To the editor: Sen. Sherrod Brown stands up for women

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) has said he will not support Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump's nomination the U.S. Supreme Court.

Thank you to Sen. Sherrod Brown for standing up for women and people and opposing Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

Mr. Kavanaugh’s track record suggests he will be disastrous for women’s and reproductive rights. He denied a teenager being detained at the border an abortion, unnecessarily delaying her procedure into the second trimester. He also argued that employers’ personal beliefs can dictate their employees’ access to affordable birth control.

President Trump has vowed to put anti-choice justices on the Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Mr. Kavanaugh’s refusal to answer whether the landmark ruling was correctly decided is an indication that he would vote to do exactly that.

If Roe is overturned, the right to safe abortion is at risk in Ohio. Roe’s reversal won’t mean the end of abortion, it means an increase of unsafe abortions — which tens of thousands of women die from annually. We cannot stand by as the Trump administration attempts to undermine our bodily autonomy and reproductive futures. Now more than ever, we need to fight back.

CAITLIN BALLINGER
Central City

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Meyer’s lucky stars

A recent letter to The Blade suggested that Urban Meyer donate a generous sum of money to women’s shelters around Ohio as a show of remorse. There are two problems with this.

First, whose definition of “generous” do you use when Mr. Meyer will make well over $7 million this year alone?

Second, any large donation is likely to be seen not as remorse, but as the price of re-purchasing his image. I would consider it true remorse if he thanked Ohio State for its indulgence in giving him only a three game suspension, then voluntarily suspending himself for the season.

He should then thank his lucky stars he has a job to come back to because there are precious few coaches in this country who, under similar circumstances, would still have a job.

DAVID MCCLELLAN
Perrysburg

ProMedica’s money woes?

Might it be possible that a few of the 100 jobs recently cut at ProMedica could have been saved if the company did not have a building on nearly every street corner and did not furnish their buildings to look like the Taj Mahal — none of which is of any importance to the people they are supposed to serve?

SANDY FLICK
West Toledo

Double standards

What an interesting juxtaposition in the Aug. 21 edition of The Blade: the story about loan forgiveness for Bruce Douglas, wealthy real estate developer and owner of the UpTown Arts Apartments, and the New York Times op-ed about the “debt-shaming” of Stacey Abrams (and others like her) on the opinion page.

Unless I’m missing something, in what universe does one not have to repay a loan because the project funded by said loan proved unprofitable? One might also ask in what universe rents of $475-$675 is considered “affordable.” Perhaps I’m wrong, but I think many Toledo residents would think that, essentially throwing away a half million dollars by forgiving this loan, would not be a good thing.

Just think of all the better uses that money could have been put to in the first place, like preserving some of the housing stock in the city’s older neighborhoods, instead of being so quick to tear down structures that could be renovated in order to provide true quality, affordable housing; perhaps focusing instead on tearing down the shacks in the western part of Lucas County, or how about the blight that is Southwyck?

More to the point, wouldn’t it be nice if the average, working/​middle class person could say, “That degree I went into debt for didn’t get me the job I wanted, so I’m not going to repay it,” or “That four-unit building I purchased isn’t turning a profit, so I’m not going to pay the mortgage I took out,” or “my small business failed, so I’m not going to repay the SBA loan I received to start it.”

The last paragraph of the debt-shaming article on page seven says it all: “As the system stands, people with thousands of dollars in debt are shamed, while those with millions of dollars in debt rule the world. There are reasons [some] people want to keep it this way...”

CYNTHIA JONES
South Toledo

Lucas County Rec Center is embarrassing

This summer my grandson was on a baseball team whose home park was the Lucas County Recreation Center. We also visited other parks in Archbold, Findlay, Anthony Wayne, Sylvania, and beyond for games.

As a resident of Lucas County whose taxes are used to maintain the Rec Center, I want to express my concern for its deplorable condition. The roadway off Michigan entering the park is filled with huge potholes with crumbing pavement. Even veering off the pavement is cause to hit ruts and holes. The bathrooms are so filthy that even players avoid them.

The Rec Center is an embarrassment when teams from other areas play here. This area’s image is very poor. I called the Lucas County commissioners to express my concern and was told they are aware of the situation, and they are looking at relocating this venue to another location or tear down and rebuild.

My concern is why should taxpayer money be spent to relocate or rebuild, when all that is needed is a concentrated effort to get it back in shape and then on-going maintenance and upkeep, rather than allowing unfixed problems to get worse. Too often the solution these days is to relocate and leave another blighted property. This facility is in a great location for ball fields as well other events. There are no traffic problems in reaching it, and there is plenty of free parking.

The Lucas County commissioners need to address these problems before another summer.

JANET DELAUTER
Whitehouse

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