Toledo Blade Opinion

Two misinformed contributors to a recent Readers' Forum said they won't buy American vehicles because they're too expensive because of the unions' quest for higher pay. The fact is that wages and benefits only comprise of 8 percent of the cost of a vehicle.
Come and work a production line for a week. After the exhaustion from being on your feet all day, following the line as it crawls along, doing the same repetitive task 400 times a day, and the mental strain that comes from the monotony of all that repetition, $20-$25 per hour will look like a slap in the face.
One writer said assembly line workers make more than their kid's teachers. That would be the letter writer's fault. Try passing a school levy now and then.
The writers also mentioned that the industry only produced big gas guzzlers at the whim of stockholder greed. Car companies produced what the consumers wanted to buy. The problem is that the market, because of the rapid rise in the cost of gasoline, changed its mind faster than the industry could retool. There's his greed.
The real problem with today's economy is the loss of jobs. American jobs are going to Mexico and China at an alarming rate. When people lose their jobs, they can't make the house payment. So now the housing market is shot, and the banks are stuck with unpaid loans, lending institutions are in trouble, and the dominoes begin to tumble.
If the "Big Three" are allowed to sink, the economic backlash will affect every job in America. "Buy American" will be a real bargain when it may affect your own job. Besides that, we do make a quality product.
Jerry McNutt
Walbridge
Letter writer doesn't get to shatter dream
This is a response to the letter writer in The Blade's Readers' Forum on Nov. 17 who suggested that if someone's parents were unable to afford to send them to college, this person does not have the right to make a living wage. So only people like the letter writer, on his high horse, deserve this money advantage. I don't suppose he ever had to do eight hours of manual labor.
The letter writer thinks he gets to sit back and decide who gets a part of the American dream and who does not. Now that's a real joke. Shame on his arrogance.
Lillian Sumner
Sylvania
Sympathy for execs is difficult to muster
In the 1980s, Lee Iacocca went to Uncle Sam to obtain government-backed loans. When he asked for the loans he said he would take a salary of $1 per year until he paid it back. He made cuts in the salaried work force and negotiated cuts with the UAW. In just a few years, he paid back the loans.
All we see today is gimme, gimme from all the corporations in trouble. The concessions we read about are caps on bonuses and salaries. It does not stir up a lot of sympathy.
Jon Fournier
Delta, Ohio
Subsidize purchase of vehicles instead
Rather than giving the money to Ford, GM, and Chrysler, give, say, $5,000 (or 25 percent of the purchase price) to anyone who purchases a new, American-made car. This will give an immediate boost in demand for the manufacture of cars, parts, and other connected industries.
The buyer will have money left over to purchase other things.
If sales now are at 11 million, down from 16 million, I am sure that will change in short order.
If 16 million people purchase a new car, it would cost us $80 billion dollars but the money would go directly into the economy and eventually back to us.
Marketing experts will be able to determine how much would be enough to get buyers to purchase new cars.
For sure, we should take advantage of the low gas prices now. People will be more likely to purchase cars with the gas price low.
This seems too simple. Help me see the fault in this thinking.
Trig Simon
Main Street
Name plate doesn't always tell the story
I am responding to a Nov. 13 letter to the editor that indicated that U.S. automakers are having trouble because Americans are not "buying American." What exactly is buying American? Is it the name plate on the front of the automobile that says GM, Ford, or Chrysler? Or is it where the vehicle is assembled and supports American workers with a good wage for an honest day of work?
Based on the letter writer's comments, she should be thankful that John McCain wasn't driving a Chevy Equinox (made in Canada), Chevy Avalanche (made in Mexico), Ford Edge (Canada), or Chrysler Town & Country (Windsor, Ontario). However, I am sure that she would be ecstatic if Mr. McCain was driving an Mercedes-Benz M-Class (made in Vance, Ala.), Honda Pilot (Lincoln, Ala.), Hyundai Sonata (Montgomery, Ala.), or Toyota Sequoia (Princeton, Ind.).
She fails to realize that this is a global economy and all automakers have components made in a foreign lands. Her own car likely has a seat cover sewn in Mexico, the wire harness for her radio could be from Europe, and the seat foam may have been produced in Canada.
Douglas Blake
Pulaski, Tenn.
Bail out automakers that bring jobs home
Instigated by a failing economy, the ill-informed blunder of blaming the victim once again is the focus of media attention. We are led to believe culpability for our failing economy rests on the shoulders of "lazy American workers." If this were true, why didn't the price of automobiles recede with the transfer of jobs to cheaper overseas labor forces?
Back at the beginning of the 20th century, Henry Ford had an objective: Build a vehicle that one of his workers could afford. That philosophy helped make America the most powerful industrialized force in the world, the eye of everyone's opportunity, helping us defeat the threat of both fascism and communism. However corporate greed and the lack of focus of labor unions led us to a false sense of security. We were blind-sided and now face a decision that could lead to the ultimate failure of the American way of life: downsizing to the point of nonexistence.
The answer is simple: If Americans are to subsidize a bailout of corporate America, they should reap the benefits of a decent living wage and demand that the automotive industries bring the jobs back to the United States.
James Izbinski
Elaine Drive
Losing automakers would be devastating
How could a Nov. 14 contributor to the Readers' Forum show such disregard for thousands of hard-working Toledoans as to say "We do not 'need' an 'American' auto industry"?
These local men and women have bills to pay and families to support. Where would our city be if that entire industry was moved overseas like so many other manufacturing jobs?
The impact of that would be devastating.
Ellen Reinbolt
Sylvania
Casting dollar votes would change policy
During this holiday season, whenever I approach a retail store that has a Salvation Army bell ringer outside, I will inquire why he's not inside the entrance. If the answer is that he's not permitted because of store policy, I will turn around and cast my marketplace vote at stores with more enlightened policies.
If all good potential customers did the same, the policy would surely change.
Larry D. Manley
Findlay
Keeping millions working has value A Nov. 17 letter to the editor in The Blade stated that union auto workers were uneducated and overpaid. I invite the letter writer to get out of his comfy chair, come out from behind his desk, and work one day on an assembly line building vehicles safe enough for his family and friends to drive, then tell me I'm overpaid. And by the way, we've had to take aptitude tests to get our jobs for about 15 years now.
As for value, keeping millions of Americans working is always a value. Scott Franklin Chalmette Drive

A BAILOUT or a bridge to the future. No matter what it's called, government help for struggling domestic automakers has broad economic benefits that some of the plan's detractors appear willing to ignore, putting regional and political interests ahead of what's best for the nation.
Sen. Richard Shelby (R., Ala.) is one of the proposal's most ardent opponents, calling the U.S. auto industry a "dinosaur" Sunday on NBC's Meet The Press and saying that federal loans would only be "postponing the inevitable." On Wednesday he told the hosts of CBS's The Early Show that he doesn't believe the Big Three have changed their "model of failure."
Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised by such comments from a senator whose state has, in the last decade, laid out hundreds of millions of dollars in tax incentives to become home to major Honda, Mercedes, and Hyundai vehicle assembly plants.
According to the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, the state also is home to more than 90 automotive suppliers, as well as Toyota and International Diesel engine plants. Altogether, they employ some 48,000 people, a work force that would be in an ideal position to step up and meet consumer demand if Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler are allowed to fail.
We wonder if Senator Shelby has the broader nation's interests in mind in opposing aid that might allow the Big Three to survive. Or is he willing to allow failure of an industry that employs 240,000 people directly and 730,000 more indirectly through suppliers so his state can get a boost?
Senator Shelby is only part of a broader Republican intransigence that has emerged. The GOP declares - loud and clear - that the "free market" should be left to settle the issue, even when millions of workers suffer as a result.
Thus we have Mitt Romney callously advocating "managed bankruptcy" so the Big Three can "shed excess labor." The former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate even invokes the ghost of his father, George Romney, who saved American Motors in the 1950s. But it is clear that the son, whose family fortune was built on the labor of the workers he now considers collateral damage, has lost touch with his roots.
Indeed, the partisan tinge to the debate leads to the inevitable conclusion that Republicans, who were more than willing to bail out their buddies in the financial services industry, now wish to punish Ohio, Michigan, and other Midwest and Great Lakes states that helped give Democrats the White House. If that's the strategy, it can only backfire on the GOP.
The bald fact is that Congress must act because allowing the automakers to fail will cost as many as 3 million jobs, gutting the already struggling Michigan economy and having devastating consequences in Ohio, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and other states that depend to one degree or another on the Big Three.
In Michigan alone, the Associated Press reports there are 1,046 auto-related facilities such as manufacturing plants and auto parts suppliers. And that's not counting auto dealers, retail parts stores, and other businesses that would shrink or close. The effect of all this on the teetering national economy would be catastrophic.
The fact that Republicans have donned political blinders to what's at stake merely affirms that the judgment passed by voters in this month's elections was correct.

AS A SUPERPOWER, America's reach and responsibilities encompass the globe. As a nation of immigrants, Americans have inherited the genes of the planet. Yet U.S. citizens at home have not been noted for their curiosity about foreign cultures, and their image abroad has owed a lot to naive government policymakers or obnoxious tourists.
Move over stereotypes, there's good news about Americans' changing attitudes. According to the annual "Open Doors" report by the Institute of International Education, U.S. students in record numbers are recognizing the importance of an international education in a global society.
In the 2006-07 academic year, according to the report, the number of Americans studying abroad increased by 8 percent to 241,791. Over a decade, the number of U.S. students receiving academic credit for foreign study has risen nearly 150 percent.
Moreover, students are more frequently picking nontraditional destinations for study. While Britain remains the most popular choice, students in significantly greater numbers are learning in Ecuador, South Africa, Argentina, China, and India. With China emerging as a superpower, the number of American students studying there rose 25 percent from the previous year to 11,064.
The greater interest by U.S. students in the world is a compliment being repaid by foreign students. Although security restrictions after the 9/11 terrorism attacks contributed to a drop in international students attending American campuses, numbers have been rebounding and rose 7 percent last year to a record 623,805. India is the leading source of foreign students, with China second and South Korea third.
All this is to the good. No nation - least of all the United States - can afford to remain in cultural and linguistic isolation. With Americans going out to meet the world, and their campuses inviting the world back to learn, American values will play their part in shaping a better world of mutual understanding.

I have a real, not a tongue-in-cheek, suggestion to assist the City of Toledo in raising money to help alleviate the 2008 and the 2009 budget shortfalls.
As an outside salesman, I drive all over the Toledo metro area five days a week. During my travels I have yet to encounter a flashing yellow light indicating an in-force 20 miles per hour school zone speed limit in which at least one car has not passed me well in excess of the speed limit.
I don't know what the fines are for exceeding the speed limit in an active school zone, but based on the number of violations observed and the large number of school zones in Toledo, I am sure that thousands of dollars per week could be added to the city's revenue by enforcing the school zone speed limit.
In addition to enhancing the city's income, public safety would be enhanced by protecting schoolchildren from motorists oblivious to their safety.
Roger D. Stone
Woodlake Drive
Speaker should stick to tips for travelers
I found the Nov. 12 talk by Rick Steves at the Stranahan Theater interesting. The places he's visited were fascinating.
His views on social issues also were enlightening. Legalizing marijuana use and prostitution and embracing teen drinking? Higher taxes, larger government, embracing socialism, and relieving Third World debt?
What was equally disturbing was the reaction of the noticeably older crowd. There wasn't much reaction, just polite claps and head nods. I think he should stick to travel advice.
Rick Shortridge
Oregon
'Authors' talk used as political platform
I was so excited that Rick Steves came to Toledo. I am a 24-year-old who loves to travel and finds his show upbeat, interesting, and full of life.
Unfortunately, his talk at the Stranahan Theater was more a platform for his political views than tips for travelers. For example, he mentioned that Europeans basically work 20 percent less, pay higher taxes, and are better off for it.
I learned more about socialistic viewpoints and why things such as marijuana and prostitution should be legal than how to get the most out of my traveling.
This experience won't stop me from watching his show but I won't buy another ticket to feel like I'm watching annoying election commercials all over again.
Bethany Stevenson
Oregon
Thank an educator, parent for hard work
This week is American Education Week and we would like to remind people to thank the educators and parents in the area for all they do day in and day out to make a difference in a child's life. We would like to recognize all educators for their dedication to every child who enters their classroom. An educator inspires children every day to learn and grow in so many ways.
We would also like to recognize parents for providing a foundation for and placing value on their children's education. Parents and educators lay the groundwork for our future. At Sylvan Learning Center, we notice what educators and parents do for the children of our community but are rarely recognized for. So take the time to thank educators and parents for making a difference in a child's life.
Rene Schetter
Director
Sylvan Learning Center Holland That Jack Kelly's a kidder
Regarding Jack Kelly's Nov. 15 column in The Blade wherein he said he would give his "enthusiastic support" to Sarah Palin for president: Surely you jest. Charles T. Jacobs Donnelly Road

ONCE again, the Bush Administration has chosen to ignore the experts and go with its political gut in implementing new federal regulations.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is advancing rules expanding legal protections for health-care workers who have moral objections to abortion and other procedures, despite widespread evidence that the changes are unnecessary and will cause confusion, not clarity.
The same administration that ignored the advice of its own scientists when it implemented new smog standards now is ignoring organizations that represent the very employees whose rights it says it is trying to protect - the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, the American Hospital Association, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, and others.
In addition, officials from the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, including its lawyer, who was appointed by President Bush, oppose the change. EEOC officials pointed out that the agency was not consulted before the rule was issued, even though it ostensibly is designed to protect the rights of workers.
Three separate federal statutes - enacted in the 1970s, in 1996, and in 2005 - as well as laws in many states already protect so-called "provider conscience rights." But HHS says the 40 pages of regulations are necessary because "the public and many health-care providers are largely uninformed of the protections."
If that truly is the problem this new rule aims to solve, a public education campaign aimed at health-care workers would make more sense. The fact that the administration isn't pursuing that course suggests critics are justified in their concerns.
Women's health advocates are particularly worried that the regulation leaves the door open for too much interpretation about what services doctors, nurses, pharmacists, receptionists, and assistants can refuse to provide. Occasional controversies have arisen when health-care workers refuse to be associated with legal procedures like abortion or medical products like contraceptives. Currently, employees can opt out but hospitals and clinics, for the most part, must find ways to accommodate their patients. The regulations take the rights of patients out of the equation.
President-elect Barack Obama has said he will try to rescind the regulation if it is implemented, but that can take months. It's far too late for the Bush White House to be implementing major policy changes that only will mean time wasted to undo them after Jan. 20.

HUMAN behavior sometimes is so flagrantly ridiculous that it begs for adult intervention. That's the position in which the West Virginia Supreme Court finds itself with a case involving Massey Energy. The state justices will soon get the ultimate in adult oversight - the U.S. Supreme Court.
The nation's top court has decided to hear a case in which the workings of justice in the Mountain State give off a strong odor of conflict of interest.
In 2004, Massey Energy's chief executive officer, Don Blankenship, spent $3 million to help Brent Benjamin defeat an incumbent justice for a seat on the West Virginia court.
Back in 1998, Hugh Caperton, a West Virginia Coal company owner, had sued a Massey affiliate alleging fraud. Four years later, a lower court awarded Mr. Caperton $50 million in damages. But Massey appealed to the state's top court and Justice Benjamin was on the bench when the case was heard.
Although asked to step down from the case by Mr. Caperton's lawyers because of the appearance of a conflict of interest, he stayed on and has twice been part of a 3-2 majority ruling - the deciding vote - in Massey's favor.
To further shake public confidence, Chief Justice Elliott "Spike" Maynard, who had voted the first time to overturn the damages, recused himself after photos were made public showing him vacationing in Monte Carlo with Mr. Blankenship.
It's no wonder these goings-on have been enough for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide to hear this case, the type of dispute that the high court typically has been wary of entering.
There is no guarantee that Massey won't prevail, but with luck some semblance of justice will be done.
Perhaps the adults on the bench will suggest guidelines for jurists too immature to act responsibly when their political support poses a conflict.

On behalf of Citizens for Mental Health and the more than 20,000 individuals with mental-health and substance-use disorders expected to receive services this year from the Mental Health and Recovery Services system, I wish to thank Lucas County voters for their support of Issue 40.
This levy enables MHRS to continue its mission to facilitate recovery and an improved quality of life for persons experiencing mental illness and/or alcohol and other drug disorders.
The MHRS board pledges to continue to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and proficient overseers of the Lucas County Mental Health and Recovery Services system.
Jacqueline Martin
Executive Director
Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Lucas County Reagan, not Clinton, taxed Social Security
A recent letter to the editor in The Blade blamed President Bill Clinton for taxing Social Security when actually the idea originated with President Ronald Reagan in collusion with Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker. The tax on Social Security retirement benefits was 50 percent. This information is available on the Social Security Web site.
President Clinton did, however, increase the tax.
The letter writer also mentioned the prosperity of the Reagan years. I guess the writer forgot the tough recession of 1983. This recession occurred under Reagan and Mr. Volcker and resulted in the collapse of many American industries.
The term "rust belt," used to describe Ohio and other manufacturing states, was born at that time. Unemployment rose to between 10 percent and 12 percent and many people lost their jobs and homes.
If those were good times, I guess I have a different idea of good times.
Raymond Bieber
Perrysburg
Rent payments take taxes into account
A Nov. 9 contributor to the Readers' Forum in The Blade raised the point that renters do not pay taxes. The letter writer is correct, but renters do pay rent. Does he really think that the owner of my apartment building does not factor in taxes when determining my rent?
Any landlord addresses his costs and passes them on to the renters. I would imagine that a smart landlord charges more than his costs in order to make a profit on his investment.
I am certain that my rent will go up the next time my lease has to be renewed, and I voted "no" on most of the levies.
Robert P. Jones
Tremainsville Road
Get ready for 'free stuff'
Barack Obama is my president-elect. Hot diggity. Now, where do I go to get all of my free stuff? Tom Sussman Sylvania Township

THE issue of lavish CEO compensation as it relates to the economic downturn is getting a lot of attention these days, but business executives have nothing on their colleagues in the top posts at American colleges and universities.
According to the annual survey of the Chronicle of Higher Education, 59 public university presidents earned a total of more than $500,000 - base salary plus car, home, bonuses, deferred compensation, and other perks - during the 2007-08 year. Among private colleges, where the data runs a year behind, 89 presidents earned more than $500,000 in 2006-07.
Because of that information lag, the Ohio State University's mobile president, Gordon Gee, has the somewhat dubious distinction of appearing on both lists. His salary of more than $2 million when he was at Vanderbilt University in 2006-07 ranked second among private college presidents, and his $1,346,225 package at OSU last year topped the list of public university executives.
University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman's $760,196 was little more than half Mr. Gee's pay but still was good enough to rank her fifth on the list. Overall, pay for public college presidents was up more than 7 percent over 2006-07 and has risen more than 35 percent since 2003.
In fairness to Mr. Gee and Ms. Coleman, their salaries pale next to those of their schools' respective head football coaches, Jim Tressel and Rich Rodriguez, both of whom call the $2.5 million-per-year neighborhood home. And in Mr. Gee's case, few in the Ohio State community are likely to complain about either his or Coach Tressel's pay packet as long as OSU beats up on its northern rival on Saturday. If the outcome is not favorable, well, that's a story for another day.
By many measures, what Mr. Gee earns is less astronomical than it seems at first blush. His salary, for example, costs each of OSU's more than 60,000 undergraduate and graduate student just $22.31 per year, and it accounts for only about 0.03 percent of the huge university's total expenditures. Still, that's a lot of bow ties.
Boards of trustees defend these high salaries as being a good investment, especially in bad economic times, because university presidents typically function more as fund-raisers than academics.
But with states, including Ohio and Michigan, cutting back on aid to higher education, college costs continuing to rise, student loans harder to come by, and parents finding it increasingly difficult in a weak economy to pay for their children's education, six and seven-figure salaries are likely to become a lightning rod for parents and students scraping to get by.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) commented that "in these hard economic times, apparently belt tightening is for families and students, not university presidents." He's not likely to be the last to draw that conclusion.
Some school presidents, notably those of the University of Connecticut, the University of Louisville, and Rutgers University, have said no to recent bonuses because of the sad state of the economy.
Theirs is an example others might be wise to follow before the darkening attitude of the public toward business-executive pay shadows college campuses too.

TALK about worthless. After nearly a year of studying the problem of airline passengers stuck in hours-long delays, a federal task force has come up with nothing that requires carriers or airports to do anything differently.
The 36-member task force - dominated by airline industry and airport representatives - brought forth some recommendations but couldn't even agree on what constituted a "lengthy delay" on the tarmac. One hour? Two hours? Ten?
The panel's report, said group member Kate Hanni, who founded a passenger-rights coalition, "is a set of best practices, but there's nothing enforceable where a passenger can say, 'I won't be held up for more than three hours or five hours or eight hours, or without a glass of water or a sandwich.'•"
The task force was created last December by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters after several incidents in which passengers were stuck on board for several hours before their flight took off or before they were allowed to get off the plane.
Last fall, the Transportation Department's inspector general recommended that a limit be set for how long airlines can force passengers to wait on planes during delays.
But apparently the comfort of passengers was less of a concern to the airline industry than any enforceable law or regulation.

I recently discovered a quote by Teddy Roosevelt, the president mainly responsible for preserving large tracts of land as national parks. He embraced the spirit of conservation and became an enduring example of the wisdom of a "sustainable" lifestyle.
The people of our land have weathered many dark times and still persevered. Natural and man-made disasters throughout the world have been met, time and time again, by humanitarian assistance from the people of these United States. The Creator has blessed our people for their generosity throughout our nation's history.
Once again, our nation and the world are facing enormous challenges, including the distribution of valuable natural resources, ecological upheaval, and moral and ethical misbehavior causing grave personal suffering for countless people.
It is true, we reap what has been sown, whether or not we actively participated in the sowing. We have to work together with new political leadership to create a sustainable society.
If we don't, our very existence on this planet is questionable. Severe climatic changes worldwide, whatever the cause, have the potential to escalate and someday render huge expanses of our planet uninhabitable.
Oh, I almost forgot. That quote by Roosevelt read: "It is not being in the dark house, but having left it, that counts."
Judith M. Junga
Lott Court
Religion isn't cause of intolerant acts Ignorance knows no boundaries; it transcends all regions, religions, and ethnicity. The stoning death of a 13-year old girl in Somalia by ignorant thugs was deplorable, as was the Nov. 7 letter in the Readers' Forum by an equally ignorant person who baselessly linked that violent act to Islam.
Let us recall Timothy McVeigh, the Unabomber, and Columbine and other school shootings throughout the United States.
Recall also the attacks on President-elect Barack Obama, who was referred to as "an Arab terrorist," accused by GOP candidates of "palling around with terrorists." Remember the labeling of the Iraq war as a holy war and the recently distributed DVD Obsession. Were any one of these perpetrators Muslims?
It is as ignorant, arrogant, and intolerant to equate moderate Muslims noiselessness with them condoning the violent acts perpetrated in the name of Islam as it would be for Muslims to point an accusatory finger at moderate Christians for the misdeeds of a few radical or misguided Christians, or for their silence when such acts are perpetrated.
This is the post 9/11 era and, more importantly, the post 2008-election era, when the divisive forces of John McCain and Sarah Palin were resoundingly defeated. Let us truly make a difference in this great country of ours by taking the time to get to know each other rather than pointing fingers at each other.
The Qur'an, similar to the Bible and the Torah, is replete with the word "mercy." Everything in Islam begins with a phrase that contains the word merciful. The Qur'an also tells that Jesus was a man of mercy and tolerance. How much of those attributes have his diehard followers imbibed is another story.
My point? Religion is not responsible for ignorance, arrogance, or intolerance.
Shakila Abdul-Majeed
Perrysburg
Old West End needs police substation The Nov. 8 edition of •The Blade reported yet another violent criminal act in the Lawrence-Delaware-Maplewood-Detroit vicinity. A person shot in the back, a house fire-bombed, and now, someone shot six times. I am sure there have been more.
I drive through this area two to four times per day; it is referred to as a drug drive-up window. There are always individuals lingering alone or in groups, along with the children headed to school and elderly neighbors and individuals waiting for buses. It is a miracle that innocent people are not injured. Is it a surprise when neighbors refer to Maplewood as Maplehood?
This presents a very green opportunity for the city to spend some of its money saved by cutting the police training class to build a police substation on a vacant lot the vicinity. Then the police could simply walk to the scene of the crime, saving fuel and getting needed exercise. They might even witness the crime saving, unnecessary investigations.
Seriously, isn't it time to get this neighborhood cleaned up?
Wayne North
Collingwood Boulevard
Shots fired should be higher priority I am a senior at the University of Toledo and I live with two roommates in a rental house in the Bancroft Hills neighborhood. On Oct. 31 there was gunfire from my next door neighbor's front yard. Three other neighbors who had heard fighting and the gunfire called the police. No police ever responded. No police came at all until the next day, when my roommates and I discovered there was a bullet that had gone through our house.
When the police came to look at the bullet holes in our walls, they told me they had been out the night before after the shots were fired but if they were, they never even talked to the neighbors where the shooting occurred. The police report is calling it a drive-by shooting. The police have made excuses and are neglecting their job.
I know there are many things that the police have to respond to, but I feel that several shots being fired in a neighborhood would be fairly high on the list. It is very disheartening that someone would have to be injured for this to be taken seriously by the police.
Emily Kremer
Kensington Road
Incentive packages draining resources The loss of over 7,000 jobs at DHL will devastate Wilmington, Ohio, according to an interview with the community's mayor that I listened to on one of the financial channels. But what about the $400 million state and local incentive package given to the firm just three years ago?
According to its own financial statements, the company has increased its dividends 20 percent, its top executive's compensation was over 4 million euros, and the company expects its 2008 profits to be 4.2 billion euros. DHL is even projecting $4.7 billion as its 2009 profit.
So again I ask: What about the $400 million state and local incentive package given to DHL in 2005?
This is what's draining our state and local resources.
Estelle Blackburn
East Pearl Street
Policy on bell ringers turns off shopper Recently at the Alexis Road Kmart I saw a Salvation Army bell ringer standing outside in the cold, windy, damp weather. I have no affiliation whatsoever with Salvation Army but I have always appreciated and supported its superhuman holiday efforts. As I donated, I asked the bell ringer why he was outside and learned he was not allowed inside to collect donations.
I was astonished, spoke to the store manager, was given the usual defensive drivel, and expressed my extreme amazement at the inhumane decision that these people doing caring work for others should not be permitted just inside the lobby during their annual collection program. I advised that manager that I would not shop at Kmart during the Christmas season and left. And I won't shop there again unless I learn of a change in this insensitive stance.
Soon after at The Andersons, I saw a bell ringer inside so I complimented the manager on the decision to support bell ringers and allow them indoors. I later made a call to a local Target and learned they are continuing their apathetic policy of not permitting bell ringers at their facilities at all.
I am truly astounded and angry at the heartless Kmart directive and the indifference of the Target stores.
I will go out of my way to support The Andersons and other caring stores, and I will avoid Kmart, Target, and others of their ilk for the entire holiday season, if not longer.
Chris Humbert
Temperance
‘Dynamic Duo’ can be replaced Mayor Carty Finkbeiner and City Council. What a dynamic duo. Why don’t they grow up and work together to solve our problems? If they won’t do that, it won’t be too long before they can be replaced.
CARL TABER Winston Boulevard

THE Pentagon is already beginning to speak out to protect its turf as cuts in arms programs loom in the new administration. Two factors make it likely that the next defense budget, the highest (adjusted for inflation) since World War II at $515 billion, will be reduced. The first is that President-elect Barack Obama has said he will withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq. The war has cost an estimated $600 billion so far, currently about $10 billion a month. The end of it should, in principle, produce a financial "peace dividend." The second factor is that money is needed to rejuvenate the economy and support Obama projects like job creation through infrastructure improvement and better health care and education. As of now, defense expenditures gobble up half of the government's discretionary spending. At least one Pentagon chief already is squawking in anticipation of cuts. Lt. Gen. Henry A. "Trey" Obering III, director of the Missile Defense Agency, said that American interests would be "severely hurt" if Mr. Obama cut President Bush's proposed $50 billion missile defense program in Eastern Europe. According to General Obering, the U.S. ability to protect its forces and allies would be reduced and U.S. leadership of NATO undermined if funding were cut. It is fair to ask on what basis General Obering, as an active military officer, has a right to take a public position on a political issue. He is reportedly leaving his post soon. In any case, defense officials tend to speak of their money as required for the "national security mission," rather than as government funds subject to competition based on overall national priorities. One task of an incoming president is to review the whole budget and decide whether proposed expenditures reflect the country's true priorities. It's hard to imagine that the Obama administration will not take this occasion, given the ailing economy and its intention to end the Iraq war, to cut military spending sharply. If leaders at the Pentagon cannot live with these changes, they should be replaced promptly.

HERB Score was no Jack Buck but Cleveland Indians fans loved him anyway. When the former Indians left-hander turned team broadcaster died last week at 75, he was mourned not as the baseball legend he might have become but as the unpretentious everyman of the game.
Mr. Score, whose promising major league career with the Indians was tragically derailed by a freak injury in 1957, came to symbolize Cleveland baseball like few others.
Then 23, Mr. Score was pitching against the Yankees at Municipal Stadium when shortstop Gil McDougald drilled a low pitch on a line into his right eye. He never regained the form that made him a two-time All-Star and retired after several comeback attempts.
But baseball was in his blood, and Mr. Score made a second career of calling Indians games on radio and television for 34 years. He would never be mistaken for a great broadcaster but he didn't pretend to be. He was more like family or a close friend describing the action for a fan sitting behind one of those big steel pillars in the old stadium.
He never took himself too seriously or acted like a star. He was cast in the mold of other baseball legends before him, humble and happy to be a part of baseball as long as he was, following his Indians through bad and almost-great years.
Mr. Score could have wallowed in his rotten luck at being struck down at the start of what likely would have been a brilliant career but he never did. He considered himself lucky for what counted: his wife and family.
And the generation of Indians fans with whom he forged a unique relationship consider themselves lucky for having known him as a powerful athlete, comfortable broadcaster, and beloved baseball enthusiast who enriched the game.

This is in response to a letter to the editor in The Blade on Nov. 3 entitled: "Maybe now is the time to buy U.S. made." I am tired of reading all of these letters and listening to people whine and complain about people not buying American. I buy the best-value product all the time. Unfortunately, this means that a lot of the time I end up buying something that was not produced in the United States.
The letter writer likes to blame company greed on the rising cost of products like U.S. cars when in fact it is the excessive money union workers make that results in higher-priced vehicles. On average, a U.S.-made car costs about $2,000 to $3,000 more than a foreign car. Why? Because people who have a high school education, maybe less, make $20, $25 an hour. That is a joke.
It is the unions that are ruining things, not the companies. I guess the letter writer is asking people like me to sacrifice and spend more money just so I can buy American made? No way. I will continue, even when the economy rebounds, to buy the best-value, best-quality product. If it is American made, great. If it is foreign made, that is good too. This is America. I can buy what I choose from whom I choose.
Scott Jamieson
Leisure Drive
Auto bailout should have strings attached
My first car, a 1965 Volkswagen, got 25 mpg in town, 35 mpg on the highway. Forty years later, this is still the best automakers offer. I would buy a new car but Detroit refuses to build me one.
I watched them fight economical, clean technology and squander resources on bigger, faster, thirstier models. They built vehicles to satisfy stockholder greed, ignoring the needs of consumers. Executive salaries would make a Roman emperor swoon. The guy on the assembly line makes twice what his kid's teacher makes.
In America we don't reward irresponsibility. They want $75 billion tax dollars. Who do they think they are? They are holding the American economy hostage. Do we negotiate with terrorists?
Bail them out on our terms. The money comes as a stock purchase. That's how we invest in companies in a free-market economy. The money should come with stipulations. All of it should be spent on developing environmentally responsible vehicles. Make the time frame for a hydrogen-powered car in the showrooms 60 months. Cap executive salaries at $500,000. Buy the automakers and run them like the Manhattan Project, getting what we need. Give the money only to end the madness.
Two years ago, Honda announced it would produce a hybrid vehicle with a combined mileage of 54 mpg and bring it to market for under $20,000. This spring you will be able to buy that vehicle. That's responsibility. Responsibility gets rewarded. Should I go with blue or silver?
Joseph A. Munier
Maumee
Storing gasoline is very dangerous
With the price of gasoline dipping below the $2 mark, I have noticed a quite disturbing trend. This is the filling of multiple containers at the service stations, which leads me to believe that people are improperly storing gasoline as a hedge against higher prices in the future. I have one thing to say to anyone who is contemplating this: Don't do it.
Gasoline is one of the most volatile chemicals one can handle. A small amount of it, improperly stored, can cause catastrophic damage. Think of your loved ones and the home that you scrimped and saved and worked so hard for. They could all be gone in an instant. There likely will be no restitution if there's a fire as I am fairly certain homeowners insurance will be nullified. And we all know of the finality of the loss of loved ones. There is also the prospect of fines and criminal charges to contend with, if you survive. So I say again, don't do it.
William Munson
Northwood
Car culture must end for sake of world
I agree - leave the sport utility vehicles and the Hummers parked. But also leave parked the minivans and begin seriously thinking about doing the same with the Honda and Toyota sub-compacts. Don't even consider electric or other alternate-energy autos either. Why? Because this isn't just about breaking our addiction to oil. Rather it's about changing the whole way we live.
For the sake of our world, the "car culture" must come to an end, and soon - not in 10, 20, 30, or 40 years. The redevelopment of mass transit (intra-city and inter-city) needs be to a high priority. And that means taxes to discourage automobile use and for the re-creation of a system the Big Three deliberately destroyed over 60 years ago. The question is: do we have the guts to really change?
Mike Drabik
Bronson Avenue
South gave millions to auto industry
Recently, Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama was reported in The Blade as saying, "I do not support the use of U.S. taxpayer dollars to reward the mismanagement of the Detroit-based auto manufacturers in such a way that allows them to continue and compound their ongoing mistakes."
Let's talk about government aid to auto manufacturers. Alabama has spent $800 million in incentives for the automotive industry since 1993. Most has gone to Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Toyota, and Hyundai. I'm sure Senator Shelby knows that Toyota "invested" $4.6 million in lobbying government officials in 2006 alone. Alabama gave $410 million in incentives for a Kia plant and also $89 million for a Honda plant. South Carolina gave $80 million for a BMW plant. Mississippi gave $68 million for a Nissan plant.
These are just a few examples of a huge government bailout by Southern states to undermine the industrial North.
Paul Wohlfarth
Ottawa Lake
Palin is scapegoat for McCain defeat
I am a Democrat but I cannot help but feel that the Republican Party is using Sarah Palin as a scapegoat for the loss of the election. Regardless of how you voted, the GOP cannot blame her. She excited her base and replaced what I saw as an old boy network. The blame for the loss of the election is squarely on John McCain. He picked advisers who had inflated egos and he did not have the leadership capabilities to stop the infighting.
Why he lost the election may be because experience is not necessarily synonymous with good leadership. Barack Obama may not have the experience of Mr. McCain but you cannot deny his ability to pull people together to get things done. Mr. Obama had leadership skills that amazed me. We needed a leader which is why he got my vote.
Maureen Georgevich
Perrysburg
Obama win recalls Franklin's warning
The election of Barack Obama as president of the United States brings to mind the warning given to this fledgling country by Benjamin Franklin more than 200 years ago:
"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic"
Anybody home?
Ralph Russo
Findlay
Work as a team now that election's over
This presidential election was particularly tough on all of us. Isn't it nice we live in a country that enables us to have and express our own opinion? I know that in my experience, "love thy neighbor," was nonexistent. But it is time to stop thinking of only ourselves.
We, as a country, need to pull together and support our new president-elect. All of our lives and dreams depend on him doing his job. The United States of America needs to be one for all if we expect for all of us as individuals and as a nation to survive.
So be kind to your neighbor. We are all in this together and need to work as a team.
Christine L. Smith
Comet Avenue
After all, they are Republicans
While talking about anonymous critics in the GOP, Gov. Sarah Palin said, "It's mean-spirited. It's immature. It's unprofessional, and those guys are jerks taking things out of context." What did she expect? That's the definition of a Republican. Bill Pieper Oregon

PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama may have already faced and survived his first foreign affairs threat, from Russia over President Bush's missile defense project.
Vice presidential candidate Joe Biden was criticized during the latter part of the presidential campaign for having said that Mr. Obama would be tested early in his term by a national security crisis. The Republican campaign leapt on the statement as a way to point up Mr. Obama's relative inexperience as a reason not to vote for him.
But the first challenge already may have been blunted, still two months before Mr. Obama takes office.
One of Mr. Bush's favorite undertakings has been a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. He says it is directed against rogue states with nuclear weapons, but the Russians think it was aimed at them, given that parts of it would be based on their borders, in Poland and in the neighboring Czech Republic.
It is generally expected that Mr. Obama as president will quietly shelve or delay significantly the program as unnecessary, expensive, and unlikely to work.
Rather than just letting this occur in the course of events, however, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev jumped the gun and announced that Russia would deploy its own missile systems on the border with Poland and Lithuania in response to the U.S. plan.
This could put Mr. Obama behind the eight ball in forcing him either to maintain the futile program, so as not to appear to be caving in to Russian pressure, or to open his new administration to classic Republican criticism of Democratic governments as weak on defense if he proceeded as intended.
But the Russians seem to have realized the corner into which they were painting Mr. Obama - and themselves - and now say they will deploy on their side of the border only if the United States deploys the system in Poland and the Czech Republic. Moscow also announced that Mr. Obama and Mr. Medvedev had a useful telephone conversation last weekend that included a pledge to meet soon.
Thus, the storm cloud posed by the missile defense issue seems to have passed, at least for the moment.
The long-term message for both the incoming Obama administration and the Kremlin is, first, that communication between them is vital, particularly on the subject of weapons systems, and, second, that such dialogue is best undertaken in private, as opposed to exchanges of press statements.
It is definitely not to either country's advantage to nail the other down on a sensitive subject at this stage, with Mr. Obama still 10 weeks from assuming responsibility for America's foreign policy. He knows that he will need to repair U.S.-Russian relations as president. The Russians should not make that harder to do by throwing stones on his way into office.

GERMANY is now officially in recession, laying to rest any ideas that it or Europe was immune to the rot spreading across the world from the American economy.
As the 27-member European Union has grown in size and economic heft, there has been some thought that its relationship with the United States was no longer such that when America sneezed Europe caught cold.
Instead, Germany announced last week that it, the world's third largest economy after the United States and Japan, had registered a second quarter of negative growth, the official bell whose tolling signals recession.
The German economy lost 0.5 percent in the third quarter, after losing 0.4 percent in the second - the worst figures in 12 years. Unemployment is also rising in spite of a $63 billion stimulus package.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warns the world not to expect better performance until perhaps late next year.
The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, says that his country's economic situation is worse than expected and that its dropping exports are prompting government action.
These developments underline the need for the United States, the original locus of the problem, to get its house back in order, even as it copes with the change in presidents.
The subprime mortgage problem started this, although no one obliged foreign economies to buy the bad American paper or adopt Americans' irresponsible approach to credit.

WHAT was Waterville's young mayor thinking when he promoted an ordinance to protect villagers from a threat that does not exist now and is not likely to exist in the future? Perhaps it was just youthful exuberance; but maybe it was something more.
Earlier this year, Mayor Derek Merrin, Ohio's youngest mayor when he was elected last year at the tender age of 21, proposed that the village ban sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of parks or day-care centers. This week, the village council voted 6-1 against the ordinance after hearing from an angry crowd of residents who opposed the measure. Mayor Merrin cast the only "yes" vote.
It's now a dead issue, and ought to remain so.
The mayor has said he sees protecting village residents as his most important job. Without the ordinance, he said, a sex offender could move next door to a playground, "reach over his fence, grab a child, and take that child into his house."
Villagers attending the council meeting didn't agree, but apparently that was because they were from parts of the village not covered by the ban rather than from any uneasiness over the mayor's intent. They were afraid that sex offenders would move into their neighborhoods, hurting their businesses, driving down home values, and placing their children in danger.
But what was being overlooked in all the hoopla was the fact that only one sex offender lives in Waterville, his crime was committed many years ago, and he has not offended since.
So where's the danger? Is Waterville in the path of a sex-offender migration of which we are unaware? Is the village being targeted on some offender Web site or predator chat room? Have sex offenders been seen scoping out neighborhoods, checking real estate listings for homes with fences suitable for lurking behind, or inquiring about the location of day-care centers? We doubt it.
We have no sympathy for people who sexually abuse children, and we believe that laws requiring offenders to register with local police and prohibiting them from living near where young people congregate are appropriate. But the danger in this case seems to be all in Mayor Merrin's mind, and his half-baked plan to counter a nonexistent threat makes us wonder if he harbors some strange agenda.
If so, he has gone too far. The mayor can no more legislate to keep sex offenders out of Waterville - his stated intention - than he could pass an ordinance prohibiting rapists, murderers, bank robbers, or others who have been convicted of crimes and paid their debt to society from moving to the village.
There are too many important issues facing villages such as Waterville for the mayor to waste time and resources pursuing non-issues for whatever personal reasons.