Bypassing of Ford was sad
1/16/2013It was disappointing to read about Toledo City Council selecting an “inexperienced and unqualified lackey for the at-large seat vacated by Phil Copeland,” as you said in your Jan. 9 editorial “Council of confusion.”
This doesn’t say much about the caliber of elected council members who bypassed Jack Ford, a former state representative, Toledo mayor, and Toledo Board of Education member, who is willing to offer his expertise and experience to contribute to the city.
DONNA TODD
Torrington Drive
Council, EOPA sagas hurt city
To understand why Toledo’s taxpayers have no faith or respect in their officials, elected or appointed, read two articles. One is about the recent tactics used by the local Democratic Party to ensure the appointment of its labor-backed candidate to Toledo City Council.
The other is the attempted payment of $50,000 to the disgraced leader of the Economic Opportunity Planning Association to get him to agree to be fired from his job and its $131,626 compensation package (“Ousted CEO was offered incentives to step down; Job among proposals, EOPA documents show,” Jan. 9).
As long as these kinds of deplorable practices are allowed to continue, the only economic growth in Toledo will be in the moving and relocation businesses.
MIKE McMAHON
Robinwood Avenue
Column makes point against hate
Thank you for publishing Mahjabeen Islam’s Jan. 6 op-ed column, “Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and freedom of speech.” It shed light on the dangerous potential that words can have, and put hate speech and the role of the mainstream media into context.
Dr. Islam’s cautionary conclusion is the most important: “Hate speech is turning into hate crime. It starts with words, but it ends with mosque burnings — or deaths.”
Given the escalating hate in this country toward Muslims, Arabs, and people of South Asian descent, people should take a lesson from such a tragedy and act. Your courageous decision to include her column is one step in such much-needed action.
SAIRAH HUSAIN
Lambertville
Don’t raise, but drop Medicare age
In response to your Dec. 7 article “Ripple effect predicted if Medicare age is raised; Cost of many health insurance plans likely would increase”: The cost to seniors would go up because keeping younger, healthier 65-year-olds out of Medicare’s insurance pool would raise the cost for the rest.
It follows that lowering the age of entry into Medicare would lower the cost of Medicare insurance because of the younger and healthier, say, 50-through-64-year-olds who would be added to the rolls. That should improve the bottom line of Medicare and of health insurance companies.
This also would decrease employers’ costs, because they would not have to provide health care for anyone 50 and over. Maybe employers could add a few jobs.
JAMES STRUBLE
Sylvania Township