An ovation for two city officers

7/25/2009

We are on our way to a neurologist. My wife has Parkinson s disease. Traffic is fast and heavy on the freeway. It is 90 degrees outside. My motor quits. I maneuver from the second to the first lane and barely off of I-475.

My car is so close to the guardrail that I can t get my wife out of the car on that side. I can t restart the car. The heat begins to bother my wife.

As my desperation grows, Toledo police arrive. They surveyed the situation. They pushed my car completely past the guard rail area to a grassy bank.

My wife was transferred to their patrol car in her wheelchair. Her neurologist s office was called. AAA was called for our car.

We were taken home. My wife was transferred to her wheelchair, up the ramp, and into a cool home.

This situation could have been very detrimental.

Officers Penney Halcomb and Floella Wormely deserve a commendation and a copy for their personnel file. They had compassion in a time of need from unknowns to unknowns.

This is the Toledo that I know and appreciate.

George Hathaway

Ottawa River Road

Bob Latta just doesn t get it. He and his few business as usual old-school cronies continue to tear down anything our President tries to build.

He is simply playing the old partisan game in which nobody wins. A case in point is his July 11 column in The Blade on energy.

Our President wants to move forward finding new sources of renewable energy to at long last shake our nation s heavy dependence on oil.

Bob s answer: drill for more oil and build a hundred nuclear plants. Old school, Bob. Nobody wants a nuke plant in their back yard and drilling for more oil is no answer at all.

Bob has voted no 28 times since I ve been counting and has been on the losing side of all those votes. At every corner, Bob turns right and he gets nowhere.

He s not looking out for the working, middle-class people or for those who find themselves with no job at all. The Americans he s worried about being taxed are making more than $250,000.

He talks about companies moving overseas, but that s a joke. Former President Bush and the Republicans started the stampede overseas with their big corporate tax breaks for outsourcing American jobs.

And the harsh economic times he speaks of is a direct result of the Bush administration and the Republicans who held Mr. Bush s hand blindly as they skipped down the path of disaster.

Do us all a favor, Bob, and start supporting your President.

And while you re at it, your constituents as well.

Jeff Clark

Grand Rapids, Ohio