Promedica fund request abhorrent

7/8/2008

We recently received an envelope from ProMedica Health System asking us to donate to the ProMedica Foundation to help provide funds to support and enhance services for the patients and families ProMedica serves.

I find it curious that ProMedica needs any help, and I find it abhorrent that ProMedica has the nerve to ask its customers to donate while ProMedica itself amasses so much profit. At the same time, ProMedica strives to one-up its competition to reach its goal of being the gas station of the 1960s a facility on every corner.

It is the cost of health care, not the availability, that is one of the biggest problems with our system. HMOs bear a huge portion of the responsibility. ProMedica is no exception. The quest to be No. 1, coupled by the need to dispose of excess profits, drive overpaid, bloated executives to make decisions that stroke their huge egos rather than make good business sense.

It ll all come back to bite; it always does. Unfortunately, by then those huge egos, who profess to care about us out here will have sucked many of us dry and be off to condos in the tropics.

Dale E. Barnard

Perrysburg

Military spending has escalated since President George W. Bush took office and now stands at a record $625 billion for 2008. More is committed for 2009.

Congressional approval for billions to be spent on the war against terrorism has been obtained regularly, though often the press reports huge sums misspent and billions unaccounted for in audits.

There are more contractors in Iraq than those in our Army. Defense specialists themselves have been pointing out that some ultrapricey weapons like certain types of jet fighters and attack submarines serve no purpose.

While billions of tax dollars are spent, night-vision goggles are said to be in short supply for medical personal flying helicopters for saving lives here at home. The irony is the terrorists are using small arms that we regularly export, bought in the black market. Most suicide bombers use weapons, as one informed writer says, that can be assembled from parts bought from the local Home Depot. They have no submarines, aircraft carriers, jet aircraft, radar, Humvees, or cluster bombs. Destroying the black market in small arms will produce much more results.

I am not qualified to comment on the type of weapon that is necessary. But how does a citizen vote for a candidate on this vital issue of military expenditure? Should not the nominee take the time to discuss this issue outlining specifically what kind of changes will be made to streamline military spending, now widely believed to be out of control?

This major issue has not been mentioned even once in the campaign. Why do I get the feeling that change in this vital area will not take place?

Exactly what kind of change are we supposed to live with?

V. N. Krishnan

Bowling Green

I must say that some people in Seneca County and The Blade have a common bond with the smokers in Ohio. None of them know when to call it quits. Sad.

Mike Lacer

Oak Harbor

I attended the recent Carrie Underwood concert at SeaGate Centre and had a bad experience because of the rudeness of a couple sitting in the row in front of us.

The minute Carrie came on stage, four people in front of us stood up. I yelled for them to sit down. Two of the people did, and two did not. We were in the bleacher section, our seats being in row two. The couple in front of us had no one blocking their view, but they continued to stand.

I asked some SeaGate employees if they could ask the couple to sit down, but they explained they did not have the authority to do so. I tried reasoning with the couple, explaining that if they were in the row behind us and could not see Carrie Underwood because I was standing, if they asked me to sit, I would. I asked if they were going to stand the entire show and the guy said probably and he did.

My husband eventually switched seats with me and I was finally able to see. Because of the rudeness of this couple, I doubt I will ever go to another concert at the SeaGate Centre.

Judy Kurtz

Maumee

Although our cash-strapped city can find millions of dollars for river projects, cutting the grass at Dibble Park is out of the question. What a mess.

A simple solution would be to mow and bale it, then feed it to the mounted patrol. Better yet, let s pasture the horses at one park a week so no one has to mow. That would save salary costs and gasoline.

Ned Plummer

Hagley Road

I wonder if President Bush and his administration would be willing to vacate the White House (pre-emptively) after the election results are verified in November.

That way, it would allow the incoming administration to send in a crew to get a head start on cleaning up all of the mess that will be left behind.

Marvin Gagnet

Commonwealth Avenue

What are we telling our children when society so openly accepts homosexual marriages?

God said homosexuality is a sin and anyone who practices it will not enter the kingdom of heaven as read in I Corinthians 6:9-10. If we tell our children and nonbelievers in Christ that homosexual marriages are OK, what do we do with adultery, cheating, gossip, stealing, and all other sins? If homosexuality is OK, then these other things must be OK as well. God must not have been serious.

Be assured, America. God is very serious. God has appointed a day for judgment. We will be judged as to how we comply with his doctrines. The joy of the homosexuals and all their supporters is false, and one day their joy will turn to weeping as they realize what a grave mistake they ve made. We cannot pick and choose which scripture we will comply with and which we want to ignore. We cannot mold God into our way of thinking. It must be us molded into His likeness.

God loves us all. Homosexuals, gossips, drunkards, drug addicts it doesn t matter what we are, God loves us but that does not mean that he condones our sins. He calls all mankind to repentance, which means to change our ways to comply with His.

Let us continue to pray for the revival in spiritual purity for America and the world. I encourage you to read the scriptures and ask our Father in Heaven for wisdom to discern his meaning.

Larry Snow

Wauseon

The foreclosed home tour is a slap in the face to their owner and/or seller clients.

I hope that I m not the only owner-seller who s upset about the foreclosed home tour. And one person even bragged about buying houses and then selling them below market price. It s a great time to do that.

My home has been on the market for one year and I ve had to drop my price $30,000. I m in a good neighborhood, the house has been updated, and it s ready for immediate possession.

The problem: I can t compete with all the foreclosures on the market below market price, and now they re giving tours.

Laura Burnham

Beverly Drive

Recently, I purchased some fl ags for a front-lawn display for Flag Day. Upon examination of the package, I was quite pleased to see that the flags were made in Philadelphia.

We are certainly making a come-around.

Reading further, the staffs for the fl ags were made in China.

What? Are we running out of lumber in the United States?

JOHN C. SINKOVIC

Leybourn Avenue