Letters to the Editor

Casino no substitute for Raceway

7/4/2011

The discussion about Raceway Park and the new casino in Toledo needs to be redirected ("Governor gets Raceway Park bill," June 29). Raceway Park is a gambling facility, but it provides unique entertainment.

Horses at Raceway Park are athletic and beautiful. People place wagers on the athletic ability of the horses and the skill of the drivers. Video poker and card games are not comparable.

Racing takes place outdoors, in the sunshine, with children watching in awe of the horses parading in front of them. If you are outside on the patio, you can almost reach out and touch them.

There is no comparison with adults staring at a video slot machine screen in a windowless room. Both facilities provide gambling, but the similarity stops there.

We have a treasure in our back yard. Moving it to another location would require significant travel time to watch racing.

Raceway Park is being sacrificed in a lopsided exchange for video slots and card games.

Daniel P. Finkel

Scottwood Avenue

Let's celebrate our freedom

Let's celebrate freedom. When we were created in the image of God, perhaps God's greatest gift to us was our freedom to make choices and decisions whether to do God's will each day.

When we do God's will each day, we are happier, healthier people as we receive love, joy, peace, compassion, forgiveness, and the opportunity to live an abundant life.

Bob Moyers

Liberty Center, Ohio

Those violent guns ought to be jailed

I applaud your June 28 story "Police fight back against gun violence." It's time someone stepped up and put these violent guns in jail. They are ruining our society.

Many peaceful guns participate in hunting, target shooting, competition, or just plain plinking. And countless guns keep citizens safe in their homes every night. Violent guns give them all a bad name.

That sounds pretty foolish, no? But that is exactly what The Blade and city leaders are saying: Guns are the problem. There are too many of them. They cause shootings.

The Rev. Donald Perryman, president of United Pastors for Social Empowerment in Toledo, said that "they" dump guns in the streets. Just who are "they"? Legitimate gun dealers? Gun manufacturers? Does he have any idea of the paperwork and background checks required to acquire a gun from a dealer or manufacturer?

I would like to know exactly what percentage of guns confiscated in central city crimes are illegally acquired or used by a juvenile or felon.

Is the real problem with the gun or the owner? And where does the owner get his sense of right and wrong? Isn't that the job of parents?

We don't have a gun problem; we have a fundamental values problem. And those values start at home.

Richard B. Iott

Monclova

Editor's Note: The letter writer was the unsuccessful Republican nominee last November in the 9th Congressional District.

President is often missing in action

A New York Times politics blog said President Obama told Congress: "I have been here." But that's not true.

This President often has been out of the White House. All he has done is hold fund-raisers for his campaign, which he has worked on for the past three years.

Peggy Kuhnle

Maumee