Cameras needed, and that's sad

Toledo is almost ready to roll out surveillance cameras to monitor the everyday comings and going of our citizens ("Candid about cameras," editorial, Aug. 6). I welcome this innovation because it will add to our safety, but I wonder whether I am the only one who finds a need for it unnerving.

If we improved our behavior, we would not need such a monitoring system. I guess you can behave like a monster as long as there are no cameras.

I long for the days when you could walk to night football games at DeVilbiss High School, go to the Colony Hut for a burger, and walk home to Willys Parkway and Crestwood Road safely with other kids at 11 on a Friday night.

If this is progress, something is wrong with the values and morals of people. That's sad.

Sharon Tobian

Adella Street

Atomic bombs saved lives overall

President Harry Truman's grandson visited the Hiroshima memorial to learn the consequences of his grandfather's decision to drop atomic bombs ("Truman grandson visits memorial in Hiroshima; Wreath placed for victims of atomic bombings," Aug. 5).

My brother fought in Europe in World War II. At the end of the fighting there, his unit reported to California to prepare for the invasion of Japan.

The military theorized that if our army had invaded Japan, it would have cost us 1 million casualties, and that many and possibly more Japanese. As awful as it was to drop those atomic bombs, they saved millions of lives.

Louis Agoston

Dover Place

City workers lauded for results

Toledo residents complain about the services they feel they didn't get from city maintenance divisions. Rarely do you hear about the good job that these divisions do.

Among my duties as an officer of the Ottawa River Yacht Club is maintaining the outside of our buildings. Recently, the club had a four-foot piece of curb that wound up on Edgewater Drive. It posed a hazard to vehicles and pedestrians.

I contacted Toledo's Division of Streets, Bridges, and Harbor. Workers responded quickly and repaired the damage. I thank the division for making Toledo a little safer.

John Strick

Temperance

Romney did right by going to NAACP

I respect Mitt Romney for going into the lion's den that was the NAACP annual convention in Houston ("Romney booed, jeered during NAACP speech; Candidate criticizes President," July 12).

Most of the members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People voted for Mr. Obama in 2008. It took courage to talk to them about repealing the President's health-care law.

I wonder whether those who booed had ever heard of the Biblical saying: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Sharon Patterson

Monclova Township