The Toledo Municipal Code (TMC) lists more than 40 volunteer boards and commissions in the City of Toledo. One recent set of appointments shows City Council is not following the TMC.
At the Sept. 28 Toledo City Council meeting, Mary Ann Arquette, Ora M. Bell, Fred J. Folger and Emily Marie Wilson were all confirmed to the Toledo Cemetery Commission, but at least three of them violate term limits set by the TMC.
The Cemetery Commission was created in 1999, with  requirements that include the uncompensated members have specific backgrounds or areas of residence and a stipulation that members can only be reappointed for one four-year term.
Documentation obtained by Toledo Free Press states Arquette, Folger and Bell were already presented as reappointments to the Cemetery Commission by Mayor Carty Finkbeiner and approved by City Council on April 17, 2007, with their terms set to expire on April 1, 2010.
The resumes provided to Toledo City Council on Sept. 17 indicate that Arquette has been a member of the Cemetery Commission since its creation.
A section of the TMC on volunteer appointments states that citizens “who serve 10 consecutive years as a member of a board or commission shall not be eligible for reappointment.” It does not appear there was a waiver in 2007, which would have been required then and now, since Arquette has served for more than 10 years and been reappointed more than one term.
Ora Bell, mother of Mayor Mike Bell, and Folger would also require a waiver of the TMC. Wilson’s resume states she is a current member of the Cemetery Commission, but does not indicate if she has served  more than one term and there are no other appointments listed to the Cemetery Commission for 2006 through 2010 in the Toledo City Journal.
Who is responsible for the Bell administration and members of Toledo City Council missing a special waiver of the TMC would be required for at least three of the appointees? Since no waiver was included on Sept. 28, legislation will have to be presented and voted on, again.
How many other people on how many other boards have been or were appointed in conflict with the TMC?
Bell said during the Sept. 17 agenda review that “we have boards that run on a sheet of paper forever.”  He said they need to review the rest of the commissions and boards.
A Pearl Harbor Remembrance Commission was formed in 2003 to sponsor a yearly essay contest for Toledo Public Schools children. A Wrestling Commission was formed back in the 1900s to be involved in wrestling tournaments taking place in the city.  No appointments have been made to either since at least 2006; the same applies to several others listed in the TMC.
How transparent is the process in seeking citizen participation on the boards and commissions? There is no online directory of boards and commissions listing members or a meeting schedule. If you visit the city website for information on cemeteries, one page that is supposed to be about “foundation procedures” goes to the 2008 leaf pickup schedule.
To find the names of appointees you have to go through pages of the Toledo City Journal, which is not a user-friendly document to search.  Journals prior to 2006 are not online.
Councilman Tom Waniewski is the chair of the Intergovernmental Relations and Environment Committee,  the logical committee to look into the necessity of the boards and commissions listed in the TMC.
In a Sept. 29 interview, Waniewski said he would welcome the task, as it would give his committee the “first opportunity to do something that is policy TMC-related; it’d be a step in the right direction.”
Waniewski said he’d like to go beyond this and look at some of the other outside boards and commissions that members of Council are required to attend. He feels many of those could be streamlined or deemed unnecessary as far as requiring Council attendance.
Councilman D. Michael Collins has said in the past that a review of Toledo’s charter and the TMC is long overdue. During a Sept. 29 interview, he confirmed his interest. One section he gave as an example of the City Charter needing clarification is Section 30, titled, “Council member shall not interfere with Administration.”
Collins said that section was ambiguous: It gives the mayor and the administration control, giving the impression that Council has authority to make decisions.
“We need to bring our charter into the 21st century,” Collins said.
Another example of the TMC that does not appear to be followed is “Continuity of Government,” which was adopted in the 1960s. It states that the mayor, council and other directors are to designate, within 30 days of taking office, three successors should there be some type of an emergency, like an attack, or if they are unable to perform their position due to “death, absence or disability of the incumbent officer.”
Appreciating those who have volunteered for years is important, but there has to be a way to mix some of their experience with the ideas and experiences new volunteers could bring.
The TMC and the charter need to be reviewed. Eliminating boards that are no longer necessary and redefining others could save money and restore faith that our government will follow the legislation it passes.

Toledo Free Press contributor Lisa Renee Ward operates the political blog GlassCityJungle.com.

The Savannah Morning News reported Sept. 28 that Steve Weathers, president and CEO of Toledo’s Regional Growth Partnership (RGP), has been named the new president and CEO of the Savannah Economic Development Authority.
The RGP defines itself as “a private-sector-driven and funded economic development company, focused to meet the needs of clients in a confidential, innovative and time-sensitive fashion.” RGP has offered such strong programs as Rocket ventures, a technology venture fund, has helped guide companies such as Xunlight through growth stages and works to promote the region internationally.
RGP officials say the group will form a search committee to hire a replacement.
“This is an opportunity for us to look where the organization needs to go and to hire a leader that is best prepared to lead us in that direction,” said Jim Hoffman, president of KeyBank and vice chairman of the RGP board.
The temptation in these searches is sometimes to automatically look on the national stage for someone with a bigger-city resume and bigger-city experience. But RGP is in a unique position to start its search right here at home, and I hope the search committee gives as much weight to local candidates as it does to national ones.
While it is always impressive to announce an organization has recruited a new player from a bigger market, RGP needs a leader who knows the local business scene, its key players and the cumulative strengths and weaknesses that give this area its unique flavor. This is not about parochialism; it is about RGP having someone who doesn’t have to learn about the region to begin selling it.
There is public buzz that Dean Monske, a former RGP vice president who now serves the Bell administration as deputy mayor of external relations, could be a candidate for the job. Monske, a Bowling Green State University graduate who also served as executive director of the Economic Development Foundation in the city of Oregon, would be a strong choice for the position. Monske would have to decide whether such a move would help or hurt the city’s specific efforts, but his contributions to the region as a whole would continue to be important.
The RGP will undoubtedly have a strong choice of candidates, and while it does have a duty to consider all applicants in its search, it will be well-served to consider homegrown talent; who better to sell our region than someone who can say he or she believes in it enough to have lived and worked here?

Thomas F. Pounds is president and publisher of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Contact him via e-mail at tpounds@toledofreepress.com.

I have to tell you, Guns N’ Roses, you’re really letting me down. All of your smooth talk about how “all we need is just a little patience” seemed so sensible and simple back in 1988. I’m now guessing none of you had three small children when you addressed the topic with such uncomplicated certainty. After producing three small children of my own, I have to admit that I often have a hard time connecting with my inner patience.
I used to be quite good at it. In fact, while working as a cashier one night in college, a couple came through my line wishing to purchase a large amount of something or other. For a reason I can’t recall, scanning the item once and simply indicating how many was not an option. So, I proceeded to scan close to a hundred tiny items with hard to straighten bar codes one by one.
The couple stood in apparent amazement as I swiped calmly, without even a drop of annoyance, for several minutes. As I finished the tedious task as happily as I had started, the couple felt compelled to inform me, “You have the patience of Job.” I was flattered, but little did I know that, also like Job, my patience would one day be tested again and again.
And again and again. And again and again.
And again and again.
And again.
Parenting seems to be roughly 85 percent patience testing. I’m not sure of its exact origin, but I would wager money that the phrase “you’re testing my patience” was first uttered by a parent waiting for a child to put on shoes after being told a dozen times or so. The funny thing is that I remember being a kid and having my parents slowly become infuriated over such a thing as shoes not being put on and wondering what the big deal was. Now, having become the butt of the “I’m not putting my shoes on” joke, I no longer get it.
I said, “Put your shoes on.” You know how to put your shoes on. Yet, somehow, your shoes remain off. What possible logical reason Could There Be For You NOT HAVING YOUR SHOES ON?!
It’s not just direct disobedience that tests parental patience; it can be something as seemingly enjoyable as situational irony. In keeping with the shoe theme, I have a 7-year-old who still struggles to learn shoe-tying and a 4-year-old who won’t stop tying into knots anything that resembles a rope.
So, let me get this straight: a 7-year-old, who conceivably should be able to tie his shoes like an old pro by now, still can’t fully tie them, while his 4-year-old sister, who could easily pass for someone not yet ready to learn the art of tying, insists on tying anything and everything within reach? Back in my carefree, Job-like days, I might have found the irony of such a scenario quite funny and cute. However, living in my current days, which are filled with many fruitless hours of nicely requesting that seatbelts be put on, teeth be brushed and children get dressed, such humor and irony are completely lost on me.
There was a day when I imagined that having children would open up a whole new realm of my personal patience. After all, taking care of other people’s children had guided me from my self-centered teenage years into a more mature, tolerant and patient phase in which I learned to better appreciate the time it takes to learn the little things in life through a child’s eyes.
It’s remarkable how much easier it is to be patient when you’re getting paid, have few other responsibilities in life and only have the children for eight to 10 hours a day with weekends off. I think a fellow former nanny I know put it best when she relayed a little story about her transition from just being someone’s babysitter to being someone’s mom. She told me that she would walk the floor of her bedroom with her own screaming newborn in the middle of the night desperately wondering, “When is this kid’s mom coming home?”
I also sometimes wonder, “When is this kid’s mom coming home?” Surely I couldn’t be the mom. Moms are supposed to revel in hearing “Mommy” 87 times a day. Women pine for years, waiting for a sweet little voice to address them by one of the most beautiful words ever uttered, so why am I huddled in my laundry room with the door closed, fingertips on my temples, hoping that I get at least a five-minute reprieve before I hear it again?
Maybe Axl Rose really was onto something. Maybe I just need to put on a headband, roll up my sleeves, sway contentedly and whistle more. Such vices sound much better than the teeth clenching and eye rolling plan I’m currently utilizing. Renewed patience, here I come.
Mmm, yeaaaaah.

Shannon and her husband Michael are raising three children in Sylvania. E-mail her at letters@toledofreepress.com.

Making its Toledo debut this month will be what is perhaps composer Richard Strauss’s greatest opera.
“Ariadne auf Naxos,” which opens Oct. 8, is a “hysterical opera-within-an-opera,” said Renay Conlin, general and artistic director of the Toledo Opera.
“I would say this is his best opera,” Conlin said. “Some of the others may have more name recognition, but this absolutely, by general consensus, is his greatest opera.”
“Ariadne auf Naxos” pits a comedienne against a prima donna at a high-society dinner party.
“Basically, the wealthiest man in Vienna invites to his home an opera and also a comedic troupe,” Conlin said. “He tells the two groups — the serious opera and the ridiculous comedy — that in order to be finished in time for the evening’s fireworks display, they are going to have to perform simultaneously.”

From Left: Sarah Heltzel, Priti GandhI and Kirsten Chambers.

Comparing the production style to the comedic play “Noises Off,” Conlin said the first act, in English, sets everything up, and the second act, in German, is the performance. English translations will be projected above the stage.
Conlin said “Ariadne auf Naxos,” which premiered in 1912 in London, is “immediately appealing,” both in music and story.
“Strauss is a wonderfully zany composer,” Conlin said. “The way he writes for the orchestra is extremely colorful, with incredible orchestrations. People really respond to his music immediately.”
The performance also includes “one of the most incredible and demanding soprano arias ever composed,” Conlin said.
Soprano Heather Buck, who plays comedienne Zerbinetta, will be singing that part.
“It’s a fiendishly difficult aria,” Buck said. “Long, with all kinds of different sections in it. … [The character]really pulls out all the tricks in her bag to dazzle the audience.”
Buck said “Ariadne auf Naxos” offers a little of everything.
“I think you get a great combination of humor and parts that are really touching, and then parts that are more charming and sly, and then parts that are completely unexpected,” Buck said. “It’s a wonderful example of showing multiple sides of characters, not only in words but in music. Strauss has a way of writing for women’s voices that is just the most beautiful, gorgeous, fluid thing. It’s like this waterfall of sounds … and you get seduced in.”
Buck, who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., was last in Toledo in May, portraying Adina in the Toledo Opera production of “L’elisir d’amore.”
“I can’t say I know the city very well because I’ve spent most of my time here in rehearsals, but I had a lovely time,” Buck said. “Last time I was here, I got a chance to go to the museum. There is so much going on here; it’s such as culturally rich city. Some colleagues went to the zoo the other day and had a fabulous time.”
The other leading ladies are soprano Barbara Quintiliani as Ariadne and mezzo-soprano Stacey Rishoi as The Composer. Tenor Michael Hayes will play Bacchus.
British stage director Jonathon Field will make his directorial debut in Toledo. Thomas Conlin, Renay’s husband, will conduct.
Performances will be 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 8, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 10 at The Valentine Theatre, 400 N. Superior St., in Downtown Toledo. For more information or to order tickets, visit www.toledoopera.org.

Suzanne Vega has a reputation for writing cerebral songs. From subject matter to word selection, her artistic sense is evident.
Consider a new song, “The Man Who Played God,” which she performed at Lilith Fair this summer.
“That is a song that was written by a band called Sparklehorse, mostly a man named Mark Linkous, and it was produced by Danger Mouse and he’s the one who sent me the track. The music had already been composed, so he asked me if I would put a vocal over it,” Vega said. Linkous died March 6.
“I was thinking the music seems very psychedelic and sort of mind-expanding, and I wanted to write something that had that in the theme of the song as well, so I wrote about creativity and imagination. I had been looking at an article about Pablo Picasso in the newspaper, so I sort of put it all together to make that song.”
“The Man Who Played God” and her 1987 breakthrough hit “Luka” are included on “Close-Up Vol. 2, People and Places,” due out Oct. 12. The disc is the second in a four-part series that finds the singer-songwriter rerecording tracks from her catalog. “Close-Up Vol. 1, Love Songs” was released earlier this year.

Suzanne Vega

“I’m constantly performing [songs] live, obviously, whenever I go out and do a tour, which is much of the time,” Vega said during a call from her New York City home. “I look back and think to myself, what are the songs the audience wants to hear, how can I put them together in an interesting way, how can I reinterpret them?”
Vega has stripped down the songs, recording with bassist Mike Visceglia and guitarist Gerry Leonard, who will join her on stage at the Tecumseh Center for the Arts, 400 N. Maumee St., Tecumseh, Oct. 7 for a 7:30 p.m. show. Tickets are $28 or $24 for students and seniors.
She is finishing “Close-Up Vol. 3, States of Being” and “Close-Up Vol. 4, Songs of Family” for release next year, and also is working on a musical about Southern writer Carson McCullers.
“It’s about her life and her work. I had taken some of her short stories a long time ago when I was in school and changed them to songs,” said Vega, who will star in the show. “It’s a project that’s already booked for the Rattlestick Theater, it’s off-Broadway, here in New York. We have the opening in April, so I’m trying really hard to finish everything by then.”
She’s collaborating with fellow New Yorker and singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik on the project.
“We’ve done one real song [‘The Instant of the Hour After’] and we’re at work on a bunch of others, so that’s really exciting for me,” Vega said.
Do the two music masterminds ever meet at Tom’s Restaurant? That’s the Big Apple locale made famous by DNA’s 1990 remix of Vega’s classic “Tom’s Diner.”
“I don’t go there unless I’m dragged there by a film crew,” Vega said and laughed. “And when I have gone there, which I have actually in the last year, it’s still the same — I still have to wait for the cup of coffee; they never comp anything.”
The eatery became even more famous when its sign was featured on “Seinfeld” as the foursome’s fabled meeting place.
“One time when I was passing Tom’s diner in a cab, I think I actually saw Jerry Seinfeld standing around in that neighborhood, which was wildly surprising to me,” Vega said.

On the web: visit www.thetca.org and click on links for more information.

Success is something that hardly ever comes easily. Rather, it is the result you get when knowledge, work ethic, determination and preparation come together to achieve the desired goal. In other words, success rarely happens by accident. It’s also why the Rockets know that their record heading into Saturday’s homecoming matchup with Wyoming is no fluke.
“They have shown me that we are a different team from last year with the previous games that we’ve played,” Toledo Head Coach Tim Beckman said. “Each week, we’ve gotten better at doing the little things. Other than the penalties this last week, we’ve gotten better in all of the phases from learning from the past. They’re still giving me a lot of gray hairs, though, because those teams are coming back and making it a four quarter football game.
“We’ve got to continue to learn how to win, but we have been successful doing it.”
After last week’s 31-20 upset victory at Purdue (2-2, 0-0 Big Ten), Toledo improved to 3-1 on the season with a 2-0 record in the Mid-American Conference. The Rockets’ previous two wins came against MAC opponents Western Michigan (1-2, 0-1 MAC) and Ohio (1-3, 0-1 MAC). While Toledo never really lost control of the game in its 20-13 victory over the Bobcats in week two, it allowed the Broncos to battle back from a 31-7 late third quarter deficit in week three and the Boilermakers to rally from being down 24-3 early in the third quarter last Saturday.
However, Toledo made big plays in crucial situations to come away victorious. After sophomore wide receiver Eric Page ran back a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter of the Western Michigan game, he had a 50-yard kick return in the fourth quarter last week that put the Rockets in Purdue territory and set up their final score, which extended Toledo’s lead to 11. In both instances, Page’s returns were on the subsequent kickoffs following the opposing teams’ scoring drives.
“We have a lot of trust in each other to go out there and perform,” Page said. “The offense has to trust the defense to get the ball back, and the defense has to trust us to put points on the board.”
Senior linebacker Archie Donald also stepped up when his team needed him to against the Boilermakers last Saturday, ripping the ball away from Purdue quarterback Rob Henry’s intended receiver and returning his interception 51 yards to the Boilermakers’ 23-yard line with 2:57 left to play. Donald became the third Rockets’ player in consecutive weeks to receive MAC West Division Defensive Player of the Week honors after his 16-tackle, one interception performance.
“I said, ‘It’s on our shoulders now. If we stop them from scoring, we win the game,’” Donald said. “That’s when the interception happened. I knew I had to step up and make something happen, and the defensive line created great pressure and I picked it off.”
And while Beckman said that veteran players like Donald rallying the team and making plays has led to success, much of the winning is also due to the time spent away from the field in film study.
“I’ve seen more of our players involved with film study on their own to understand that this is a game—you’ve got to learn the game to be successful,” Beckman said. “I think those are the things that maybe a lot of people don’t see us doing other than playing the game and practicing, but that these players have bought into doing, and it creates success for them on the football field.”
One of those players is senior cornerback Desmond Marrow. The fifth-year senior doesn’t have any classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, so he uses that extra time to get better by showing up to the team’s facility at about 6 a.m. to work out, and then spends time watching film to prepare for Toledo’s next opponent.
“It’s definitely from the extra work,” Marrow said. “Film study makes the game so much more easier. Anything you do, if you do something and it works, you keep doing it because it keeps working. We just keep sticking to the plan, keep doing what the coaches tell us to do, keep watching film and we keep winning.”
Page agrees that the film study has been the difference, but also that the winning has provided motivation for players to put in the extra time.
“That’s definitely been the difference,” Page said. “This year, everybody’s got their stuff together, knows when they have to go in and study, and just everybody’s in there working.”
The Rockets will do battle with the Cowboys (1-3, 0-1 Mountain West Conference) at 7 p.m. this Saturday in the Glass Bowl.

One of the unfortunate consequences of warfare throughout history has been the concept of Collateral Damage. Priceless monuments have been damaged or destroyed, battles have been fought after peace has been declared, and the careers of noble military leaders have been ruined … all part of the sometimes star-crossed nature of armed conflict.

For those of you that have not been paying attention to events in more recent history, the modern concept of collateral damage is described as unintended harm caused as part of an executed strategy. It’s most often heard in describing the consequences of using ‘smart bombs’ during air attacks in one of the many undeclared wars going on around the world. No matter how much care is taken in properly planning a mission or how efficient the technology used is claimed to be, sooner or later the law of averages catches up and Murphy’s Law permits one of these so-called ‘smart bombs’ to either miss or hit a little off the mark of its often unsuspecting target; causing devastation where none was intended. As those in a union hall in Clarington, OH found out recently, the same can be sometimes said of political warfare and the use of ‘F-bomb’ technology.

The explosive device in question (though it can hardly be considered a ‘smart weapon’) was apparently one dropped by Ohio Democratic Party chairman Chris Redfern while speaking as part of an endorsement party being held by the United Steel Workers. Apparently Mr. Redfern was unhappy with the Tea Party movement, and inexplicably chose this public forum to use a well-chosen (or more accurately, poorly chosen) word regrading it. While I will not dignify the word in question, one of the local TV stations in Steubenville (WTOV) was not only on hand to witness it (something that Mr. Redfern was apparently aware of), but recorded the unbecoming remark that was made. When subsequently contacted by the station for an explanation of the remarks, Redfern only response was that he assumed that his comments were not being recorded and refused to apologize.

Setting aside the poor taste and lack of professionalism by a political party leader in using such colorful language to describe one’s opposition in the days leading up to an election (or any other time), one cannot help but question the common sense of a politico who, seeing reporters with a camera and a microphone, assumes that they will not be recording and reporting on such an event.

One cannot help but also question in some way, the competence of a representative of a party that decries the concept of profiling, then uses this very approach to broadly paint and castigate members of the Tea Party. Apparently Mr. Redfern is incapable of realizing that his candidates are running against Republicans, that the Tea Party is not a recognized political party in this country, and that as such they present no direct competition to members of Mr Redfern’s organization. One could even further speculate that what the head of the Democratic Party of Ohio simply objects to anyone who challenges the things that he and his party believe in.

That something like this finally happened can certainly come as no surprise. Negative campaigns have long become the rule rather than the exception in politics, and both parties are equally guilty of abuse. It has to be realized that in this Twitter, Facebook, YouTube society however, that if the mainstream media is not present that someone else will be and recording almost everything; whether intelligence or good taste warrants it or not. Few faux pas or misdeeds will not go unnoticed by a lurid public who treats coverage of political campaigns with the same intensity that it does any other tasteless reality show.

One cannot help but ask however if this is to be the tenor of political debate going forward in the 2010 election cycle? Have politicians reached such a level of ignorance, fear, and desperation with any group of voters refusing to follow in lock step behind their leadership that they are reduced to objectifying them with words we would seldom expect to hear in polite society, let alone in reasoned public political debate?

While the Democratic party seems to have been enjoying a recent (and perhaps short-lived) love affair with the state of Ohio, and while we all know that “love means never having to say you’re sorry”; I fear that Mr Redfern may have to offer more than he has to date to have this indiscretion fade away. Failure to do so may cause him to find himself yet another victim of the political law of unintended consequences, and his current political position little more than another victim of Collateral Damage.

Some talk show hosts have a routine where they’ll pose a question to a hypothetical interviewee and then play the sound of crickets chirping away in a field. The idea is to suggest that the person questioned would not or could not answer the question, usually due to the resulting embarrassment or self-incrimination.

The crickets are chirping quite merrily when certain questions are asked of those in power in Washington and of their supporters. ????Anyone who claimed that the Bush tax cuts benefited only the wealthy needs to be asked: If this is true, then why are so many in Washington, from the President on down, who very publicly wanted – if not promised – to let the cuts expire on these grounds now edging towards extending them because doing so will hold down taxes on the middle class?

Cue the crickets, because the reason for extending the cuts is factually accurate, and it exposes the original claim as a blatant lie; and so far few if any of these people have shown the integrity or humility to admit to this deceit. ????They also claimed that the cuts were unfunded or otherwise were not paid for, and that this led to the massive expansion of the deficit in 2008. If net growth of the deficit from 2003 through 2008 was because of the tax cuts, then why did the deficit in fact decrease from 2003 through 2007?

And if the tax cuts not being funded or paid for was a problem, then why did most of the members of Congress who made this claim also vote starting in 2007 to massively expand federal spending beyond the revenue increase generated by the tax cuts, thereby ensuring the growth of the very deficit they then condemned and now embrace and expand under President Obama? Crickets, please. ????Progressives claim that we rank and file conservatives are being paid off by the wealthy for our activism.

Well, then, please explain the activities of George Soros, ACORN and the Service Employees International Union in paying numerous activists to advocate progressive causes. And since not one single greedy fat cat, from Big Insurance, Big Oil or elsewhere, Republican or otherwise, has ever paid me or, certainly, any other tea party conservative, a cent, where’s our money? Must be warm tonight, to judge by the crickets. ????Along with the notion that we will speak and act only if bought off, we conservatives are dismissed as dolts who must be told by leaders such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity what to think and do. In fact, millions of American citizens are engaging in independent thought and research undertaken from a foundation that combines faithfulness to the Constitution and historical fact with personal honor and integrity.

Am I to understand that the only allowable outcome of such effort is compliance with progressive rightthink – or, as it were, leftthink? Am I also to understand that the talking points repeated from one lamestream media outlet to the next in defense of the Obamacracy with little or no variation were arrived at by similar means of independent thought and analysis, without direction or influence from the White House, Congress, Democrat party headquarters, or those who bankroll the progressive agenda? My, but those crickets are getting loud. ???It is progressive chic to demonize traditional values while being at best silent or, at worst, supportive of evil.

The Department of Justice has institutionalized rejection of equal enforcement of the law, overlooking allegations of voting rights violations against Americans of European ancestry – as those who pressured them to do so brand all critics of Obama as racist. (In fairness, this prejudicial enforcement existed prior to Obama’s election; but his predecessor would not tolerate it.) Our own Congresswoman Kaptur has been silent as prominent progressives repeat that slander – after, following 9/11, she equated al Qaeda with the Green Mountain Boys of the Revolutionary War. In a similar demonstration of horribly skewed priorities, the President himself accused the Cambridge, Massachusetts, police department of acting “stupidly” in the arrest of a purported friend – and then prefaced remarks to the nation about the Fort Hood massacre with a jovial “shout out” to a supporter in the audience before rushing to defend the perpetrator from prejudgment.

What are we becoming, when the trivialization and negation – if not outright defense – of evil, and the rejection of values like equal justice under law and dissenting free speech, become part of what our government tolerates and practices? What are these progressives moving us towards? What are we progressing into and away from? At what expense to our freedom, our honor, and our conscience as a nation?

The crickets sing on.

Thomas Berry, for the Children of Liberty, http://www.meetup.com/The-children-of-liberty/

It is hard to believe, but we are already halfway through the 2010 high school football season. While local experts have had their assumptions shaken on almost a weekly basis, here are my updated predictions based on the competition through the first half of the season.
1. Whitmer
The Panthers were picked to finish second at the start of the football season. Everyone knew the Panthers have the dynamic duo of future Buckeye Kenny Hayes and junior Chris Wormley at the defensive end spots, but what fans didn’t know was that Whitmer also has two great athletes at the running back spot. Sophomore Tré Sterritt and junior Jody Webb have run all over the competition. The Panthers still have St. Francis and Central left on the schedule, but the players look ready to repeat as league champions.
2. Central Catholic
The Irish were the preseason favorite to win the City League championship, and at the halfway mark, Central is well on its way to fulfilling that prediction. Led by running back Caleb Goings, the Irish have run at to a 5-0 record. Central still has St. Francis, Whitmer and St. Johns left on its schedule. Many are curious to see what happens when the Irish face what is perceived to be tougher competition on the remainder of its schedule. It will be tough for the Irish to run the gantlet through the three teams undefeated.
3. St. John’s Jesuit
The Titans would have been everyone’s favorite to win the final City League championship. Led by sophomore sensation Brogan Roback, the team looked like it had the most potent offense in the area. A blowout win versus St. Francis on Sept. 17 showed the St. John’s team was a contender.  But after a tough loss at Whitmer, the Titans have shown a few chinks in the armor. The Titans toughest remaining league game will be the season finale against Central, and that means the St. John’s-Central matchup could decide who wins the title.
4. St. Francis
The Knights are off to a 2-3 start, and the team still has many question marks surrounding it. No one is quite sure how good this St. Francis team can be. The Knights had a tough nonleague schedule and a disappointing loss to St. John’s. But the Titans’ loss at Whitmer gives everyone a second chance at a league title. If the Knights can pull off wins at Whitmer and against Central Catholic in back-to-back weeks, St. Francis could be standing atop the City League mountain at season’s end.
5. Clay
The Eagles have been the most surprising team this season. Picked to finish seventh, Clay players have shown they can beat solid teams. The Eagles have a penchant for winning the close game, and it is possible that Clay could have a few more tricks up its sleeve. The team’s Achilles heel has to be inconsistency.  If Clay can avoid another potential pitfall, the Eagles might be this season’s Cinderella story.
6. Rogers
If there has been one team that has been bitten by the injury bug, it has been the Rogers Rams. Rogers was expecting big things with Ohio State commitment DerJuan “Peewee” Gambrell under center this year, and Damond Powell and Glandoy Hill at the wide receiver spots. But after Gambrell’s injury in week one against Anthony Wayne, the Rams have struggled to throw the football.
7. Start
The Spartans are winless this season, but the team has been competitive in all of their games. Start has enough firepower to get back above the lower-tier teams in the league.
8. Bowsher
The Rebels have won just one game so far, but there have been some some signs of growth throughout this season. The Rebels are about a year away from competing at the top of this league once the non-TPS schools leave for a new league next season.
9. Waite
The Indians have won two games in a row, one of which was an upset win over rival Clay. Waite could be on an upswing, especially into next season.
10. Scott
The Bulldogs football program continues to have difficulty. Scott lost to Waite this season. This team will win against Woodward, and that may be its only City League victory.
11. Woodward
What can one say about the Polar Bears? Things were bad before, and they haven’t gotten much better.

Chris Schmidbauer is sports editor for Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Contact him at cschmidbauer@toledofreepress.com. He is also the co-host of the “Odd Couple Sports Show” on Fox Sports Radio 1230 WCWA and can be heard every weekday from 10 a.m. to noon. He can also be seen weekly on the “Friday Night Frenzy Tailgate Show” on NBC 24.

The SSOE Group of Toledo was named “Large Exporter of the Year” for 2010 by Gov. Ted Strickland and the Ohio Department of Development (DOD) on Sept. 22.
Four Ohio firms were honored with Exporter of the Year Awards by the governor and DOD, with SSOE receiving the award in the large business category. Others were recognized in small and medium business, and nonprofit categories at a luncheon held during the Ohio Global Summit. Two other Northwest Ohio firms were among 16 to receive Excellence in Exporting Awards.
“We make things in Ohio and we believe the things we make can compete with goods made anywhere else, so we celebrate and support that Ohio businesses the produce the things and provide the services that the world needs,” Strickland said in a statement.
“We are committed to creating more jobs at home by investing in growing industries and developing strong partnerships to further expand Ohio’s global economic presence.”

Craig Bowie receives the Large Exporter of the Year award from Ohio Department of Development Director Lisa Patt-McDaniel and Richard Moore, grand commodore with the Association of Ohio Commodores.

SSOE receiving the award shows that being a major exporter does not always mean manufacturing goods. The local firm provides professional design, procurement and construction management services for projects around the world.
As one of the leading firms of its kind, the SSOE Group provides those services for global projects. In the past five years, the firm has tripled its non-U.S.-based revenues, doubled its overall revenue and increased its revenue from Asia by 800 percent.
“Expansion of our business globally is one of the key drivers of our growth strategy,” Craig Bowie, senior vice president and international operations manager for the SSOE Group, stated in an e-mail.
Bowie reported that international business was 8 percent of SSOE’s revenue in 2010. International revenue is projected to grow to 15 percent of the firm’s revenue in 2015 and 33 percent by 2020.
Despite the economy, fiscal year 2010 was the third best year in SSOE’s 62-year history, according to a company official.
The company established SSOE China in 2005 by opening an office in Shanghai. It’s now the firm’s second largest office, with 130 employees.
In 2011, SSOE plans to open two additional offices in China, two in India and two in Canada to handle its growing international business in those nations.
During its 60-year history, SSOE has executed projects in 30 countries for more than 40 different global clients. The firm operates 21 offices around the world. It was the third time that SSOE has received the award, having been recognized as Exporter of the Year in 2002 and 2006, according to the company.
Sixteen other firms were recognized with the Governor’s Excellence in Exporting Awards, given annually since 1986. The exporting awards recognize companies that have increased sales and Ohio-based employment as a result of exporting activity or those who have implemented a strategy to expand international sales, according to the DOD.