LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Politicians, look at your boondoggles
4/22/2011The City of Toledo is about to recoup $3.8 million of the 43 million taxpayer dollars wasted in the attempt to build a Marina District ("Old loan could slash profit from marina sale," April 12).
Why not sell the farmers' market and several apartment buildings, on which the city owes money, at another bargain price? How much is being lost by selling garbage trucks that the city bought to save money?
We have been told that the city's deficit was caused by unionized public employees. Politicians who point the finger at employees should take a look at themselves and their boondoggles.
Robert Pflager
Wauseon
Why print photo of one in grief?
On its April 17 front page, The Blade printed a photo of a grandmother mourning the loss of her grandson, his wife, and three grandchildren, after an apparent murder-suicide next door ("5 die in apparent murder-suicide"). Was it necessary?
A. Pinciotti
Westcastle Drive
Glenn Beck is not an anti-Semite
The accusations of anti-Semitism leveled against commentator Glenn Beck by Dana Milbank ("Beck banished to the fringes," op-ed column, April 11) are based on out-of-context distortions and outright falsehoods.
The derogatory comment about Reform Jewish rabbis cited by Mr. Milbank was an ill-considered remark made within the context of some 400 Reform rabbis publishing a letter in a newspaper demanding that Fox News dump Mr. Beck's show largely because he offended their political sensibilities. He apologized and clarified his remarks.
As a Jew, I can assure readers that Mr. Beck is no anti-Semite.
Rob Vincent
Perrysburg
Be careful with Ohio Senate Bill 5
To the opponents of Ohio Senate Bill 5: Be careful what you wish for. After you get enough signatures and repeal goes on the ballot in November and fails, then what? What kind of rude awakening will that be?
Ken Borowicz
Holland
Re-enactors deserve respect
The April 13 edition of The Blade featured re-enactments of the Civil War, and that was all right ("Early morning re-enactment recalls spark that lit Civil War").
When congressional candidate Rich Iott took part in World War II re-enactments, he was criticized because he wore a Nazi uniform.
Both groups of re-enactors deserve the same respect for trying to explain what soldiers and previous generations went through to preserve our freedoms.
Sharon Lauber
Delta, Ohio
Wilma Brown, tour your district
I invite Toledo City Council member Wilma Brown to step out into the District 1 area she represents to see the largest dumping ground around.
I invite her to take a ride in her district. She can take the scenic route along Hastings and Manila streets to see the mounds of trash that are illegally dumped because of new restrictions on garbage pickup. She can drive slowly down the alleys to see the garages that need to be torn down and the tires that are piling up.
I'd like her to see the boarded-up houses with open doors where our children could be snatched and molested and no one would know.
I am tired of people who can put their names on street signs but cannot see the demise of neighborhoods that they have been elected to serve.
Patsy Rios
Woodstock Avenue
Obama teaches us how to live
Could it be that the prices at the gasoline pump are President Obama's way of selling more General Motors (Government Motors) Chevrolet Volts, teaching us how to live our lives through manipulated prices?
Jim Edelman
Temperance
Maintain stand against abortion
President Obama threatened a partial government shutdown to protect the nation's biggest abortion provider, said U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Urbana) and Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the organization Susan B. Anthony List, which opposes abortion rights ("Funds for Planned Parenthood were a major point of contention," April 9).
Infanticide is done regularly in the guise of family planning and paid for by tax dollars.
Our elected officials have sworn to uphold the Constitution, not rewrite it.
If your representatives have caved on this issue, vote them out.
Julia Hotz
Grand Rapids, Ohio
Sylvania Schools' tax not necessary
A new tax is not necessary for good schools ("Sylvania school board to kick off campaign with rally," Neighbors West, March 23).
Voters need to consider lost jobs, fixed incomes, pay cuts, increasing health-care premiums and deductibles, and rising gasoline prices, water rates, and school tuition.
Those who want to contribute more money to Sylvania Schools should do so voluntarily.
Beth Wilson
Sylvania Township
Hats off to ODNR for call in Fremont
In 2008, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, a regulator overseeing the Fremont reservoir project, told the city that karst rock formation would be a concern ("Porous rock adds $10M to project ordered by EPA," April 18).
Before a single contract was accepted, city officials had been informed that karst topography was a potential problem. ODNR suggested that the reservoir design incorporate a synthetic membrane liner system.
Insufficient soil boring and site testing led to the false assumption that karst wouldn't be a problem. However, the boring and testing did suggest that sandy-silt soil conditions were present. That also should have been a warning that insufficient clay would be available for a simple clay-liner type of system. It was ignored.
The engineering firm that came up with suggested methods to pursue the reservoir proposed a geo-liner system. Porous rock and limestone are prevalent in and around Fremont. We have two separate quarries to prove that.
On a karst formation map for Ohio, the southern and western edges of the city are in close proximity to karst formation areas. The site chosen for the reservoir is in the southwestern area, just outside the city limits.
My hat is off to ODNR for its original recommendations. It was right. The city should have been wary of the potential problems. The engineering firm suggested the same thing in its proposals.
City leadership in Fremont took a chance and lost the gamble several times throughout this project. Now citizens are paying for poor leadership decisions.
Randolph D. Rohm
Fremont
Turn to Bible, not to bourbon
After reading your April 13 article "Not just a man's drink anymore," I was prompted to reread "Keepers of the Springs," a Mother's Day sermon by Peter Marshall, a late chaplain of the U.S. Senate.
Speaking of women, he said: "But now they said, she wanted equality and in order to obtain it she had to step down. … In the name of tolerance a man's vices have now become a woman's. … Today they call it progress. No nation has ever made any progress in a downward direction. No people have ever become great by lowering their standards. … It is not progress when the moral tone is lower than it was. … It is not progress when purity is not as sweet. …Whatever it is, it is not progress. … The modern challenge to motherhood is the eternal challenge, that of being a Godly woman."
As America struggles on every level and we long for peace and goodness in our homes, schools, and streets, could we, as women, turn from bourbon to the Bible?
Colleen Spiess
Liberty Center, Ohio