LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Soldiers, families need care
3/17/2014Your March 7 editorial “Soldier suicides” drew its facts from a study that seems to blame the mental instability of soldiers prior to their enlistment. This is an insult to the memory of all soldiers who came home, but could no longer face the burden that service to their country caused them.
These young men and women come home with no resources to help them re-enter society after seeing and participating in unbelievable atrocities. My nephew is one of those casualties. He was a happy, well-adjusted young man who proudly served two tours in Iraq. But he was changed forever by war, dead by his own hand at 28.
The defense department should stop wasting money on studies to defer blame from itself, and use those dollars to develop mandatory programs for soldiers returning from combat to help them deal with the hell of war.
Information also should be made available to families about post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, so they can be proactive. My sister’s family lives each day wishing they had such information.
SUE MALONEY
Sylvania
Gen X more than articles portrayed
I appreciated your articles on Generation X (“Defining Xcons; Two decades of people, events, and trends that shaped Gen Xers”; “Gen X: Where are they at middle age? 8 members of the cohort reflect,” Feb. 2). It was good to read viewpoints from a diverse group of people.
However, I am disappointed that The Blade cannot get past the notion that Gen Xers are slackers. While we Gen Xers claim Kurt Cobain, we also claim David Grohl. The same for Tupac Shakur, but also The Roots.
Gen Xers gave the world Google, Twitter, and the first commercially viable handheld computer. Gen Xers were the first warriors to invade the Persian Gulf, and we have borne many of America’s costs of the second invasion.
Previous generations gave us the AIDS pandemic — the stigma as well as the virus. Our generation, however, has done the work of reversing that scourge.
Perhaps a better way to understand Generation X is to emphasize less the historical events and people that define us, and more what we have done with the world that was handed to us.
ROBERT JOHNSON
Sylvania
Parking ticket sounds justified
The writer of the March 2 Reader’s Forum letter “Parking ticket sours fund-raiser” was upset that her husband was given a parking ticket downtown at 4:47 p.m. Her husband is a Toledo firefighter who was volunteering at a fund-raiser for the two fallen firefighters, and had parked in a metered parking space.
Good for him that he volunteered his time for a worthy cause. Did he put money in the meter? The writer doesn’t state what time her husband arrived downtown or how long he parked at the meter. It doesn’t matter. He parked there before 5 p.m., so he should have paid the meter.
ParkSmart was not lying in wait. The meters generate income, and signs state parking is free after 5 p.m.
The writer said their vehicle has a windshield sticker that identifies her husband as a firefighter. Does it entitle him to free parking? No. Is ParkSmart required to look the other way? No.
MARK DAVIS
Perrysburg Township