Cast a vote for energy exploration

6/18/2008

As energy prices soar and cause good jobs to leave our state and our country for places where energy is affordable, Congress is considering whether to modify outdated and damaging prohibitions on domestic energy production.

U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) will have the opportunity to vote in favor of Ohio and American jobs and more affordable energy by supporting legislation to increase access to America's own energy supplies.

The business of chemistry, like many other manufacturing industries, uses natural gas to heat and power our facilities. We also use it as a vital raw material. The fact that U.S. natural gas prices have skyrocketed 460 percent since 2000 has hit our sector hard. We've lost nearly 120,000 good-paying jobs nationwide, and in 10 years we've gone from a $19 billion U.S. chemistry trade surplus to becoming a net importer of chemicals. The United States cannot afford this kind of harm to its global competitiveness.

To help reduce energy prices, improve energy security and job security, and help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, America needs greater access to domestic energy supplies - especially natural gas.

We strongly urge Congressman Kaptur to do the right thing: cast a pro-jobs vote and support energy exploration and development here at home.

Jack R. Pounds

President

Ohio Chemistry

Technology Council

Columbus

Parents responsible for educating kids

I believe that until a child is of age and leaves the home, the parents are totally responsible for every aspect of the child's life, including his or her education.

I believe that the public schools in the United States are not only not failing but are doing a great job.

I believe that any child who enters public kindergarten healthy, curious, responsible, respectful, and with a good work ethic will graduate with as fine an education as he or she wants.

I believe that this country is afraid to address the real problem and solution that would improve education.

I believe that the recent decision to replace all the personnel at Pickett School is a doctoral dissertation in the making. It will be very interesting to see what happens a few years from now at Pickett and whether the Toledo Public Schools' grand replacement plan will turn the school around.

I believe it won't.

Raymond A. Heitger

Darlington Road

Pickett School plan: It just won't work

I just finished reading the June 5 story in The Blade on Pickett School. I find it interesting that everyone is pointing fingers at everyone else and no one has stopped to look in the mirror about what is really going on.

These teachers and all teachers are grossly underpaid for what they do. The problem is not with the building nor with teaching nor with the union nor with the administration. The problem is clearly with the parents.

I would love to see a report on how many parents go to parent-teacher conferences, not just at Pickett but at all of our public schools.

How many parents at this school and all other schools get involved in their child's life? If these kids are doing so poorly in school, why are the parents not stepping up to the plate and making sure their child is doing his or her homework and following up on it?

Income level doesn't have anything to do with how kids do in school, nor does race or religion.

Mark Miles

Lynbrook Road

Loss of Pharm store saddens customers

I am sure many of you feel the same way. We are saddened by the loss of area Pharm stores. Little did I know how much I would miss them until I went to the old Pharm location on Alexis Road and Monroe Street and shopped at Rite Aid.

The over-the-counter sinus medication I normally got at the Pharm for $1.31 is now $3.99, and the pharmacy clerk removed the old price before selling it to me for three times more. The cat food I used to buy is now more than twice what I paid before. And, of course, greeting cards are no longer discounted.

But the saddest part is that the friendly store clerks, the cart man, and the pharmacists are no longer employed there.

Now I know why there was a nearly empty parking lot. A very sad loss for our area.

Pat Ligibel

Lambertville

Pharm stores were friendly place to shop

As a longtime resident of the Secor and Laskey roads area, I have frequented Janney's Ace Hardware at Secor and Alexis roads, as well as the Pharm on Secor at Monroe Street, countless times. I knew many of the employees by name and almost all by face. I found the employees of both stores extremely helpful and courteous.

If I wanted to go to Rite Aid (which wasn't often) there were two in the area, one at Douglas and Laskey roads as well as one at Monroe and Sylvania Avenue.

In their efforts to have a Rite Aid at every corner, or at least every corner on which there is a Walgreens, Rite Aid has bought Janney's and the Pharm and closed them to build Rite Aid stores. I have missed some of the friendships I developed at Janney's and will miss those with some Pharm employees also. I understand that some may be offered jobs at Rite Aid.

I guess I won't see them - I'll be going to Walgreens.

Tom Hage

Pawnee Road

U.S. deserves more than Barack Obama

Sen. Barack Obama has been a member and attended Trinity United Church of Christ for the last 20 years. Now he has quit the church because of some inflammatory comments by two pastors who spoke at this church.

I would think it would be a safe assumption that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's anti-American and racially divisive sermons have been going on for quite some time. They certainly cannot be a revelation to any members who have attended services at this church, including this candidate for the presidency of the United States of America.

Apparently Senator Obama is hoping the American public is ignorant enough to buy into his denial that this has been going on for any length of time. His disassociation from this church, I believe, comes just a tad too late. I think the veterans of this country, along with the rest of the citizens, deserve a whole lot more than Mr. Obama as commander in chief.

Dave Lindau

Wauseon

Send stimulus check to prove it does exist

I have not received the promised federal stimulus check and have not met anyone who has. I don't believe the government is actually sending out any checks. I filed my taxes, so where is it?

I don't own a high-definition TV or a computer or a cell phone. I pay off my credit card each month. We have cancelled any vacation plans. And I haven't been on an airplane since 1967.

I'm spending twice as much as I used to for gas and food but am getting less. So, I can't afford to buy anything else.

I could really use that promised check. I guess I'll believe it if I get it. But I don't believe it.

James Markin

Sylvania

Want to save cash? Then buy American

We recently leased a 2008 GMC Sierra pickup, American made. It takes E85 fuel, which is made of U.S.-grown corn. We shop at Kroger, an American store.

Using our Kroger card at their gas station saved $19.51 on a tankful of E85 fuel. How? Using the Kroger card, fuel cost $3.169 per gallon. That is 83 cents per gallon less than unleaded.

Buy American and save. It is as simple as that.

Gayle G. Perne

Talmadge Road

If Barack Obama wants to gain the votes of white women in the United States, he can stop lying about his "relatives'•" military statistics. As a daughter of a real World War II veteran, I find his tall tales offensive and insulting.

Heidi Wilson-Rodriguez

Sylvania