Containers are tough on seniors
5/24/2009I went to pick out my new garbage container. I filled out the card, marked it for two 48-gallon containers, and put the slip in the box. I went over to see if I could tip the container back so that I can push it. I could not! It was too heavy for me and I would never be able to push it to the end of my driveway, which also has a slope near the end.
I feel that I represent a lot of other seniors with my concern. I have back problems. I am not supposed to pick up more than five pounds. I live alone because my husband is in a nursing home. I have no one to help me. Also, I will have to tell the city that I cannot recycle. I only fill about one half to one bucket. This would not even cover the bottom of the container. I was so upset that I could have cried. How can they put us seniors in such a predicament?
Other seniors I talked to felt like they would not be able to handle the garbage containers either. Like me, they have different health issues that make this a big concern for them.
There has to be another answer for the senior citizens of Toledo regarding this issue.
Delores Lowry
Barbara Drive
In 1920, Scott High School's powerhouse football team defeated Wheaton High of Illinois and the great Red Grange 39 to 0 in what was thought to be a "really big game." The "Galloping Ghost," who had been known to score five or six touchdowns in some high school games, was knocked unconscious early in the Scott game and missed it all.
On May 13, the Landmarks Preservation Council of Northwest Ohio recognized that the Scott alumni and the Save Our Scott organization had won the biggest game in the history of the school when it defeated the "wrecking ball team" on its way to becoming 100 years old.
The Scott Alumni Association would like to thank The Blade's editors, reporters Meghan Gilbert and Ignazio Messina, Toledo Public Schools, school board member Darlene Fisher, and those who wrote letters in support of saving Scott High School.
Warren Woodberry
Walnut Circle Drive
If the cornerstone of mayoral hopeful Jim Moody's crime enforcement strategy is to shame offenders into doing what's right, it is doomed to fail.
The further disenfranchisement of people in order to change behavior goes against what research suggests and enlightened communities demand.
The evidence is clear that "change happens within the context of relationships." Purposely and publicly alienating offenders will only serve to separate them further from the institutions and role models that can help affect true change.
Criminals deserve consequences for their behavior that ensure public safety, impart personal responsibility, and reduce the potential for future acts. Mr. Moody's suggestions fall significantly short of this baseline.
Scott A. Sylak
Executive Director
Lucas County
Treatment Alternatives
to Street Crime Inc.
In regard to the youth arrested by Toledo police ("Youth-police scuffle to have official review," May 19): If there was nothing going on, why didn't the youths just leave when asked to? Maybe the resident whose porch they were standing in front of should have come out and said they were not posing a problem.
This sounds like someone trying to make a buck by causing a problem and calling it abuse. This youth was clearly trying to mock our officer to make himself look cool in front of his peers. In other words, not taking our law enforcement serious.
Our police officers are doing their job and when they ask us to do something, we are expected to follow the law and do it. If one person is allowed to be above the law, then what stops everyone from thinking the same way? No wonder today's youth are so out of hand - so many of them feel they are above the law.
If we are not going to back our law enforcement, why have them at all?
Kelly Carrillo
Butler Street
The Blade's May 16 editorial, "No guns in parks," spoke of the gun lobby as some obscure powerful lobby. I have news for the editorial staff: the gun lobby is the people.
The NRA is our military, our police, professionals, and blue collar workers, this country's everyday patriotic, Constitution-and-country-loving citizens.
As Thomas Jefferson put it in 1816, "Our legislators are not sufficiently apprised of the rightful limits of their power; that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us."
You folks need to read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Pesky documents, aren't they?
John P. Glaza
Holland
In insisting that the downtown arena contract be awarded to a local bidder, rather than to the lowest and best bidder, Commissioner Ben Konop has again put his political interests ahead of the best interests of Lucas County taxpayers. A policy of awarding local only defeats the philosophy of competitive bidding and will ultimately produce higher costs for taxpayers.
Henry Hauenstein
Holland
What is wrong with having legal guns in parks? How many illegal guns are brought in every day by people (convicted violent felons) who have no business carrying? You'd be surprised. Those are the people who care little about what laws are carried on the books.
Those people go where they want and do what they want, when they want to do it, with no regard for the law. Those are the people I worry about. Those are the people you should be very worried about.
Collin Eagle
Temperance
The May 2 editorial, "The price of honor," said that the Richmond Heights, Ohio, school board was charging qualified students a $100 fee for membership in the National Honor Society.
The board has it backward. Charge the fee to all students not qualifying for the National Honor Society.
Sam B. Nadler, Jr.
Densmore Drive
Toledo is losing population because of the loss of jobs. The resulting loss of income taxes now has the mayor and City Council hosing us down in every wayimaginable.
We who remain are going to pay fees on top of taxes because our city fathers are too inept to keep within a budget. Toledo is quickly becoming a good place to be - from.
Ron Marshall
Islington Street
If Ohio State University President Gordon Gee is really trying to effect positive change on environmental issues from within by staying on as a paid board member of Massey Energy Co., then why doesn t he publicly contribute his earnings and stock shares to one or more of the environmental groups that are
fighting to stop mountaintop mining?
DEBBIE PERLMUTTER
Regents Park Boulevard