LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Shuttles' retirement lamented
7/12/2011Your July 8 editorial "End of an era" said: "The estimated $100 billion spent on the shuttles' 135 missions is difficult for many Americans to justify." Yet we allow the government to spend an estimated $10 billion a month in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I grew up in Titusville, Fla., watching every Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo launch and many of the shuttle launches. The final shuttle launch last Friday indeed is the end of an era.
With the end of the shuttle program there is no more impetus to invent products like Velcro, cordless power tools, and smoke detectors. This is progress?
Jeffrey A. Davis
Sylvania
Use local bands for zoo concerts
Concerts at the Toledo Zoo could be continued indefinitely if zoo officials would take advantage of the many fine community bands in northwest Ohio ("Music Under the Stars was one of the joys of summer," op-ed column, July 4).
Excellent college and community college bands would welcome exposure to summer audiences. Zoo representatives are doing us a large disservice by not pursuing the use of free talent as part of their summer program.
David Ziems
Oak Harbor, Ohio
Foster homes of help to dogs
In your July 8 story "Save-A-Pet shelter provides home-like setting," shelter behaviorist Doug Ritter's statement that at "most shelters and rescues, the dogs are in cages all day long" is inaccurate.
This may be true for shelters and pounds. But during the decade I have worked with area dog rescues, I have found most rescues use private foster homes.
In foster homes, dogs are assessed 24/7. This provides the opportunity to evaluate the dog and learn which home and family would be best suited for an adoption.
While dogs are pack animals, many rescued dogs have come from crowded, frightening shelter/pound environments . Many flourish in a quieter, loving, family environment.
In rehabilitation, one-on- one can be more advantageous than one-on-10.
Chandra Vaughn
Perrysburg
Editor's Note: The writer is a foster parent with 4 Paws Animal Rescue.
Keep Libbey High for history's sake
As one of Libbey High School's many graduates -- my mother was one of the first -- I read all the stories about what is likely to happen to our alma mater ("Facing demolition, old Libbey school is back up for sale," June 30).
Fortunately, many people have been working diligently to try to preserve the building, but as yet nothing seems hopeful.
Then I read about the support to renovate and preserve the old Edward Drummond Libbey home. That is a fine idea. But if money can be located for that purpose, surely Toledoans and others can find the means to preserve the beautiful old school.
We must preserve this school, which bears the name of one who meant so much to the development of Toledo.
Nancy Hadley Rasmusson
Perrysburg
Leasing of turnpike would be wrong
Your July 7 story "Ohio mulls turnpike path that Pa. shunned" describes our state's plan to lease the Ohio Turnpike. The last thing we need is more traffic pushed onto secondary roads because of higher tolls.
The new owners certainly will not have the interests of Ohio as their top priority. Financially the deal is, at best, a political quick fix to raise short-term revenue.
Ohio needs financial help now, but this is not the solution.
James Hoeffel, Jr.
Wauseon
Fallen Timbers should get attention
Your July 7 story "Monroe national park quadruples" about River Raisin National Battlefield Park quotes U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as saying the growth of the park will provide more jobs and increase tourism to the area.
This observation should serve as an impetus for the long-delayed development of the Fallen Timbers Battlefield national site in Maumee. The significance of River Raisin to our nation's history pales in comparison to that of Fallen Timbers.
Similar to the efforts advanced for River Raisin, I call for collaboration between the public and private sectors in this region finally to achieve historical development of Fallen Timbers.
Gary C. Newnham
Treasurer Fallen Timbers Battlefield Preservation Commission Sylvania
'Last draftee' stirred memories
I felt a kinship with Command Sgt. Major Jeff Mellinger after I read about his retirement ("Last draftee to retire leaves Army after 39 storied years," July 6).
I was drafted during the Vietnam war and served for two years. The story brought back memories of the dedicated and honorable service by the millions of inductees who preceded him.
Robert W. Dible
Risingsun, Ohio
Oil spill shows poor judgment
A pipeline carrying thousands of gallons of toxic oil has leaked its noxious payload into the most pristine and productive trout stream in North America ("Teams gauge damage from Exxon spill into Montana's Yellowstone River," July 3). Running that conduit next to any waterway seems an example of bad judgment.
That would be almost as silly as building a nuclear power plant in an earthquake-prone, island nation, on the shore of a tsunami-generating ocean, or as storing sewage on top of a city water intake pipeline, or as expecting deer not to eat the shrubbery when we move to the suburbs.
Bob Schira
Sylvania
Montana spill a precursor
Are we paying attention to the fiasco in Montana? This is what we're letting ourselves in for by opening our pristine Ohio parks to greedy oil men.
Our heritage, preserved for decades , will be overrun by oil derricks and support equipment, never to be the same. I shudder at the thought of places I've visited despoiled by these greedy people.
John G. Sabo
Holland
Read my words: Raise my taxes
To the GOP majority in Congress: Please raise my taxes. To the Democratic President and his cohorts: Please don't limit tax hikes, or please rescind the ill-conceived Bush tax cuts for the rich.
As a nation, rich, poor, and in between, we are broke, in large part because of the Bush tax cuts and the GOP-forged undoing of limits on banking, financial, and insurance institutions.
We all have a stake. It is our country, and even the dopes in Congress are our dopes. If we want to keep the nation ours, let's pay up.
Get cracking, you politicians. Start looking out for the nation, not your pet ideologies and the next election.
Eileen Foley
Lowe Road
Mayor's likeness already recorded
I have no positive or negative feelings toward Toledo Mayor Mike Bell. But in response to his hiring of a photographer ("Bell keeps re-election options open; photographer hired for weekend events," July 7): I was under the impression, because of all the photos I have seen of him since he was elected, that he must have a full-time photographer living with him.
Charlie Leininger
107th Street
Now Chinese can fix our streets
I'm happy to note that Mayor Bell has lured the Chinese investors to buy The Docks and the Marina District ("City, Chinese duo seal Marina deal," July 3). Perhaps the Chinese can repair our crumbling streets.
Gene Curtis
Branch Drive