Reid just said what many know

1/17/2010

In response to the Jan. 10 article in The Blade "Senate leader apologizes for racist remark," Sen. Harry Reid need not apologize or resign for saying that Barack Obama was acceptable to the white community because he was a "light-skinned" African-American "with no Negro dialect."

Senator Reid just stated what many Americans, white and black, know to be true - light-skinned blacks who speak "proper" English are more acceptable to white Americans.

And blacks who are light-skinned are also more acceptable to many black people. As a young child, I often heard my aunts advise my female cousins, "Don't you marry that man because he is too black."

As for Mr. Reid's Negro-dialect comment, he just said in different words what actor Bill Cosby said in a 2004 speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education.

"Everybody knows it's important to speak English. … You can't land a plane with 'why you ain't,'" he said. Just like Mr. Reid, he was criticized, albeit for different reasons.

I hope Mr. Reid's remarks will compel all of us to work diligently to remove the vestiges of racism and educational inequality from our society.

Jack Taylor

Bowling Green

Why would it take 12 days to collect my trash?

My last pickup in 2009 was Dec. 23 and my next was Jan. 4. I think that when a week of trash pickup is eliminated, I'm entitled to a reduction in trash collection fees.

The city employee who promised to call me back about my concerns hasn't called. You know who you are.

Dorine A. Mosley

Gawil Avenue

I am dissatisfied with The Blade's abbreviated, prime-time-only television program listings.

I noted the announcement in last Sunday's newspaper that you are going to carry far more channels and program listings in the new ON TV magazine. I called the magazine, only to be informed that it was unable to accept my call and asking me to leave my phone number.

I assume that there will be an additional charge for an ON TV magazine subscription, but The Blade didn't publish the cost in its announcement.

I'll have to check and see whether I can get the daily or weekly TV listings in another newspaper at no additional cost. I've been a loyal Blade subscriber for more than 50 years, but maybe it's time for a change.

While I'm at it, maybe I'll investigate a change from Buckeye CableSystem, which costs me about $75 a month, to DISH Network or Direct TV.

Arthur Raker

Perrysburg

Extortion is not too harsh a description of The Blade's campaign to get subscribers to pay extra for something that previously was included in every issue of the newspaper. The meager daily listings of local TV programs last Monday would have been less insulting had they not been Sunday's listings.

When The Blade banished Prince Valiant from the Sunday comics, I should have known it had nowhere to go but down.

Patricia L. Watkins

Temperance

I've been a Blade reader since I was a delivery boy back in the mid 1970s. Now, sadly, after all these years, I guess it's time to say goodbye to a friend.

The newspaper keeps getting smaller but the price keeps getting higher. Now they've taken out the TV listings and are trying to force us to buy them separately. I can get TV Guide for less than this new money grab.

I enjoy reading The Blade every morning. It's a ritual, cup of coffee and The Blade. I've tried to resist turning to the Internet for my news, but I can get it e-mailed for free and get what I want, not what I'm told I want.

So goodbye, old friend. The Blade, much like Toledo, will be just a memory soon.

Tracy Yeager

Harvest Lane

I have been a Blade subscriber for many years. I am very unhappy over what has been done to the TV listings. Please don't ask me to subscribe to ON TV. I was perfectly happy with the old TV listings; why should I pay more for ON TV? (I didn't like the sample copy.)

I realize that the newspaper business is tough nowadays, so I understand why The Blade has been shrinking in the last few months. But this goes too far.

It seems like a suicidal business model, alienating the few subscribers you have left by removing the content that they like. Most of the other people I know get their news from the Internet. Maybe I should save my money and do as they do.

Paul G. Chamberlin

Atwood Road

I am irritated by this move to strong-arm people into buying a separate TV magazine just so we can see what's on TV. Whose genius idea was this? We already pay too much.

If you think I will spend one more penny to read this TV guide, you are nuts. I will simply turn on my TV to see the daily listings on cable.

When people are scratching to find money for groceries, you need to be smarter about wanting more butter on your bread.

Wendy Szempias

Cuba Street

The Blade has sunk to a new low in its attempt to secure more dollars for the worthless weekly TV-Guide-type "magazine" it is pushing. The few listings in The Blade are a joke.

The features department was - that's was - doing a pretty good job of listing what's on TV, but if the first few free copies of the new guide are any indication, it is not worth the money. And it makes The Blade appear like a money-grubbing outfit to severely limit the listings, practically forcing us to buy the new publication. No, sir, not me.

Gene Curtis

Branch Drive

I subscribe to the Blade because I like its TV listings. Then, after I have subscribed for the coming year, The Blade tells me that it is going to "abbreviate" the TV listing section in the newspaper and I must subscribe to another publication to get the listings section for which I subscribed to The Blade.

How is this different from a bait-and-switch?

Bob Versteeg

Bowling Green

The Blade heard loud and clear from its readers that they want more TV listings in the daily and Sunday editions. So beginning next Sunday, Jan. 24, the prime-time TV

listings will be expanded from the nine major networks to 33 stations.

Those will include BCSN, both local public broadcast stations, Turner Classic Movies, A&E, TNT, TBS, ESPN, and more.

President Obama promised us transparency and full disclosure.

We received full-body scanning.

TOM GEIGER

West Lincolnshire Boulevard