It's unfair to compare salaries

4/14/2010

Isn't it something that veteran Toledo police officers make $8.45 an hour more than the average Toledo worker ("Toledo City workers' pay exceeds area average," April 11)?

I did not know that the other city workers put their lives on the line every day when they leave their homes. I did not know that the average city worker gets cursed at and spit at on a daily basis. I did not know that the average city worker is disrespected on a daily basis or is subjected to fights on a daily basis.

If that happened, then it would be fair to compare salaries.

Debra Scherer

Oregon

When comparing salaries of our police officers and firefighters to Kroger employees, my question is this: When your house is on fire or there is someone breaking into your home, will the Kroger employee put his or her life on the line for you? I think not.

Safety workers deserve every dime they are paid.

Randy Morris

Bronson Avenue

Your comparison of the salaries of Toledo's police and firefighters to that of a store clerk is apples and oranges.

A clerk does not run into burning buildings or face gunfire on the streets.

You couldn't pay me enough to do those jobs. Toledo's safety workers deserve every penny they get.

Barbara Padgett

Heatherdowns Boulevard

As a Jeep worker, your article about city workers' pay hit home.

We have seen demand for union-made American autos slide, along with our standard of living. Wage erosion has affected private-sector manufacturing, which eventually affects the standard of living of all workers.

Newly hired Jeep workers work at half the wage of a few years ago, with no defined retirement plan and a costlier co-pay health-care plan. This is what free trade and global competition have brought to working America. Jeep workers can no longer support local Toledo government as we once did. We simply cannot afford it.

Calvin Buckmaster

Green Valley Drive

We have no use for the city-provided blue recycling containers because there is no incentive to recycle.

Perhaps we should send them back for a refund. Or maybe we can use them for excess trash.

Nick Miller

Sunnyside Drive

I found Maureen Dowd's April 8 op-ed column "The Catholic Church is experiencing a Judas moment" acerbic and superficial.

I understand her vocational need to take an adversarial tone, but she needs to get her facts straight.

This was simply an attack on the Roman Catholic Church. Any institution with a human face will have its sinful failures, and the modern saga certainly has been a period of mortification.

I also found her commentary on celibacy to be a very generalized bias that lacked veracity.

Those who are deeply rooted in the "faith" will remain faithful to the Gospel and will be able to look beyond the human frailties, as none of us are perfect.

The Catholic Church will survive.

Judy Warntz

Maumee

I'm fed up with the continuous articles about the Roman Catholic Church's reputation versus the innocence of children who have been molested by Catholic priests.

I say defrock the guilty priests at once and demote the bishops who have covered up these crimes.

Jerry Kreuz

Maumee

Religion editor David Yonke's column defending Muslims in general and denouncing their profiling as terrorists is exactly the stand of all Muslims except for a tiny minority that hijacked the religion for its own benefit or manipulated the verses of peace in the Qur'an to satisfy blood lust ("Extremists try to use scripture to hijack faith," April 3).

Muslim and Christians share the same values of love and peace for all humanity. The Qur'an says that those who kill one soul are as if they killed all humanity.

Lack of understanding and flawed interpretation of religious verses fuel hatred for humanity and terrorize innocent people. Terrorism has no religion, but uses religion as a cover.

Munier Nazzal

President,

Islamic Center

of Greater Toledo

It is amazing that so many people who are so well off would begrudge a basic human right such as health care.

Conservative radio talk-show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity probably have better health care than you or I will ever be able to afford.

It is also extraordinary that many common citizens are willing to carry the water for these super-rich demigods without thinking for themselves.

I thank God every day they are not in power.

Hal Simon

Maumee

A recent letter writer asked if this was the change the electorate voted for when electing President Obama ("Is this the change you wanted?" April 10).

The change we got was health care in which insurance companies cannot deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions, cannot cancel someone's insurance after a diagnosis of cancer or after a heart attack, and can allow a college student or a recent grad who cannot find a job with health benefits to stay on the parents' plan until age 26. It also closes the doughnut hole for elderly patients who often choose between medicine and groceries.

Also, more than 90 percent of middle-class Americans received a tax cut, jobs were created with stimulus money in construction of infrastructure, and a major economic disaster was averted so that the markets are now stable.

A nuclear treaty has been signed by President Obama and Russia. And while deficits are never a good thing, remember it was Ronald Reagan who increased taxes, increased spending and increased the federal deficit; it was Dick Cheney who said there was nothing wrong with deficits, and it was President George W. Bush who took a surplus and created a huge deficit on the Iraq war based on false information.

So, am I happy with the change we got with President Obama? You bet I am.

Suzanne Norris

Clyde, Ohio

Your editorial "The joke was a bomb" on April 11 really did not go far enough in criticizing our government and the nation of Qatar for the conduct of one of their diplomats on a domestic airline flight.

With two attempts to blow up American airplanes, you can hardly find diplomat Mohammed Al-Madadi's cavalier attitude about smoking on the plane a laughing matter.

Mr. Al-Madadi should have been publicly ordered to leave this country and return home.

I wonder if an American diplomat would receive the same quiet, kid-glove treatment in Qatar for a similar incident.

Stephan C. Risher

Sylvania