiencies.

If the students are not into school, the schools are pretty much locked into social passing. Violence is not a problem of the schools, it is a problem of how children are raised. Finally, American children lack a work ethic to tackle homework so it is easier to complain about it.

Please don't ask the schools to solve society's problems and then blame the schools for not succeeding. Let schools do their job of educating children.

In fact, with proper parental guidance, any child can walk out of any school in America with as fine an education as they want.

Raymond A. Heitger

Darlington Road

Ognen sentenced others to addiction

Dr. Leo Ognen entered into a plea agreement to spare himself just over 15 years in prison for what amounts to physician-assisted opiate addiction: handing out OxyContin, Percocet, and other opiate pain medications in baggies to anyone with money to buy.

Ognen could get a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine but the plea deal suggests a mere 4 3/4 years. I am sure that is comforting to the thousands of people he sentenced to a lifetime of one of the most insidious of addictions.

Better than jail, let him serve out his term watching the patients I see at COMPASS/SASI go through withdrawal, become dope sick, and suffer cramping so severe they want to die. Let him watch them all but stumble through the door of an addiction agency begging for relief from the sweats and crawling skin. Have him listen as they say they are not using drugs to get high anymore, only to feel human or normal.

Make him sit with a young man of 30 who looks to be just inches away from death from malnutrition and dehydration because he could no longer afford the oxys and percs that Ognen started him on for a sprained back and now shoots heroin because it is cheaper.

I hope Ognen sleeps well with his plea agreement and the millions he made off my patients. Frankly, the Ognens of the world make me sick.

Marsha Manon

Temperance

Toledo water asset beats Atlanta easily

A former Toledoan and current Atlanta resident wrote Nov. 10 to The Blade to ridicule as delusional a local reader who suggested in a Nov. 6 letter that Toledo had a lot to offer in the way of livable assets. Toledo may not compare favorably with Atlanta in the eyes of the expatriated Toledoan, but the one asset we have and Atlanta does not is lots and lots of water.

John M. Stewart

Maumee

'Ice Hens' would link hockey, baseball

A Nov. 10 story said the Mud Hens organization was looking at nicknames for the hockey and arena football teams for the new arena. While the walleye (for the hockey team) is important and well known in this area, it is not unique to this area only. Since the Mud Hens are almost universally connected to Toledo, and the Mud Hen organization is actively associated with them, why not call the hockey team the "Ice Hens." That should give them an immediately identifiable association with Toledo.

As for the arena football team, I don't even want to think about all of the negative derivations that could be drawn from the name "Woodpeckers," but I don't have any suggestions for them.

Sue Garner

Gilhouse Road

'Walleye' not suited to rough, tough sport

Walleye as the name of a rough-and-ready Toledo hockey team? You have to be kidding. Other teams will be shaking in their skates when they come to town to play a team of fish. Will they have a walleye drop after a goal, or save that for a win?

Can you see yourself wearing a sweat shirt, T-shirt, or jacket with a replica of a fish on it? I really think you businessmen can come up with a more suitable name and if you can't, just ask the fans what they think.

Ollie Rista

Brierheath Avenue

Drivers: Pay heed to school zone rules

As the mother of two young boys who attend Frank Elementary School in Perrysburg, I wanted to express my concern to drivers on South Boundary Street.

I have recently been witness to drivers using excessive speed, tailgating, and one who completely ignored a school bus that was stopped to let children off. The aforementioned are all against the law.

As there are two school zones on this road and ample speed limit "flashers" and signs, I implore drivers to pay attention. The Perrysburg police force can only devote so much of its day to enforce one road.

Molly Rump

Perrysburg

Courthouse stories kept public informed

I appreciate your well-stated analysis of The Blade's coverage of the Seneca County courthouse saga and intrigue. I am past chair of the Landmarks Preservation Council (1990-97) and I was very disturbed by more than just the choice of the commissioners to choose demolition - it was their smoke-filled-room-by-e-mail method that made it all the more disgusting.

The Blade did what the fourth estate was meant to do, and why the framers of the Constitution gave the press so much protection. The Blade was curious, and it pursued the story, followed the facts, and then related it to their readership.

Imagine how different our nation's international status would be had the major news networks and largest newspapers demonstrated similar curiosity about the Bush Iraq-war effort. Good job.

Michael Young

San Diego

The first notation in my Thanksgiving journal is to The Blade for the wonderful Nov. 18 feature story, "Making gratitude your attitude."

This attitude of thanks can change the world for the better.

Mary DeLand

Ida, Mich.