Why no real fix for Toyotas?

3/11/2010

When Toyota President Akio Toyoda testified before Congress that he wasn't certain a shim for the gas pedal would solve unintended acceleration, that wasn't exactly a vote of confidence for Toyota drivers or those of us who share the road with them ("Toyota CEO pledges to refocus on safety," Feb. 26).

I took from the congressional hearings that Toyota engineers don't know what the fix is, that former Toyota workers are now employed at the National Transportation Safety Board, and that there was a lot of covering hind ends and bonuses paid for no recalls until now.

I'm not advocating the demise of a car company, but it's going to take Toyota engineers and government oversight agencies to come up with a fix. It must happen soon, before more damage is done.

The loss of 34 lives is unacceptable. An "I'm sorry" from Mr. Toyoda doesn't cut it.

Gary Essinger

North Baltimore

People wonder why the city trash fee and taxes have to be raised, why America is owned by China, why our children face cutbacks in schools, and why police and fire face cutbacks.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why we lost thousands of jobs from Chrysler, General Motors, Ford, their suppliers, and many other manufacturers. Fewer people in the work force equals less tax collecting.

Keep driving that foreign car while you're looking for work. Toyota, Honda, and Kia are not American cars.

Dennis Moliszewski

Berkeley Drive

How typical of your negative view toward legal gun ownership to have a story on the front page about groups that are fighting for your First Amendment rights ("2 groups back Blade in gag-order case," March 2) and then havean untruthful editorial cartoon on the same day opposing my Second Amendment rights.

I have yet to see you report on the latest figures that show the notable drop in crime in states that have legalized the carrying of concealed weapons by trained citizens.

Dan Wiederhold

Petersburg, Mich.

Regarding your Feb. 11 article "Flawed global warming reports prompt calls to change methods": Regardless of whether the reports are flawed, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has proved nothing.

Global warming proponents claim it causes less rain but also more rain. Hotter days or colder days. Less snow or more snow. Where is the logic?

There is climate change. There are warmer years and cooler years.

The climate changes every year, month, week, day, hour, and minute, as it has for thousands of years.

Our government's agenda is the power to tax industry. It is no wonder that many countries scuttled the Copenhagen fiasco.

A. F. Welling

Millbury

Your March 4 Neighbors West article "Dinner planned to benefit burn victim" described a benefit to give financial help to Dale Bates. He faces a $34,000 cost of treatment for his daughter, Tiffany, a Fayette High School freshmanwho was burned over 18 percent of her body in a home accident.

Had the Batesfamily contacted Shriners International, which supports Shriners Hospitals for Children, where children receive services with no financial obligation to their families, they would be taking Tiffany home with a zero balance.

Michael Schnapp

West Bancroft Street

In the news reports from the bipartisan health summit ("Obama: Health-care debate over," Feb. 26), one image was burned into my mind: that stack of more than 2,000 pages of legal mumbo jumbo that probably nobody in that room ever read.

Why not have a beer summit? Take those same members of Congress and the administration, lock them in that room for seven hours with a couple of kegs of beer, and after they all have become good and drunk, rewrite the bill.

At least the alcohol will impair them to the point that they cannot refer every other line to some piece of legislation that may have been written 10 years ago.

Doing so allows them to hide the true intentions of the authors of such garbage.

Mike Webber

Colony Drive

Universal health care is the only option of true value. When the profit margin is cause for premium hikes, it seems frivolous to argue for the human factor ("5 largest insurance firms show big profits," Feb. 12).

There seems to be no desire to control anything other than political advantage for the sake of re-election. IfDemocrats and Republicans are inclined to pray,theyshould be careful what they pray for, not so much because they may be granted their request, but because they will be accountable for it,by the One to whom they pray.

Jeffrey Pitzen

Northwood

Doesn't it give you a thrill to watch Republican members of Congress (and some Democrats) speaking of the horrors of our national debt?

This is much the same group that sat on its hands for eight years while the national debt increased under the Bush administration.

Where did that money go? Ask the politicians you elected.

Republicans controlled both the House and Senate from 2000 to 2006, and had the power to stop this spending. Regulations existed that, had they been enforced, might have prevented or reduced the financial meltdown that occurred by banks and investors in 2008.

Who was responsible for not enforcing those regulations?

Look at both parties.

Dick Cheney

Maumee

We need regulations that will keep the biggest banks from jeopardizing the country's financial system, and protect taxpayers and credit card users from being forced to pay for bank losses.

On Jan. 13, the heads of four major banks testified before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Because they had paid back the money borrowed from the federal government's Troubled Assets Relief Program with 20 percent interest, they believed they were entitled to pay and receive bonuses.

The implication that because the money has been repaid, their debt has been repaid, is outrageous. In terms of joblessness, homelessness, fear, and lost wealth individually and to the country, their debt can never be repaid.

Not only are they callous in believing that they are entitled to bonuses, they are wrong.

Sandra Frank

Scottwood Avenue

We eliminate recess for children in public schools, yet we worry about exercising dogs in a dog park ("Board opposes dog park idea," March 5).

It makes me just shake my head.

Charlotte Best

Sylvania