Outrage absent over job losses

7/17/2009

Nobel Automotive is closing its Archbold plant Sept. 30 after being in business since 1967 under various names. This means 150 people will be losing their jobs. The average number of years in the plant is 14. Many workers have over 20 and some almost 30 years.

Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors came in and asked for plans to show we were a viable company. The company came up with a number of plans, which they rejected. We are cash-poor as many companies are in this economic crisis, but we owe no banks and have no legacy costs. This would seem to make us a company they would like to do business with. But they felt we weren't viable.

Chrysler, after receiving bailout money from the government, is moving our jobs to Costa Rica. This is not right and taxpayers need to know this. Ford plans to move some of our jobs to Canada. GM had no choice but to take their business as well, but there is no idea yet on where that will be going.

Where is the outrage Americans should have that more U.S. jobs are being lost? Too many people from all walks of life are losing their jobs to other countries. The U.S. will have no middle class when manufacturing jobs are all lost. The middle class cannot be made of service jobs, such as waitresses, cashiers, and Wal-Mart greeters.

This story needs to be told. It may be too late to save us, but maybe the next company will be saved.

Jill Long

Defiance

We have spent years doing everything we can to harm the environment. We have always taken the easy road to less expensive energy solutions, knowing quite well that harm was being done. It is time for the United States to take the lead and show the world that we value the world we live in.

Anyone who thinks that protecting the environment is not going to cost money has got to have their head buried in polluted sand. I would rather pay than have my grandchildren pay for a cleaner world to live in.

Joe Szenderski

Chalice Way

A June 20 letter spoke of the opposition of the Sierra Club to the building of the coke plant. The writer does not have accurate information about the good things Sierra Club members do for job creation and environmental protection.

The club is opposed to the coke plant on the shores of Lake Erie because it would be in an area already inundated with industry. Lake Erie is our most precious resource. It is despoiled with a plethora of toxic chemicals, including mercury, and agricultural and sewer runoff. Enough is enough. Lake Erie and the village of Harbor View do not need to be bombarded with more toxics.

The comment also was made that the Sierra Club does not take positions favorable to job growth. The club worked for passage of the jobs-producing energy-efficiency standards in Senate Bill 221 passed last year. For every $1 million spent on energy efficiency, 21 jobs are created. Instead of spending $1 billion on a new coke plant, far more jobs will be created with investment in energy efficiency and renewables. This will also put more money in the pockets of companies and people to spend, thus creating demand for goods and services.

Another very good idea is to pass House Bill 7, which will strengthen green building standards in Ohio. This will create jobs in insulation and other industries. Ohio is currently ranked 31st in building efficiency. Our buildings and energy usage could be cut by 80 percent using off-the-shelf technologies. This will create jobs, jobs, and more jobs.

If FDS Coking is such a viable company, why did it have to beg citizens of Lucas County for money to bail it out of financial trouble?

Tony Szilagye

Rossford

Jack Kelly's column entitled "Green nonsense" tries to show there is an Obama Administration effort to block the disclosure of a damning, anti-global warming report by Alan Carlin, "an expert at the Environmental Protection Agency." To begin, Mr. Carlin has no credentialed expertise in climatology. He is an economist, holding a PhD in economics and has published papers in economics. His formal science training is a bachelor's degree in physics earned in 1959.

This report, written in March, disputes global warming with arguments copied without attribution from a blog by the World Climate Report dated Nov. 19, 2008. The opinions expressed in that blog have been refuted by climatologists, something not mentioned by Mr. Carlin or Mr. Kelly. And the fact remains that Mr. Carlin plagiarized his material. While plagiarizing may be an acceptable practice among economists, it is not among scientists. If Mr. Carlin is putting forth his paper as a scientist, this alone would subject him to dismissal.

Mr. Kelly calls global warming "a problem which probably doesn't exist" based on cold weather in Siberia, June snow in North Dakota, and Mr. Carlin's paper. The majority of credentialed climatologists have interpreted the surface and satellite data as demonstrating that man-made global warming is real and is a threat.

Unless Mr. Kelly can demonstrate some personal ability to interpret the complex data from climate research, why should we give his opinion on this important matter any credence?

Phillip Teitlebaum, MD

Forest Hill Court

Ottawa Hills should consider seeking and recruiting retired police officers from other jurisdictions.

Many police retire after 20 years while still in their 40s, young and able but highly experienced and much more mature emotionally. Twentysomething officers lack the maturity to make most commonsense judgments while interacting with the public, and youthful officers have a "them and us" attitude toward the public in general.

If I have made a mistake while driving, I would prefer seeing an officer with a little gray hair writing the ticket, knowing that officer is experienced and mature enough that he won't shoot me over a traffic infraction.

Ottawa Hills would have far less liability issues and a much more experienced and mature police force if they would only care to.

Ron Marshall

Islington Street

In response to the letter writer who wrote "install as many cameras as they want .•.•. bottom line, if you don't run a red light you have nothing to worry about," This is absolutely not true.

I was in line on South Avenue waiting for the light to turn green to cross the Anthony Wayne Trail. I was directly behind a tractor-trailer. The light turned green and everyone started moving forward. The truck, as everyone knows, moves much slower. As we entered the intersection the light turned red but I, being right behind the truck's trailer, could not see it because the trailer blocked my view and I was about three to four car lengths behind it.

When the truck's trailer cleared the light, it was red and I was in the intersection. There was nothing I could do. I received a red-light violation in the mail. I called to appeal the citation and was basically told no. Red-light cameras are for city income and are not about safety or fairness.

Randy Bauman

Curtice

Good Luck, Carty. Remember the old saying of Gen. Douglas MacArthur: Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.

Bruce Alcock

Sylvania