Article published January 07, 2007
Islam defiled by execution of Saddam
I, like millions of others, am not mourning Saddam’s death. What anguished me is that on an auspicious day like Eid al-adha — culmination of the Hajj — our religion was defiled. The day has been prescribed by God for Muslims to rejoice in the commemoration of the exemplary and sublime sacrifice of his then only son by the Patriarch Abraham.
What is even more pathetic is that the utter atrocity was committed by the Shias of Iraq, whose blind rage for revenge took precedence over everything that is sacred in Islam. In a way, Islam was molested again in the same way as was done by Osama bin Laden five years ago on American soil. I doubt if there is atonement for either of these crimes!
But all flimsy explanations aside, it happened on America’s watch and in its own liberated, democratized, and “outsourced” death cell. Now that, I believe, is to be mourned!
Abdul-Majeed Azad
Perrysburg
Saddam’s execution nothing to celebrate
The United States has no reason to celebrate the execution of Saddam Hussein. It was a foregone conclusion.
His trial, which could have been an opportunity for truth, accountability, and justice, was a sham. This was in part related to U.S. support of Saddam’s regime before his fall from grace. While we certainly gave him more due process than he gave his victims, it fell far short of a nation that aspires to spread democracy and the rule of law.
JOSEPH MORAN
Woodbriar Drive
Express airport in extreme disrepair
Just before Christmas we flew out of our city’s once-fair airport, Toledo Express.
Well, I think Carty Finkbeiner and James Hartung need to do the same, as the airport was in worse repair than a rundown motel in a red-light district.
All the money sunk into it in recent years must be going to the one glitzy lavatory at the departure level that boasted a stunning glass sink, which befits “The Glass City,” but is like the proverbial ring in a pig’s snout.
The rest of the airport was run down. Most of the seats sprinkled throughout the terminal were split and reminded me of dorm furniture on its last leg.
The door in the lady’s downstairs restroom that was right next to the Port Authority office was desperately in need of paint. It was next to a jumble of odd vending machines with tacky toys. The carpet was spotted and the radiators in need of care.
Did I mention that when we deplaned we had to descend from the plane on rickety stairs and then ascend a set of internal grimy steps? It was a real letdown to return having just been in some lovely airports.
Imagine my surprise when reading through missed issues of The Blade to find that James Hartung, president of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, got a significant pay raise. I think the 4.5 percent raise could have been much better used to spruce up the airport and to make Toledo seem less of an armpit to travelers. I’m all for an elegant city, but at present “basic” would be a step in the right direction.
Jenifer Christiaanse
Coldstream Road
U.S. customers boost Toyota’s bottom line
Toyota’s quest for world domination and its plans to build plants in India, China, and Russia have been dominating the business headlines lately. All of this expansion was made possible by the millions of Toyota owners in the U.S. and the profits they donated to Toyota’s bottom line. More Toyota vehicles were sold in North America than sold in Japan through the year ending in March, 2006.
Outside of Japan, most of Toyota’s revenues were derived from the North American market, aided by currency manipulation. It was stated in Toyota’s annual report that a weakening of the yen had a positive effect on revenues, operating income, and net income, and for most of 2005 and 2006 the yen was supposedly weaker than the dollar. As we have opened our markets, Japan has not opened its markets equally to us.
There is much criticism of American companies if they eliminate jobs in the United States and build plants in emerging markets to cut costs, but a foreign company can build a few token plants in the U.S., employ a token few thousand Americans with mediocre benefits, and Americans are thankful. There is not one American among Toyota’s senior directors or executive vice presidents.
An American corporation has much more invested in this country than a foreign competitor to which the U.S. is just another opportunity. American manufacturers’ quality is as good or better than our Japanese competitors and deserves every American’s consideration. Everyone should do their own research.
Just think, all those Toyota owners have shipped their money out the door to enable Toyota to build plants that employ those in other nations, and your charity didn’t even get you a tax deduction.
Donna Pribe
Sylvania
Mall policy lacks common decency
As someone who has more than once been described as a cynic, it takes a lot to surprise me. But the story about the Woodland Mall in Bowling Green charging handicapped and disabled people $15 to use its scooters did exactly that.
Whatever happened to common decency and the ability to put one’s self in another’s place? And what genius decided that this would be a good idea? Are they teaching this kind of stuff in business school? Every time I think that people can’t sink any lower, someone comes along and proves me wrong.
I don’t need this service, but as someone who used to frequent the Woodland Mall (it’s closer to me in Waterville than some of the other malls), I’ll miss it. I will not be walking through its doors any longer.
Congratulations to the manager of Dunham’s Sports, on the other hand. Perhaps her actions were the result of a business decision and perhaps not. But she alone showed some class, some empathy, and she did the right thing. Well done.
Tim Riddle
Waterville
Wrong solution to group home woes
Even though group homes for the mentally ill were rejected by Toledo in 1997, an advocate group called Focus, alongside its better services, has quietly arranged with apartment rental agencies to lease apartments to people who could be defined as mentally ill — homeless people.
While this sounds generous, what actually happens is that homeless advocates are able to feel good about themselves at the same time that rental agents are able to rent out their failing properties. The agencies would normally be forced either to maintain their properties or to reduce their rental price, but through the Focus arrangement their incompetence is rewarded.
Problems present in the group homes are not solved by single-unit tactics. The homeless are, generally speaking, sociopaths of one sort or another, and have been hurt by many behavioral problems, including alcohol and drug addiction. Focus works on the big addictions; however, it down plays nicotine addiction.
How many poor families, and especially poor children, are forced to live near a homeless person? The air in many apartment buildings is shared, and when the homeless person is smoking, others in the building are forced to breathe the smoke. Given their nature, it is far less likely that homeless people will do the courtesy of going outside to smoke. Given their chain smoking, it is also far more likely that they will start a fire.
Activists and leftists will no doubt continue to help homeless people. But leftists would be of much more help if they stopped moving the homeless into other people’s homes and instead moved them into their own homes.
Don’t worry, they’ll get used to the smoking.
Bob Cox
Maxwell RoadA Constitution we can swear by
Here’s an idea. Elected officials should take the oath of office with their hand on the U.S. Constitution — not the Bible, or the Qur’an, or the Dhammapada of Buddha for that matter. It is the Constitution, after all, that they swear to uphold. And there is no finer document than the U.S. Constitution for the protection of religious freedom.
Rev. Gary Blaine
Senior Minister
First Unitarian Church of Toledo
Collingwood Boulevard
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