Solar panels can energize work force

12/24/2008

While other American cities are asking for bailouts to keep doing things the same way, Toledo changed from making car windows to making solar panels. This not only creates jobs for Toledo but helps all of America to get off the addiction of war for oil. Helping communities become more self-sufficient reduces the need for transportation of fuels, thus reducing the need for vehicles.

There is an entire web of benefits from the change from manufacturing car windows to solar panels, and it starts with local control of a community s future.

Now, to expand on Toledo s investment in solar panels, the talk needs to focus on helping business and homeowners install solar panels to save money on electricity and even have surplus to sell back to the electric utility. Toledo can market the solar panels to other cities, and market the idea of community renewal itself. Local investment and local control instead of speculation in Wall Street and the risk of being plundered.

In addition to investment in solar energy, we must encourage home gardens, recycling, public transit to reduce traffic, and parent involvement in the public schools.

The world is changing and Toledo can be the best example for adapting to changing times.

Dae Miles

La Crosse, Wis.

Boating could revive business in Toledo

Toledo City Council members should seriously consider the impact of the proposed Marina District if they decide to forgo the dredging of the Ottawa River.

As a recreational boater, it has been my experience that boating, especially in a port city such as Toledo, is good for business. Some may question the sacrifice of other necessary programs to support this effort given the economy, but I strongly believe Toledo would benefit from the dredge in the long term.

I had the opportunity to spend a good deal of time on Lake St. Clair and northwestern Lake Erie last summer, where I was amazed, given $5.50 per gallon gas, to see the number of boats, generally averaging four people or more, corralled at restaurants and recreational events.

Toledo s wide and varied history has always included the Point Place community, a cottage community established around recreation. The boat feel already is beginning to diminish from Point Place. If this is allowed to continue, how can Toledo support a Marina District?

Kevin Graber

117th Street

Fewer births to blame for enrollment drop

A Dec. 9 story in The Blade showed 1,649 fewer students in Toledo s public grade schools than last year. During the last 20 years, three high schools and 12 grade schools have closed. Here s why.

In 1960, the birth control pill was invented.

In 1973, the Supreme Court allowed virtually unrestricted abortion.

In the last 35 years, we have done away with about 50 million little people in our abortion clinics. Untold millions of others were prevented from birth by the pill.

The result: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the senior drug benefits are all in financial trouble. Most of these programs are paid for by those working today.

With 50 million fewer workers, consumers, taxpayers, etc., we have put ourselves into a young-people shortage. Taxes will have to rise dramatically to pay for these services or they will be rationed to the old folks. I had a bumper sticker that said it best: No babies equals no future.

As local pro-life activists over the last 20 years, my wife and I were castigated as Christian nuts. But God is not mocked. Our nation has become what Pope John Paul II said we would become, the culture of death.

The Muslim population in Europe, which was brought in to do the crummy jobs the locals did not want to do, is having six to eight children per family. In 50 to 100 years, they will be the majority in Europe. They will fulfill what Yasser Arafat said about Palestinian women in his struggle with Israel My strongest weapons are the wombs of Palestinian women and take over at the ballot box. What 1,400 years of war could not do to subdue Europe will quietly happen in the maternity wards of their own hospitals.

Any questions?

James Moriarty, Sr.

Sylvania

Bailout supporters should be ousted

Sen. Chris Dodd has a lot of guts saying that auto management should leave. Senator Dodd, Rep. Barney Frank, and their crew are the source and cause of the $700 billion bailout. They should be removed from office. We can thank the United Auto Workers and auto management for their own implosion; it was a team effort.

If the Rust Belt states were Right to Work states, industry would be more inclined to locate here instead of other areas to avoid the likes of the UAW and others.

Jim Krumm

Oak Park Drive

Smoking ban gripes in Ohio need to stop

In response to the Dec. 10 letter in the Readers Forum regarding the Ohio smoking ban, perhaps the writer should have stopped to consider that just maybe people decided to increase their home consumption because:

1) Alcohol is much cheaper to buy and drink at home (why pay $1.75 or more for a bottle of beer when you can get a six pack for about $5?).

2) The drunken-driving laws have significantly lowered the legally drunk blood-alcohol percent, which in itself should be a big deterrent to many.

3) People can smoke in the comfort of their own homes without having to go outside.

The people voted for the smoking ban. It s way past time to let it go and stop whining about it.

Brenda Steinfurth

Madeleine Street

U.S. is deciding its own future

Is our country dying economically because we are doing things wrong? Or is it dying because we are doing the wrong things? There is a big difference.

Let s take inventory. The banks gave out fraudulent loans to people who they knew could not eventually repay. Brokers ran the price of oil up to make a huge profit at our expense. Rich cronies hid their money behind tax laws and secret offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes.

We continue to condone abortion by protecting it under the law. Why not legalize bank robbery? Fewer people lose their lives in robberies than in abortions. And, God knows, many of us could use the money. Being without money could hinder our career like people say abortion ends lives. What s the difference?

St. Paul said: The wages of sin is death. Seems like we are fulfilling this prophecy. Will we continue or make a change? The choice is ours.

Steve Cherry

Oregon

Solutions not found by pointing fingers

A recent contributor to the Readers Forum wrote that anyone with a modicum of understanding will recall that the Republican-controlled Congress passed NAFTA by voting in lock-step for the bill. A check of the facts shows that the 103rd Congress passed NAFTA in November, 1993, and it was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on Dec. 8, 1993. The 103rd Congress had a substantial majority of Democrats in both houses of Congress at that time.

NAFTA has been supported by both Democrats and Republicans. When we stop looking to place blame, and start looking for solutions to problems, we ll all be better off.

Carl Collier

Pembridge Drive

Opportunity awaits Simpson in prison

Now that O.J. Simpson is in prison, let s all hope that he finds the real person who killed his wife and Ron Goldman. He had no luck on the golf courses in Florida.

Opportunity awaits.

BOB GIBSON

Carey, Ohio

Who fines the city?

This is about shoveling your sidewalk. You get a fine for not having your sidewalk shoveled, but what does the city get for not plowing your street?

Mary Jazwiecki

Kingsbury Avenue