To the editor: Why wait for a new jail
A new jail downtown would be a fitting tribute to soon-to-be-retired Sheriff John Tharp.
Thu, 10 Oct 2019 04:00:00 GMT
Whatever happened to the plans to build a new jail in Lucas County?
The last time I tuned in it was February, and a citizens group had just won a referendum requiring the jail to be built in downtown Toledo.
What is the holdup?
There must be several suitable locations in metro Toledo for a correctional facility close to the courts.
This attitude that the county commissioners seem to have that no one is going to tell them where to build a jail is both arrogant and sophomoric.
A new jail downtown would be a fitting tribute to soon-to-be-retired Sheriff John Tharp. This hard-working, dedicated person has been a public servant for more than 50 years. His Drug Abuse Response Team program is nationally recognized as an innovative addiction response resource unit.
Toledo city council, Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz, and the Lucas County commissioners should consider naming a new jail the John Tharp Correctional and Treatment Facility.
GEORGE WEIDNER
West Toledo
New leaf rules
Republican Donna Owens was elected mayor in 1983 over the issue of leaf pickup.
Now we cannot put leaves in the street any longer because we’re told it is a safety problem.
We all know from past years’ experiences that if our leaves aren’t in the street for the front-end loaders to scoop them up the job will be passed by and our leaves will be left beside the curb while we are at work or otherwise are not home.
We voters must remember this during our next election for mayor and city council.
Donna Owens, where are you?
RON MARSHALL
Central Toledo
Eds. note: A city spokesman said longstanding policy is to put leaves on the street a few days before scheduled pickup.
Oligarchy reigns
There are many aspects to defending a nation’s security, its sovereignty, and its integrity. As we remain deeply divided along party lines to defend and to demand accountability, I offer this question: How would Americans have regarded a phone call from then-President Obama to the British Prime Minister asking him or her to use their resources to investigate the business dealings and possible corruption of then-candidate Donald Trump and his children in Europe?
That campaign instead painted Hillary Clinton as having been derelict in preventing an attack and securing an election outcome by tarnishing the truthfulness and competence to govern of an opponent. Within days of the Mueller report testimony that investigated President Trump’s behavior involving Russia’s investigation of his opponents in 2016, Mr. Trump calls the Ukraine president — and the Chinese leader as well.
Asking other foreign leaders essentially to find “dirt” on what he must fear is his most serious threat to being re-elected makes it clear that Mr. Trump refuses to recognize, or believe, the immorality of such ploys to manipulate the election outcome. A very Machiavellian attitude: win by any means. And a dangerous morality for the people when it is the leader of a democracy who embraces it.
If elections can be so openly manipulated, why should anyone spend millions of dollars — and hours — campaigning on platforms that address public concerns? Why should anyone vote? At least there would be transparency about how a president gains office. And instead of suggesting we are a democracy, we can admit we are an oligarchy, defined as “a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution” e.g., the English aristocracy that colonists revolted against in 1776.
It’s a governance system still evident in Russia’s inner circle of Communist party leaders, as First Lady Melania Trump’s father was reportedly a part of.
CAROL NELSON BURNS
Catawba Island
Plastic bag-lined boxes are used to catch the rainwater dripping into the basement of the Lucas County Jail in March of 2018.