For my birthday in late November, my friend Tim Matheney sent me an envelope full of nostalgia. I have known Tim since first grade and unfairly burdened him as my role model and moral compass. His journey has taken him to the East Coast, but I still count him as my most trusted consigliere.

The package he sent me contained a number of papers from our days as classmates at Lake Junior High in Walbridge, including a football roster and an essay he wrote about our friendship.

The key document in the stack was a stapled copy of the April 10, 1981, Co-Pilot, the student-produced newsletter we worked on at Lake. It was typed, with handwritten headlines and my first published work; a story on Right to Read Week, a fictional short story, a feature on the Winter Sports Assembly and what was almost certainly my first published opinion piece, which ran without a headline:

“December 1980 — John Lennon is shot and killed by a man who bought his gun at a local gun shop with no trouble whatsoever.

“March 1981 — President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest, Press Secretary Jim Brady in the head, and a policeman and Secret Serviceman are also shot, by a man with a handgun.

“The issue of how to control handguns is a touchy one, but one which should be discussed. Many people (including myself), feel all handguns should be registered, and their owners prove they are worthy of owning a piece of metal capable of taking a human life. Many people feel they need to protect themselves, but this is not the way to do it.

“The Constitution gives us the right to bear arms, which is all right. If a person wants a gun bad enough, he should be willing to use it, and have it registered.

“When the time comes when a few sick people can turn people against each other and stop trusting each other, I can not help but think the great Western civilization needs help.

“It is a shame it takes the death and injuries of great famous men to make us stop and think about such issues.”

I would have been 14 years old when I wrote that; yes, I know, my writing skills have not greatly progressed during the ensuing 32 years.

It is a greater shame that the conversation around guns hasn’t progressed much, either. It still takes carnage and tragedy to push the conversation to the forefront, although my 14-year-old self might have written much more strongly had he had crystal ball foresight into Columbine, Aurora, Virginia Tech and Newtown.

Guns are embedded in the U.S. Constitution as firmly as freedoms of speech, religion and the press. The Dec. 14 massacre in Newtown will undoubtedly inspire strong talk about “doing something,” but it is a safe bet that the “something” will be a further stripping away of freedoms in the name of security.  There will be armed guards and metal detectors at every school in the country before any restrictions will be placed on any type of gun.

Intellectually, I accept the thesis that guns in and of themselves are just a means to an end, like a knife, a pipe bomb, a baseball bat, a bathtub, a closed garage with a car running inside or any other tool that can be used for murder.

Intellectually, I know banning guns is not the answer. Gun massacres take place in gun-free zones, right? Schools, colleges, movie theaters, malls. There haven’t been any mass shootings at gun ranges or gun conventions.

But emotionally, the power and efficiency of guns scare me beyond words. I saw a post on Facebook that said blaming a gun for murder is like blaming a spoon for obesity. But I wonder what we would think of a spoon that could automatically feed its owner 400 mouthfuls a minute.

I may recognize the futility of debating gun control, but my emotional reaction to what happened in Newtown makes me want to take every gun in America to the mouth of an active volcano and toss them into the lava.

As the father of a first-grader, my emotional response is with a that room full of 6- and 7-year-old children, who spent the last minutes of their lives panicked, screaming in terror and confusion, watching blood splatter and the little bodies of friends convulse and shake as bullets chewed through them, cries for moms and dads and teachers unanswered. My emotional attachment is with the parents, who had closets of presents ready and plans to make the dreams of their little kids come true, not just for Christmas but for the lifetime of love and commitment children require.

My emotional pull is for the first responders, who have seen images of exploded flesh and destroyed children that the most hardened soldiers would never recover from.

In the three decades between 14 and 46, my respect and fear for guns haven’t evolved much. But my revulsion at the employment of guns in mass killings has made my emotional reactions stronger then my intellectual understanding.

When the time comes when a few sick people can turn people against each other and stop trusting each other, I cannot help but think the great Western civilization needs help. O

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of  Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Email him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.

Tags: Jim Brady, John Lennon, Lighting The Fuse, Michael S. Miller, Newtown Connecticut, Ronald Reagan

This entry was posted on Friday, December 21st, 2012 at 12:00 am and is filed under Lighting The Fuse, Opinion.
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You can’t fool all the Lucas County voters all the time, but apparently Phil Copeland fooled at least 17,801 voters in the county recorder race. Copeland captured 57 percent of the March 6 Democratic primary vote to top James Seaman and Kevin Eff. Copeland will face Republican George Sarantou on Nov. 6.

Copeland did not attend the Feb. 27 recorder candidate forum to tell the public what he would bring to the office. Prior to his election victory, he told Toledo Free Press, “I want to go and be a part of it and I may have some ideas when I get in there.”

The recorder position is important beyond its modest level of public recognition; Copeland’s vague goals should be a red flag to informed voters.

Since we now have eight months to schedule it, Toledo Free Press is offering to sponsor and host any forum or debate between Copeland and Sarantou. Surely both candidates will agree to meet in public and discuss their specific plans for the office.

Copeland’s victory was just one discordant note in a primary that also saw local GOP aspirant Jon Stainbrook hijack Ronald Reagan’s legacy — and Jonathan Binkley’s surname — in his successful run for state central committee. We are confident that had Reagan spent five minutes in a room with Stainbrook, he would have left Stainbrook needing surgical help to remove a jar of jelly beans.

In other election news, Rep. Marcy Kaptur defeated Cuyahoga County-based Rep. Dennis Kucinich in arguably the most important contest of the night to people in Northwest Ohio. There were legitimate concerns over how much attention Kucinich would have given our region; though her territory is now much greater, Kaptur will never let her eye leave the Toledo area.

Conventional wisdom has the heavily Democratic District 9 backing Kaptur over Republican Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher, but the stage is set for some interesting debates as the two battle for the seat.

Josh Mandel dominated the Republican primary for Ohio Senate, garnering more votes than all five of his opponents combined. He will not beat incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown by that margin, but this is a race to watch as the GOP’s rising star takes on Brown, the career politician who defeated incumbent Mike DeWine in 2006.

Perrysburg opted out of TARTA service, a short-sighted decision that will have major ramifications for the people who depend on the bus service for transportation. Time will tell if the money the individuals save is worth the sacrifice to the community as a whole.

Toledo voters approved the “temporary” 3/4 percent payroll tax, taking one worry away from city leaders, allowing them to focus on issues like the promised (and much needed) street repairs and clearing the November ballot for a potential Toledo Public Schools levy attempt.

Disappointingly, but not surprisingly, the election in Lucas County was marred by reports of votes denied and voters given wrong ballots. The Kaptur campaign described the situation in the BOE as “sloppy” and “pathetic,” and will get no argument from us. Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s policy of “give ’em enough rope to hang themselves” has saddled the Lucas County BOE with inexperienced leadership that needs to quickly demonstrate exponential quality-control improvement before the presidential election.

The primaries are history; the next few months will offer ample opportunity for Lucas County voters to educate themselves on the issues and candidates. If the Democratic recorder results are any indication, there is a great deal of educating to be done.

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

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Email him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.

Tags: Dennis Kucinich, District 9, George Sarantou, James Seaman, Joe the Plumber, Jon Husted, Jon Stainbrook, Jonathan Binkley, Josh Mandel, Kevin Eff, Lighting The Fuse, Lucas County Board of Elections, Marcy Kaptur, Michael S. Miller, Phil Copeland, Publisher's Statement, Ronald Reagan, Samuel Wurzelbacher, Sherrod Brown, TARTA, Tom Pounds

This entry was posted on Friday, March 9th, 2012 at 12:00 am and is filed under Lighting The Fuse, Opinion, Publisher's Statement.
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This may come as news to some, but we’re not operating in a global market — at least not anymore. That’s what investors ought to be telling themselves if they expect to be profitable for the next 10-15 years.

Many investors today are sitting on portfolios with a substantial amount of foreign currency risk. Most are completely unaware of the fact, and even fewer understand it.

During the past 25 years, the dollar has gone through a prolonged and substantial decline in value versus other global currencies. Today’s dollar is worth only a fraction of its nearest peak under Reagan in the mid-1980s.

As this story has become popularized, much of the investing public has piled into traditional dollar hedges including foreign stocks, oil and gold, many of which have soared to all-time highs in recent years. (Note: Not all investors have made money riding this wave; look no further than clients who got fleeced buying gold bullion through Goldline, the dealer touted by Glenn Beck and others. We tried to warn them, but no one wanted to listen.)

The problem is that, unbeknownst to many, the U.S. dollar actually put in a significant bottom almost three years ago. This bottom is likely to be the end of a 20-year plus bear market in the dollar and the reversal of fortunes for many who have placed substantial bets against its value.

Here’s the rub: The next 10 years will almost surely not be a time to invest in foreign markets or otherwise bet against the U.S. dollar. If the dollar continues to rally, which seems highly likely, any gains made from investing in foreign companies will be almost or entirely wiped out by fluctuations in the currency markets.

And that’s not all.

The past couple of decades have seen the emergence of so-called frontier markets, so-called because they are in countries that resemble emerging markets but are thought to be even earlier in their “emergence” phase. Markets in off-the-radar countries like Bahrain, Bangladesh, Lithuania, Qatar, Sri Lanka and Vietnam have seen tremendous surges in popularity as foreign investors have gone searching for the next BRIC nations.

What many will find is that these countries don’t have markets, they have gambling pits. The people there are more than willing to welcome foreign investors and help them buy anything in sight; but once those foreigners (i.e., Americans) try to cash in, there won’t be a buyer in sight.

Remember that age-old lesson — we’ve written about it before — an investment is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. A lot of investors are going to learn this lesson the hard — and expensive — way.

What is most frustrating about the state in which many investors find themselves is that it is through no fault of their own. The concepts discussed here are not simple or easy to understand; they are the kinds of things that investors pay advisers to help guide them through.

Unfortunately, many trusted advisers have done their clients a tremendous disservice by continuing to push clients into anti-dollar positions. Advisers should be well aware of the downfall of the dollar since 1985 and have the foresight to understand that it will be turning up — and know how to help their clients take advantage.

Sadly, this is rarely how things work in the financial services industry. Very few advisers spend their time doing the research to understand these issues any more than their clients do. After all, it’s infinitely easier to show a client a mountain chart of a foreign fund or gold during the past 15-20 years and convince them to buy as opposed to pushing a downtrodden domestic fund that hasn’t made a dime over the past decade.

Now we find ourselves having arrived at age-old lesson No. 2, again one we have written about time and again: Investing with hindsight is never a good idea.

Investing with a perspective confined to history can be equated to driving but using only rearview mirrors to steer — it works just fine until the road curves. And that’s exactly what has happened; the road has curved. Those investments that have done well during the past decade or two surely won’t do as well in the next 10 to 20 years. After all, economic conditions today are completely different. The conditions that resulted in gains for anti-dollar investments no longer exist — so why would the results be the same?

Dock David Treece is a discretionary money manager with Treece Investment Advisory Corp (www.TreeceInvestments.com) and is licensed with FINRA through Treece Financial Services Corp. He has appeared on CNBC and numerous radio programs, and also serves as editor of financial news site Green Faucet (www.GreenFaucet.com). The above information is the express opinion of Dock David Treece and should not be construed as investment advice or used without outside verification.

Tags: Dock David Treece, Ronald Reagan, Treece Blog

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 17th, 2011 at 5:42 pm and is filed under Toledo Business Link, Treece Blog.
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I am now convinced that the GOP is willing to turn our great nation into a third-world country in its zeal to keep Obama from being reelected. After watching John Boehner’s “response” to the president’s July 25 speech, there can be no doubt (if there ever was any) that the GOP will lie, dissemble and say anything to discredit Obama, the public’s interest be damned.

Obama has bent over backward to cave into their unwise demands, but even if he caved completely, once again they would move the goalposts and blame it on him. If they got a flat tire they would undoubtedly try to spin that it as Obama’s fault. Boehner, and most GOP responders, consistently speak as if they never listened to whatever speech they are responding to, and just as consistently, keep repeating the same old tired points that their corporate moneyed interests have provided, mixed in with the Tea Party’s unfounded beliefs that they are being taxed to death.

Obama said in his speech that he would back Harry Reid’s new plan, which gave the Repubs virtually everything they’ve been holding out for while containing no tax increases. In effect, he called their bluff. Boehner’s answer was to say that Obama was asking for a blank check and had no plan. Even though I think Reid’s plan is nothing short of abhorrent, it does indeed constitute a plan, so saying there is no plan is a flat lie. Boehner and the GOP rely on the fact that much, if not most, of the public pay little attention to details, so if they come up with a good sound bite, even if it’s a lie, chances are a portion of the public will believe it. What Reid’s plan does do, however, is prove that the deficit is not the GOP’s real concern. Defeating Obama at every turn is. It’s all politics. Governing responsibly doesn’t even enter into the picture.

Let’s look at some facts. Tax rates now are the lowest since Eisenhower was president. Taxes are remarkably lower than they were under the Repubs’ saint, Ronald Reagan. In seven of Reagan’s eight years in office, the top tax rate was higher than the current 35 percent. For six of those years, it was more than 50 percent. The bottom tax rate was more than 10 percent, the current rate, for his entire term. The average tax rate for a family of four was 11.06 percent under Reagan. Under Clinton in 1992, it was 9.18 percent, and under Obama in 2010, it was 4.68 percent. Under Reagan, income tax revenue ranged from 7.8 to 9.4 percent of the GDP. Last year, it was 6.2 percent.  Ronald Reagan raised taxes in seven of his eight years in office. He said it was important that everyone “pay their fair share”. (Thanks to Pat Garafalo of ThinkProgress).  Clearly, we do have a revenue problem and not just a spending problem.

Another interesting fact that the GOP doesn’t bother to point out is that 90 percent of the deficit was run up under Republican administrations. Its newfound concern seems a little fatuous, given that they are responsible for most of the problem. The fact that they appear to be willing to default on the debts that they by and large ran up seems to run counter to their “families have to live within their means” dross that they are constantly repeating from their sheet of talking points.

Does your family run up huge tabs and then walk away and let other families pick up the bills? Especially on the backs of the poor, the elderly, and the middle-class? Mine doesn’t. How did these guys get a reputation for fiscal responsibility again? I must have missed something. Every family I know spends beyond what they have on hand. To be fair, we borrow to buy houses and automobiles. We borrow to pay for college educations for our children. No one I know borrows so we can give up those things that we hold dear so that the rich can get richer at our expense. That’s ridiculous, but that is what the GOP has done and wants to continue to do. Just tighten your belts. We’ll be OK. You, maybe not so much.

The other great lie is American exceptionalism. The thing that always made America exceptional was that her citizens banded together for the good of all, not just some exceptionally wealthy citizens. The discourse of today tells us that basically everything we are or could be, we owe to the wealthy. America didn’t become the most powerful nation on earth under the robber barons of yore. We went through the Great Depression thanks to those whose thought processes are similar to today’s, GOP built a vibrant middle-class, reined in the rampant greed and built a nation to be proud of. That’s what made America exceptional, and that’s the exceptionalism that is at risk today.

Email Don Burnard at letters@toledofreepress.com.

Tags: Barck Obama, Don Burnard, GOP, Harry Reid, John Boehner, Ronald Reagan, The Hot Corner

This entry was posted on Monday, August 1st, 2011 at 11:59 am and is filed under Opinion, The Hot Corner.
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