President Obama’s State of the Union Address revealed five crucial failures in his competency as President.

Failure to understand basic economics. He advocated demolishing the foundation of our economy when he called for financial institutions to be banned from taking risks. Risk is part of the free market! Eliminating risk requires total government control of the economy, including private property and capital, and correspondingly the abolition of liberty.

After condemning President Bush’s tax cuts as contributing to the federal deficit by not being “paid for,” he failed to explain how his would be. The truth is that Bush’s were paid for, by net increases in revenues as the economy grew under their – ahem! – stimulus.

President Barack Obama

Failure to understand responsibility. He decried the deficit he inherited and lied about its origins. After increased tax revenues had halved the deficit, it expanded because of unrestrained spending and the present recession – which some say was induced by the growing likelihood of an Obama presidency. Be that as it may: It is now far worse because of the trillions of dollars in new spending that Obama signed into law. Yet, to him, the resulting deficit is solely the responsibility of his predecessor.

Conversely, he took responsibility for what he did not do. He claimed responsibility for the bank bailout, which his predecessor signed into law.

He claimed that Americans are upset that “Washington has been unable or unwilling to solve any of our problems.” Which leads to another failure – to understand that, to paraphrase President Reagan, too much government is in itself a tremendous problem. The responsibility of government is to safeguard our liberty, not to solve our problems.

Failure to be truthful. He profoundly shamed himself when he not only lied about the Supreme Court’s recent free-speech ruling, but also publicly humiliated and embarrassed the justices for daring to defy him. Presidential? This was the stuff of a petty tyrant.

Either he lied when he said that he cut taxes for 95 percent of working families, or my wife and I are part of the five percent. My federal income tax went up 0.56 percent effective my check of January 12, which exposes another lie: That no one’s income tax was increased, unless you take that claim at the strictest meaning of “a single dime on a single person.”

He lied in touting his proposed spending freeze. On the face of it, a freeze would be to his credit. But freeze it where? At the massively expanded level to which he’s taking it? And the lie was compounded as he boasted of the billions he will save – after spending trillions, more than all his predecessors combined.

He lied when he said his deficits will be paid for on his watch. Our grandchildren will be paying for his deficits. His idea to “invest in our people without leaving them a mountain of debt” was laughable.

Failure to respect and obey the Constitution. He wants to overrule Congress when it fails to do his bidding. The Senate, with its Democrat supermajority, failed to pass a desired bill. So he will simply issue an executive order to compensate for his ineffective leadership by making it so anyway. So much for the role of Congress.

From health care demolition to overriding Congress and beyond, we have a President to whom the Constitution is merely something to be bent, shaped and molded to his whims. Uphold and defend? Fold, spindle and mutilate.

Failure to appreciate the intelligence of the American people. Popular opposition to health care demolition has become so virulent that even Congressional Democrats are standing down for fear of their political careers. Yet he called on them to do the suicidal and support it for the sake of their Leader’s agenda.

In sum, this speech was just a campaign rant against his predecessor. It is little wonder that he’s been so ineffective in addressing national problems, when his need to exalt his ego is his central concern. Then had the gall to claim that we’re frustrated because we think that, in Washington, “every day is election day!”

He rightly identified what he called a “deficit of trust.” But it’s not because of lobbyists, such as those who populate his administration in droves, as he claimed. Americans are angry, but most certainly not because we don’t understand what’s happening in Washington. It’s because we understand it all too well.

We’re being governed by statists who want three things and three things only: Enrichment and power for themselves and their friends; expansion of government power; and diminishment or elimination of our liberty. That, and the agenda of an arrogant, narcissistic braggart in the White House, is why we are angry.

Thomas Berry, for the Children of Liberty, http://thechildrenofliberty.ning.com.

For millions of people, the name Gordon Parks will forever be connected to the 1971 film “Shaft.” But as the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA)’s latest exhibition shows, his career can be viewed from many different angles. “Bare Witness: Photography by Gordon Parks” is set to open in the TMA’s Canaday Gallery on Feb. 5.
The collection, which was originally organized by Stanford University’s Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for the Visual Arts, spans several decades and artistic periods in Parks’ career, including his famed days with Life Magazine,
covering iconic cultural figures, such as Muhammad Ali and Eldridge Cleaver.
“Though I was somewhat familiar with Parks, the tough part of working on this show was all of the research, just bringing myself up to speed,”  said TMA Exhibit Curator Tom Loeffler.    “We first received the exhibition proposal from the Cantor Center in late 2007, and that’s when I really started examining his life and work, during that review process.”
Parks, who got his start as a freelance fashion photographer in St. Paul,  Minn. would gain prominence in Chicago, after coming to the attention of the wife of heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis and later winning a photography fellowship with the Farm Security Administration. Parker died in March, 2006.
“I absolutely think that Parks’ work is just as socially relevant in today’s culture because the themes that he spoke to, racism, inequality and other social injustices are still things that we deal with today,” Loeffler said.
“Bare Witness: Photography by Gordon Parks” will remain on display through April 25. The exhibit is free. For more information, call (419) 255-8000 or visit www.toledomuseum.org.

While America is watching the Super Bowl on Feb. 7, many things fans will see on the field are great lessons for people in business, according to the local authors of the book, “The Two-Minute Drill: Lessons for Rapid Organizational Improvement from America’s Greatest Game.”
The textbook for achieving rapid change in business was published by three local academic and business leaders, Clinton Longenecker, Greg Papp and Timothy Stansfield.
“The two-minute drill is a perfect analogy as it relates to organizational change and improvement,” Marvin Lewis, head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, wrote in the foreword for the book.
“In the book, Clint, Greg and Tim have made a very strong case that the practices associated with
a two-minute drill in football have direct application to real and rapid improvement in the workplace,” Lewis wrote.
When NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell read “The Two-Minute Drill,” he wrote the authors, stating “Glad you used football to teach so many valuable lessons organizations can use. Brilliant! This is a great example of the game giving back to the fans.”
The two-minute drill model captures the essence of the critical elements surrounding the final two minutes of a football game in which one team needs to move the ball quickly and score to win the game.
Each of the elements of the model applies directly to organizational change initiatives in business,
according to the authors.
Based on the two-minute drill model, the book combines legendary football finishes with a series of actual business cases to help readers learn and apply skills
for creating and managing successful change initiatives.
“The Two-Minute Drill” is designed to give business leaders a vehicle that they can use to drive real improvement when the stakes are high, time is short and real results are needed,” stated the authors about their concept.

From left, Clint Longenecker, Greg Papp and Timothy Stansfield.

“We emphasize the importance of making effective change is leadership and to be serious about change requires a game plan,” said Longenecker,
a professor in the College of Business at UT.  “It’s impossible to affect change without good leadership.”
“Leadership is the first step in affecting change in business as well as football,” said Papp, president of Cube Culture Corp.
The ultimate success rate for both a football and an organizational two-minute drill is highly dependent on the skills and attitude of the quarterback, according to the book.
“Effective change requires one quarterback on the field in control of the game, especially in the two-minute drill. If you want change to happen, leadership must support it completely,” said Stansfield, president of IET Inc.
“Most successful change is done faster with a sense of urgency, while focusing on the defined goal with great leadership. The two-minute drill is a mindset that can direct teams or companies to achieve significant change,” he said.
The book provides numerous business cases to help readers learn and apply skills for creating and managing successful change initiatives. Each chapter focuses on key elements of the process for rapid change, offering momentum builders that are essential to making real change happen in business.
“Having played quarterback and run the two-minute drill in college, it is no different in business. Organizational change and transformation demand
action, so define winning, prepare, communicate, seize control, adjust quickly, and above all, execute,” John Meier, chairman and former CEO of Libbey, Inc., was quoted on the jacket of the book.
“I made the ‘Two-Minute Drill’ part of my playbook and you should also. The clock is ticking on all of us.”
Meier stated.
“I’m a huge football fan and believe there are many parallels between team sports and business. ‘The Two-Minute Drill’ is one of them that really works. Approach your next change with the two-minute drill and you’ll see what I mean,” Jani Miller, CEO of Central Travel in Toledo, stated in the book.
Miller said that she and her company have worked with Longenecker for many years on strategic planning for their business.
He helped  Central Travel to develop an employee appraisal program, called
Performance And Review System, which they continue to use.
“We’re so fortunate to have that level of expertise locally,” Miller said.
The authors have consulted with many local, regional and national
companies teaching the theories of the two-minute drill, including Cooper Tire, Marathon Oil, Harley-
Davidson, La-Z-Boy, Johns-Manville, and ProMedica.
“Thinking about change as a two-minute drill can help leaders energize their people and make better use of both time and talent. It works!” Randy Oostra, president and CEO of ProMedica, stated in the book.
The fundamentals of the two-minute drill apply to all types of challenging business situations, such as product launch delays, quality problems, profitability shortfalls or distribution issues.
“Businesses can accelerate their organizational changes or improvements if they approach the problem-solving process with the two-minute drill mindset,” Longenecker said.
For the past decade, the authors conducted ongoing research on both successful and unsuccessful organizational efforts at change. The book chronicles the driving forces for successful transformations, as well as some of the failures.
The authors used various methodologies of data collection, including interviews, focus groups and surveys. Their sample of more than 1,000 managers in all of those methods included 31 percent senior management, 36 percent middle and
33 percent front-line managers.
The authors reported they have reached 12,000 to 15,000 people with talks, seminars and workshops since the book was published in 2007.
One presentation was made to 800 human resource leaders in Michigan last year.
They have numerous seminars and workshops scheduled in 2010
in Detroit, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis and other locations, Longenecker said.
The three authors, who have known each other for 25 to 30 years, converged in 2005 to discuss rapid change in business. The relationship to the two-minute drill in football was originally Papp’s idea.
The trio started writing material for the book in August 2006 and completed the text for it in January 2007 after several reviews and revisions, “and we’re still friends,” they said .
They chronicled more than 1,000 change initiatives and put together a book proposal. It was published in the fall of 2007 by Jossey-Bass of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. The book has been on a number of bestseller lists for businesses that are making a difference, such as the American Management Association’s best-selling books of 2008, Longenecker said.
They have published six journal articles to help spread the word about “The Two-Minute Drill,” including “Effective Manufacturing Improvement” in the January 2009 edition of Industrial Management, and “Quarterbacking Real and Rapid Organizational Improvement” in the Winter 2009 publication of the Leader to Leader Institute.
For more information, go to www.twominutedrill.org or contact Clint Longenecker at clinton.longenecker@utoledo.edu.

Even in the midst of winter, we continue to sail the waves here in Toledo; and like any ship plying its trade in such weather, we search the horizon for ice.
There is little doubt as to why we do so, having suffered so long under the captaincy of Mayor Carleton S. Finkbeiner. For while he was praised in some quarters as the city’s No. 1 cheerleader, there is little doubt that his true legacy will be that of a misogynist misanthrope and maniacal ego-maniac who terrorized co-workers, antagonized business owners and neighboring governments and abused perhaps his best and only friend (a dog).  He was truly a danger to the ship he sailed.
This image first came to mind as I listened to Brian Wilson on WSPD discussing the inaugural speech by Mike Bell, as he talked about taking charge of a sinking Titanic. There is much to recommend this comparison. I believe his point that this ship of state must first have the hole in its side plugged if any of the passengers aboard are to be saved is a valid one. I would take it even one step further perhaps, and say that it must first be recognized that there is a hole in the ship before we can begin to plug it.
Many of our local politicians have paid lip service to this impending doom, talking about finding a way to deal with the ever mounting debt of the city, but few have made concrete proposals to deal with it. Pouring city money into the Erie Street Market, the Imagination Station (COSI for those of you who don’t recognize the new name yet), Southwyck and the Marina District hardly seems the way. Yet such behavior seemed to pass with little notice or objection by City Council members during our recent past as they continued to pile good money upon bad for one nonsensical project after another.
Those doing with less alas were the taxpayers, paying increased trash fees to get a system of rotating trash days and finance trash cans and trucks that none seemed to want, while calls to privatize the system went unheeded. Unheeded as well, went calls to go back to private ambulance service and eliminate the need for the overtime budgets of city firefighters to fill the gaps in service.
New contracts were negotiated with city workers, even in the midst of this impending crisis, which called for apparent sacrifices by some of Toledo’s unions, but their offerings were illusory and temporary, with future budgets to bear the burden of shortsightedness on the part of both unions and city negotiators alike. But how could unions take the piteous cries of the city seriously when there was always money for swimming pools or flowers? How could anyone be asked to take the city’s mounting debt seriously when those minding the purse strings of the city so recklessly ignored it?
Our new mayor cannot be content with paying lip service to the issues, playing the same tired old tune (like the band on that ill-fated vessel) in yet another attempt to distract us while the ship of state slowly sinks beneath the waves. For much like those traveling on that great liner, there are not enough lifeboats for all of us, and any help that comes is still beyond view in the distance. He cannot be a hidebound captain in dealing with the situation. Levying higher taxes and decreasing city services will serve no better than pumping the water out of the bilges and into the cabins of the ship.
He cannot expect to keep the vessel afloat with the temporary patches of selling some of the city’s real estate holdings. While they will perhaps buy him a year’s time, doing so in a depressed real estate market will do nothing to affect the long term sinking of the ship.
I have to say that I am happy with the state of the lifeboat drill going on in the City of Toledo. Before we know what departments  might be thrown overboard to lighten the burden of the ship, we are warned that there might be new sacrifices to be made.  Before the mayor can truly know how great are the resources the city might yet possess, he begins to float proposals to take more from its citizens.
Yes, Bell and Wilson are right that the ship of state must have the wound in its side plugged, but I fear that much of what we are seeing may prove of little use in the process. This time, Captain Bell, “more of the same” will not fill the gaping hole visible to all and save this ship of state.

Tim Higgins blogs at http://justblowingsmoke.blogspot.com/.

We don’t even have to go beyond the two team’s nicknames to illustrate the romanticizing that surrounds the Sentimental Bowl, or Super Bowl, on Feb. 7 in Miami.
Saints versus Colts. Holiness versus hoofs.
This is a story that has been written before a rough draft, a movie that has preceded the preview.
In one corner, displaying a logo that represents protective footwear for a horse, is the Indianapolis Colts, who won the Super Bowl three years ago, defeating Chicago’s Bears. They’re led by quarterback Peyton Manning, who recently was named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player for an unprecedented fourth time. He’s arguably the best quarterback in NFL history.
In the opposite corner we have the former “Aints”, at least that’s what it said on the bags fans wore over their heads at games while their team got sacked on a regular basis.
The Saints’ logo is the fleur-de-lis, its literal French translation, “lily flower.” Let’s leave it at that.
New Orleans has never been to the Super Bowl in its 43-year NFL existence. This was only the ninth winning campaign in franchise history.
The Saints’ quarterback is no Peyton Manning, but maybe Drew Brees is better. He completed an NFL record 70.6 percent of his passes this season and in 2008 fell just 15 yards short of Dan Marino’s single-season NFL record passing total of 5,084 yards.
But the crux of this comparison has to do with the city of New Orleans itself, and its recovery from the devastation it incurred from Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.
The Saints and the Superdome have served as a rallying point for the city, much of which is situated below sea level. Katrina tried to sink it further, maybe forever, flooding about 80 [per cent] of New Orleans. It sent many of its residents to last-chance shelters such as the Superdome, which, too, was almost totally destroyed by Katrina. It’s an endearing story of survival and revival.
Lance Moore, one of the leading pass catchers in UT history, was part of that revival as a member of the Saints’ practice team in 2006 when the team had to play in other facilities, while the Superdome was undergoing a $200 million restoration. The Saints had left New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and had already moved twice — to San Jose, Calif., and then to San Antonio, Texas, — when Moore joined them.
“We practiced in the Alamodome, but they had house shows, cheerleading competition and other things so we couldn’t always practice there,” Moore said. “We also practiced at a nearby high school, but we got kicked out of there occasionally when they had volleyball or other events. Our locker-room was inside the baseball dugout and sometimes we had to do our walk-through in the school parking lot. You would never believe it was the NFL. We had no hot tub and just one single-person whirlpool. We certainly didn’t have things other NFL teams had. No one liked it, but you had to go with the flow.”
The Saints played four games in Baton Rouge, three in the Alamodome, and even a home game against the New York Giants in Giants Stadium, the proceeds of which went to Hurricane Katrina victims.
“Most definitely it was a crazy year,’’ said Moore, who led the nation in receptions in 2003, averaging 8.56 catches per game. “It’s been a wild experience but I’m getting to play football in the NFL and that has always been my dream.”
Moore caught one pass for five yards in the Saints’ awe-inspiring 31-28 overtime victory against the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC championship game on Jan. 17 and has 17 catches for 164 yards and two touchdowns this season. Even Colts’ rookie coach Jim Caldwell got caught up in the Saints’ most meaningful inspirational victory before a crowd of more than 71,000 in the Superdome. “I think it’s a great story,’’ Caldwell, who used to recruit New Orleans heavily as a coach at Southern Illinois, told Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star. “That region was absolutely devastated, and [the Saints] brought a lot of pride back, a lot of civic pride. The enthusiasm that you could see surrounding that team is incredible. You saw the pictures of Bourbon Street and Canal Street after that win and it was absolutely unbelievable.”
If ever a city, if ever the jammed-packed Superdome, if ever civic pride needed an inspirational triumph, it was to materialize against Minnesota. This was for the parish of St. Tammany to the north, St. Bernard to the east, Plaquemines to the south and Jefferson to south and west. The Big Easy had reason to be a little more at ease.
The local newspaper, the Times-Picayune, unleashed rare biased behavior with its Sunday morning banner headline stating: “Our Team. Our Town. Our Time.”
Sorry, Colts. Destiny has chosen its darling and it’s not you. You’ll probably win the game, and if you do just know that your opponent is already a winner so there will be no loser.
“It’s surreal,” Brees told The Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins. “Coming here four years ago, post-Katrina … It’s unbelievable, it’s unbelievable. You can draw so many parallels between our team and our city. In reality we’ve had to lean on each other in order to survive. The city is on its way to recovery. We’ve used the strength and resilience of our fans to go out and play with confidence on Sundays. It’s been one step at a time, and we’ve had to play through plenty of adversity. Just like this town has.”

Recently, the Retirement Guys had an opportunity to attend a business conference in the city of San Diego.  It was sure nice to get a break from the cold weather in Toledo.  The temperatures were in the 70’s each day and although we were inside attending meetings much of the time, we had the chance to enjoy some rays of sunshine.
At the conference, we attended various business strategy sessions and came away with some great ideas on how to better serve our clients.  We even had one of our meeting sessions aboard the U.S.S. Midway.  This meeting raised money for a great charity called Special Ops Warrior Foundation.  The organization pays for the college education for children of special operations military soldiers who have died serving our country.  We had the opportunity to meet a young lady whose father died serving our country.  And guess what?  Her name is Melinda Petrignani originally from Toledo, graduating from Clay High School in 2004.  What are the chances of running into her in San Diego?  Her father, Michael D. Rudess from Oregon, Ohio, was killed in a training accident in 1986.  Shrapnel from a demolition exercise struck him near the heart.  He served in Company A in the 1st Battalion 75th Ranger Regiment and received the Army Commendation Medal.   Melinda was less than a year  old when her father passed away and was his only child. Melinda attended DePaul University in Chicago, and graduated in 2008 with a Bachelors of Business Administration.  She is living in Scottsdale, Ariz. and studying to take the GMAT so that she can study for an MBA.

Mark and Nolan with Melinda Petrignani.

The conference had several excellent speakers, among them David Walker who was the former comptroller and head of the Government Accountability Office; Scott McKain, an expert in customer service; and Andy Andrews, bestselling author of the book “The Traveling Gift.”
While we enjoyed all of the speakers at the conference, I (Mark) was especially struck by Andrews.  He had a way of talking that captivated the audience.  He spoke with a southern accent and was extremely funny in delivering his speech.  His book is a fiction book that illustrates the seven principles that are keys to success in life.  I have obtained a copy and am currently part way through it.  As the Retirement Guys, we are constantly looking for ways to advise our clients on how best to achieve the relaxing and successful retirement that they deserve.  Of the seven principles, I am through the first four and believe that they can be used to help our clients and how our clients plan.  We always say on our radio show that we are all about information and the key is obtaining good information and applying it.
The first principle in “The Traveling Gift” is “the buck stops here.”  In other words, nobody is responsible for your life and your circumstances.  The sooner you accept this, the sooner you can begin to plan to make your life better. You won’t gain anything by sitting around complaining about bad things that have happened.  The second principle is “seek wise counsel.”  In other words, find a good source and get the information you can use to better your situation.  Our Web site is full of free information and a schedule of upcoming educational meetings.  Please feel free to take advantage of it.  The third principle is “be a person of action.”  This goes back to what was mentioned earlier about not only getting the information, but applying it. The fourth principle is “make a decision.”  So many people get the information and do not make a decision on how to apply it. This is like getting the football down to the 1-yard line and then quitting the game and failing to score a touchdown.
I don’t know what the fifth, sixth and seventh principles are yet, but if they are good ones, I will let you know.  Our friend Melinda has taken responsibility for her life even though she has experienced the tragedy of losing her father.  She is acquiring education to give her the necessary skills to help her make decisions that will lead to a good life.  No matter what stage you are in life, what are you doing to improve your life?  My 94-year-old grandfather told me he is still learning and improving.  I was amazed and thought what he told me was wise advice.  Seek wise counsel, make a decision and take action.  The buck stops with you.

Got a question for The Retirement Guys?  Send your e-mails to letters@ToledoFreePress.com or you can reach them by calling 419-842-0550.  Securities are offered through NEXT Financial Group Inc., Member FINRA / SIPC.  The Retirement Guys are not an affiliate of NEXT Financial Group. Their office is located at 1700 Woodlands Drive, Suite 100, Maumee, OH 43537.

The Fetterman Training Center, UT’s new indoor multipurpose athletic facility, will be introduced to the public with an official dedication Feb. 6 at 6:30 p.m.
Fans with tickets to the men’s basketball game against Buffalo that night will have the opportunity to attend the dedication and tour the facility before the game. UT President Dr. Lloyd Jacobs and Athletic Director Michael O’Brien will speak at the dedication.
“The Fetterman Training Center is a natural extension of the renovated Savage Arena and symbolizes our desire to provide the best for our student athletes as they mature into tomorrow’s leaders,” Jacobs said in a statement released before the dedication.

Athletic Director Mike O’Brien at the Fetterman Training Center.

“The Fetterman family has set an excellent example for our students on what it means to give back to one’s community,” he stated.
The new facility is named after Hal and Susan Fetterman who donated $1 million toward the $9 million cost of the project. The Fettermans, who reside in Florida for much of the year, will not attend the dedication.
“Our gift is our priority and not any recognition for it. We’re proud that all students will benefit from that gift,” Hal said. “God has been good to us and we’re happy to give something back to the community.”
Fetterman didn’t go to college but his daughter, two sons-in-law and a grandson are UT graduates and another grandson is a senior there. He was a successful businessman and resident of the Toledo area for many years before retiring.
“We’re deeply grateful to the Fettermans whose generous donation helped make construction of this new facility possible,” O’Brien said.
The remainder of the project was paid for with institutional funding as part of the “Building Champions” campaign conducted by UT.
“With the completion of this center, renovation of Savage Arena and addition of the Sullivan Athletic Complex to the Glass Bowl Stadium, we’re comparable to all schools in the MAC when it comes to athletic facilities,” O’Brien said.
The 90,400 square-foot facility features a 100-yard football field with the same Field Turf surface as in the Glass Bowl, a regulation basketball and volleyball court, sprint lanes and a long jump pit for track, a golf practice room with lockers rooms for the men’s and women’s golf teams.
The project includes improvements to the adjacent outdoor track with permanent bleacher seating, elevated viewing platforms, and a press box for viewing both outdoor and indoor events.
The practice field can be used by football, soccer, baseball, softball and other sports.
It includes goal posts, a game scoreboard and a 65-foot high ceiling at its peak to allow for kicking and punting during practices.
The enclosed basketball/volleyball court has two portable and four fixed baskets with a game scoreboard. It will be used primarily for basketball and volleyball practices.
The former wooden floor from Savage Arena was refinished to recycle it and save $150,000. Two new locker rooms will be used by visiting teams playing in Savage Arena.
The 3,500 square-foot golf practice area located below the basketball practice court features driving cages, chipping and putting areas with customized turf and a video swing analysis center.
The center, which is connected to Savage Arena, is expected to open for use in mid-February once all the finishing touches are completed. It will be used by all 16 of UT’s varsity sports, O’Brien said.
The Fetterman Training Center drew praises from the coaches and players who will begin using the new facilities for spring training, according to O’Brien.
“These facilities are important when coaches are recruiting athletes who are considering playing here,” O’Brien said. “They can even help recruit coaches who will want to coach here when they see these facilities.”
The center includes many “green” energy-saving features and environmentally friendly materials, according to Chris Ewald, vice president of SSOE, Inc., architect of record for the project.
SSOE also designed the renovation of Savage Arena and was retained to provide the design work for the Fetterman Center, said Ewald, senior project manager for both.
The geothermal heating and cooling system includes 42 wells running 300 feet deep under the practice field. Water is circulated through a closed-loop system to heat the facility in the winter and keep it cooler in the summer.
The geothermal system requires 50 to 70 percent less energy than traditional systems and the savings will pay for it in approximately three years, said Ewald.
The “cool roof” made of a light colored material doesn’t increase the temperature inside the building. Custom lighting reflects off the inside of the roof to provide more natural light, said Ewald.
SSOE served as construction manager for the project. Another local firm, Rudolph-Libbe provided the pre-engineered structure and general trades contracts for the facility.
Numerous other local companies served as contractors or suppliers for the project.

When it comes to improv comedy, Brad Sherwood and Colin Mochrie just click. Especially when they are blindfolded and barefoot on a stage covered with mousetraps.
The funnymen who gained fame from “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” are up for anything during their unscripted live shows.
From pilgrims trying to play Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” on Guitar Hero to tourists lost in New Zealand who can only ask for directions in iambic pentameter, if the audience requests it, the imaginative duo is always ready.

Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood

“We start with audience suggestions for all of the games, so really they’re sort of the puppet masters, putting us through our paces, and we’re taking all their information and using them on stage and turning it into comedy,” Sherwood said during a phone call from his Los Angeles home.
And the more bizarre, the better.
“Everything is odd. We’re always in the state of making it up and taking completely different suggestions, so when you’re working from that, when you’re working from the place where nothing is planned and everything is different, pretty much that’s always a state of being odd,” he said.
In 1992, Sherwood joined the British version of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and met Mochrie. Both later crossed the Atlantic for the American show, which was hosted by Drew Carey.
They have been touring as a two-man improv team since 2004.
“We get along well, we travel well. I handle kind of all the little bugs and details on the tour, and he just shows up and looks pretty,” Sherwood said of Mochrie. “And we both have very similar senses of what we think is funny, then we come at it from different perspectives. So it’s complementary and then different enough so it’s not all the same thing.”
Sherwood and Mochrie will bring their creative chemistry to Stranahan Theater for an 8 p.m. show Feb. 6. Tickets are $28.50, $34.50 and $42.50.
“I think in today’s economy, everybody needs a laugh,” Sherwood said. “Laughter is so therapeutic; it makes you feel good, it elevates endorphins. So if we can make [the audience] laugh for two-plus hours really hard and they’ll walk away saying that was one of the funniest shows they’ve ever seen, then we did our job.”

Toledoans should have been disturbed by lthe Jan. 24 Toledo Free Press news story, “Council members missed 219 meetings in 2009.”
As we reported, the 12 Toledo City Council members missed a combined 28 council meetings and 191 committee meetings. There were 26 regular council meetings and three special meetings held in 2009.
Former council members Frank Szollosi and Betty Shultz had the most excused absences in 2009 with six a piece. Phillip Copeland followed with four absences, Tom Waniewski had three absences and Lindsay Webb had two. Council members Michael Ashford, Wilma Brown, D. Michael Collins, Mike Craig,  Steve Steel and Mark Sobczak  all missed one council meeting. Councilmen George Sarantou and Joe McNamara did not miss any council meetings.
In addition to biweekly council meetings, there were 98 committee meetings and 26 agenda review meetings that count toward committee absences. Council members who missed the most excused committee meetings were Szollosi (57), Shultz (33), Ashford (18), Webb (17) and Brown (16). Committee meetings missed by the rest of council were; Copeland (15), Craig (9), Sobczak (7), Sarantou (5),  McNamara (4), Steel (4), Collins (3) and Waniewski (3).
With mounting debt and critical social concerns at stake, these numbers are unacceptable. The commitment required to be on city council should be self-evident. Kudos to those council members with strong attendance records and shame on those with major blots on their records, especially those like Ashford who have aspirations for higher office.
Every employer knows that life gets in the way sometimes. Illness, conflicts, the uncontrollable events that change a day. But employers also know that excessive absence quickly leads to a breakdown in process and results. The City of Toledo can ill afford any further delays in its recovery, and that starts with government.
Our elected officials are allowed to make mistakes, but not showing up for the job is inexcusable and will be watched closely.

Thomas F. Pounds is president and publisher of Toledo Free Press. Contact him at tpounds@toledofreepress.com.

I was quite pleased when my six-year-old approached me about throwing a Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration on his Monday off of school honoring the civil rights leader. We invited a few classmates over, decorated some cupcakes and prepared the computer to play King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. I was more than ready to formally introduce Jack and his friends to the significance of the civil rights movement and the importance of racial equality.

Not surprisingly, my still-quite-young son had never seemed to take much interest in the holiday nor its meaning before, despite my yearly requests for a full recap of what he had learned about Dr. King in school. His answers to my “Why do we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.?” line of questioning usually ranged from “I don’t know” to “I think he helped some people.” Likely wanting to finally end my inquisition and prove his knowledge about the obviously important historical figure, he excitedly came to me just before party time and informed me that he had, in fact, learned in school why we celebrate Dr. King.

“I know why Martin Luther King is famous, Mom,” he said. “Because he was a black man!”

He went on to explain the injustice that had befallen fellow Americans based solely on the color of their skin and Dr. King’s triumphant role in helping end it, all to the best of his first-grade ability. Still, such an odd feeling came over me. It was the first time he had ever differentiated anyone in such a manner.

Somehow skin color as a topic of conversation had just never come up these past six years. It is certainly not something that we have ever mentioned to our children. And, despite friends, classmates and public figures coming in all various shades, our children have never asked.

I grew up with conflicting instructions about how to approach our nation’s diversity. My elementary school years were filled with the theory of the United States as a melting pot held up in high esteem, with all differences left at our borders in order to create one big stew of amalgamation. By junior high, however, the melting pot was slowly giving way to the idea of America as a salad bowl, a cohesive whole made up of various, unique parts. By high school, the salad bowl had again given way to the demand for a celebration of diversity, a plea to take greater notice of our differences more so than our commonalities.

I dependably took my seat on each of the proverbial bandwagons and followed the politically correct movement of the time. When it came to raising my children, however, I decided that their most impressionable years should be filled with the idea that everyone is created absolutely equal. Giving color blinders to the youngest opinion-formers among us doesn’t seem like a bad idea when attempting to fulfill Dr. King’s dream. It is hard to judge someone on a characteristic that you don’t deem characteristic.

Apparently, six years old is when things get to be a bit tricky. As important as it is to establish the insignificance of race in the way we wish our children to view those around them, explaining the significance it did play in the past is still an eventual necessity. Assuming that those who do not learn history are, in fact, doomed to repeat it, passing along the lessons our nation has learned from its embarrassing years of inequality is an absolute must.

Still, there is a complicated line we must walk in continuing to make Dr. King’s vision of the United States a reality. For one, we have changed. I found that what has become an inappropriate word to the ears of most the past forty or so years was strongly peppered throughout even Dr. King’s most memorable of speeches without the slightest hint of his own unease about it. What has recently become a point of contention for its use in an official U.S. capacity was once sung out with pride and conviction by Dr. King himself. There is no doubt occasional confusion when it comes to the promotion of human equality.

Shannon and her husband Michael are raising three children in Sylvania. Visit her blog at www.whatswithwomen.com.