Iott's arrogance is disturbing

10/13/2010

Reading about Rich Iott pictured as a Nazi Waffen SS officer lends insight into his character that cannot be brushed aside (“9th District race: Candidate Iott was a Nazi re-enactor,” Oct. 9).

Waffen SS Nazis were branded war criminals at Nuremberg. If Mr. Iott was truly about re-enactment of wartime history, he could have chosen to portray a group in the regular German army that served the country, not a group devoted to effecting Hitler's Final Solution for six million Jews from Europe.

Mr. Iott's apology intending no “disrespect to anyone who served in our military or anyone who has been affected by this tragedy of war” rings hollow to all Americans and victims of the genocide he so flippantly refers to as the “tragedy of war.”

The murderous Nazi Waffen SS group, whom he honors with his games and words of “admiration for Germany's ability to conquer Europe” were not just fighting a war, but carrying out the maniacal extermination of 13 million Jews, Poles, Slavs, gays, priests, Catholics, rabbis, and other innocents, as enemies of the Reich. The Waffen SS Wiking participated in the tragedy of genocide.

Mr. Iott is pictured with “Herr Schneider,” a World War II veteran of the Wiking SS. The Wiking SS was part of the 5th Panzer Division that fought bloody battles on the Eastern Front, raining death and destruction upon innocent people. It was responsible for rounding up Ukranian and Hungarian Jews and murdering more than 700 in games of bloody and torturous inhumanity.

The infamous Josef Mengele served with this SS division before he moved on as the diabolic doctor of horrid medical experiments in Auschwitz.

This week's debate showed Mr. Iott sincerely unapologetic and arrogant. However, we well know who and what he is.

Elliot Feit

President

United Jewish Council of Greater Toledo

I sent an e-mail to the Rich Iott campaign explaining that northwest Ohioans are sick of the negative ads and the blame game.

In return, I got an automated e-mail in which Mr. Iott attacks Rep. Marcy Kaptur and then asks for a donation.

Joseph Burmeister

Revere Drive

As a historian who taught military history in high schools for 20 years, I advise you there was no “Wiking” Waffen SS division in the German Order of Battle. There was a Waffen SS “Viking” Division.

The Waffen SS were not tasked with guarding concentration camps. They were soldiers within the German Order of Battle whose task was to fight soldiers of enemy armies, and as such, they did a very good job. They were the “special forces” of their day.

To berate, censure, revile, and condemn a person who gives time to participate in re-enactments so students and others might learn from them is demeaning and disparaging for a newspaper of your great history. To criticize and attack them because they wear a particular uniform while taking part in those re-enactments is belittling not to them, but to you.

Mr. Iott has worn uniforms of varying military units in re-enactments, but you either pass them by or briefly mention them.

Your stories concentrate on the German uniform. Why is that so? Is it because you favor Marcy Kaptur in the race for the 9th Congressional District seat?

James R. Vogelsand

Sylvania

The financial and moral mess this country has been in during the past two administrations attests to the fact that the average American voter is naive about the stuff of life.

You voted for change. You got change. The next big change you will see is the Dow at 5,000, and gold at $2,500.

Charles Dersher

Sylvania

Almost every week, your Daily Log report on whether dogs caught by the Lucas County dog warden are adopted or euthanized shows that two dogs are adopted and 10 are killed. Where do the dogs come from?

Lewis Marenberg

Sandusky

I lived on Georgia Street in Toledo from 1968 to 2008. During the first 20 years, I do not recall seeing a rat (“Rats on the move in West Toledo; Construction cited as trigger,” Oct. 3).

The neighbors and I kept our property clean and neat. As the retirees began to pass away and the properties sold, the number of rats that followed was unreal. Garbage was stacked high and in long rows. When the stacks finally toppled, automobiles ran over them. I made numerous calls to city agencies to no avail.

The rat problem is the city's fault. The city should give owners notice to clean up their property or face a fine.

If they don't comply, the city should clean it up for them and charge the property owner. Attach liens to motivate owners if necessary.

Ray Diehlman

Atwell Road

The Rossford Board of Education has proposed a levy that would result in the demolition or abandonment of every school building in the district, including the award-winning Indian Hills School that is to be sold or donated to the park system (“Rossford school project draws pros, cons,” Sept. 29).

Many members of Historic Perrysburg Inc. live in the Rossford school district. The organization's board of trustees is against the 5.99-mill bond levy that would demolish school buildings.

Respect for the past, including the preservation of historic buildings, is part of the foundation of teaching history.

Becky Visser

President

Historic Perrysburg Inc.

Perrysburg

In response to the Oct. 9 Readers' Forum letter “Much is wrong with schools”: Prayer has not been removed from public schools. Students can pray anytime they want, as long as they are not disrupting the class.

Teacher or administration-led prayer is illegal. That is all.

Reading U.S. Supreme Court decisions would go a long way toward understanding how prayer fares in schools.

All schools have behavioral guidelines. They could not operate without them. I went to school from the 1950s to the 1970s. I never saw the Ten Commandments in any public school building.

Children can be taught what is right or wrong by atheists just as well as by believers. I've seen no evidence to the contrary.

Schools teach evolution because it is a fact.

Evolution teaches nothing about the origin of life. Evolution explains how life developed after its creation, and has nothing to do with creation.

That's another field.

Robert Orlet

Perrysburg

I question the motives of the overseers of senior citizens' benefits (“No increase in Social Security likely in '11,” Oct. 11).

We pay our taxes and elect officials, and we have added expenses every year.

Maybe the people we elect at every level of government should take pay cuts and donate that pay to us senior citizens.

Mary M. Williams

Pinewood Avenue