Readers' Opinions

Every year I watch people put their lives in high gear around the holidays. Everyone is in a big hurry. We have to pack as much into the month of December as possible.  

We meet friends for dinner, shop like crazy, bake cookies till midnight in search of the spirit of the holidays. We pack so much in that at the end we are exhausted, in debt and sad because something was missing. What was missing is the true spirit of the holidays. This year slow down, breathe and use your good manners.

As a person who loves to write I was delighted to have the opportunity to attend two informative and interesting presentations given by authors who once lived in the Cleveland area. On Wednesday, Nov. 3, I joined a large group at the Bay Village Branch Library to listen to Emilie Richards discuss the journey which led her to a very successful writing career.

She is the author of over sixty novels, including "Whiskey Island," a mystery thriller set right here in Cleveland. Ms. Richards shared many useful tips on the "how to's" of writing for publication. One which I felt was most helpful was "ideas are everywhere." I believe many people would like to write but don't know where to begin.

As I listened to Emilie Richards I thought of the many potential reporters for the Observer who would like to try their hand at writing for publication but don't know how to get started. If you are interested in writing for the Observer but feeling intimidated, please contact the paper and speak with Tara or Denny Wendell. They will give you support and information to help you get your news and/or ideas into the paper. I am grateful to Emilie Richards for her many writing tips and plan to read one of her latest novels, "A Truth for a Truth," published this year.

As I looked down over the valley below, I sighed. How beautiful it looked from the side of the mountain. This is home, I mused. My dad's father grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. I always felt my roots were planted deep in the Virginia soil.

I never spent the holidays there but grandpa told me many stories. A huge turkey dominated the dining room table. Candles were everywhere. Roast duck, country ham, salad, sweet potato casserole and mincemeat pie added to the feast. The neighbors always brought over a bottle of spirits which the men shared while the women cooked, served and cleaned up. Each Thanksgiving two or three families gathered at the house to give thanks and celebrate a successful harvest.

We are all neighbors, whether we live on the same street, in the same country or just live on the same planet. We all consider ourselves neighbors in one way or another.  In order to live in an orderly, healthy society we need to live along side one another, be respectful and courteous to the fellow next door.

We need to plan, discuss and imagine how we can make life better for us now and for future generations. We often hear about a tragedy or crisis that causes people to come together to help one another. Watch any news report and you will see people of all colors, religions and backgrounds lending a helping hand when disaster occurs. That is neighbor helping neighbor.

Bay Village is on its way to the next celebration (300 years) in 2110. Hopefully, the Bay Village Historical Society will be in place to look back on the Bicentennial celebration of 10-10-10. Recognition of the Historical Society should have been mentioned from the platform on Sunday, Oct. 10. 

Carole Roske, president of the Bay Village Historical Society, and Tom Phillips, trustee and treasurer, worked tirelessly for many months to put together this wonderful event. Funding for the celebration was accomplished by the generous contributions of many individuals, corporations, and organizations.

 

Walt Whitman once said “Happiness... not in another place but this place, not for another hour but this hour.” This advice should not only apply to spectacular events that are scheduled or precisely planned but also the unexpected ones that are more often the ones remembered because they are just that, unplanned.

An amazing sunset – the kind an artist tries to capture – that takes your breath away, a child with that wide-eyed innocent look, the light sweet kiss of the older couple still feeling the love from years past, the opening of a Champagne bottle that makes you giggle.

 

As a newer resident of Bay Village, I am quite interested in the city's history, especially now that the Bicentennial looms on the horizon. I wonder what life was like in 1810 for the first settlers? I'm sure they endured many hardships and challenges as they began building our community. When I moved to Bay Village I was unaware it had any historical significance. To me it was just that rather well-to-do suburb located near Lake Erie.

Now that I call Bay Village home, I am learning how erroneous my perception was. Our community is more than just a place to live. It's a unique combination of people, businesses, land and heritage. From the school crossing guard who watches over our children come rain or shine, to the clergy who preach in our many churches, offering hope in these troubling times, to the many volunteers who reach out to our less fortunate, to our police and fire fighters who provide for our safety...and the list goes on and on.

Can we just talk about the issues? Why is it that candidates for political office feel the need to resort to mud slinging, misinformation, half truths, character assassination and outright lies of an opponent instead of telling what they can do for me? 

Take the time to spell out what you want to do for me in your political TV ads instead of directing me to your website; you have my attention, inform me now of your plan. All the whining and complaining about an opponent just gets the MUTE BUTTON pushed. 

Assuming the personal essay is still alive and well in Cleveland, I'd like to discuss a couple of my favorite old and ordinary objects that can still be impressive in our current age of high technology.

First, consider the clipboard, about as simple as any device man has invented. Yet, if you walk down a city street holding one with determination and wearing a grim facial expression, it can be as intimidating as an uncased shotgun. People usually step aside with trepidation, or they fear you more subtly as Liza Doolittle feared Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady," or if you go into a store you might be escorted out as a detested comparison shopper.

Updating two good deeds with public thanks from many as we ongoingly enjoy them.

1) The air pollution that spanned years apparently has cleaned up its act. That merits and hereby gets a thank you—from one who speaks for many in the Knickerbocker / Dover Center area. And we never called it malicious. One high governmental figure thanked me for a letter that had thanked him—surname when he wants it. The note was rather brave and savvy and kind of him–and indicated that many had helped. Whatever. The text is somewhere. And I months ago mailed thanks to others, too.

Seeing the huge tree sprawled on the ground just a few feet away from the Bay Village community garden where families were busy preparing the soil and planting, took my breath away. Had the tree come down at that moment someone surely would have been hurt. Luckily it had happened the night of the storm and no one was there.

The scene I witnessed made quite an impression on me. I wondered why some people are caught up in a raging storm, injured or killed while others are spared. Of course, there is no answer. We have no control over the forces of nature. We go about our daily routines with no thought about the possible tragedies which might  happen to us. We trust that we will be safe, and most often we are right.

In Part I of this article in the last issue, I told you how I got started in writing Letters to the Editor and some of the experiences this avocation has  led to over the years in two areas – greater Nashville and greater Cleveland. Overall my purpose in these pieces is to encourage you to also express your opinions in writing to papers, magazines and web sites.

While I have accumulated some experience in writing and some success in having many of my letters printed since I started about 18 years ago, I would not presume to tell you how to write. I consider writing, much as opinions, to be very personal. We all have our own style just as we have our own opinions. Sometimes, people that know I write letters will suggest topics to me. While I appreciate their confidence, writing others’ opinions would just not work for me – and probably not for you either.

This General Assembly, the people of Ohio have experienced a roller coaster of triumphs and struggles. We saw the extension of the job-creating Third Frontier initiative, while at the same time, a nearly billion-dollar tax increase was levied when families were least able to afford it. While there has been significant job loss and economic decline both here at home and across the state, there is still hope—as long as the legislature puts politics aside and works to breathe new life into our region.

For the past 20 months, I have kept my promise to the families back home who entrusted me to be their voice in the People’s House. Specifically, I sought to create jobs for our community by introducing legislation that would fortify Ohio’s economy and get Cuyahoga County back to work. The 10 “Future of Ohio” jobs bills would help get our state back on the right track by offering businesses incentives to hire new employees, creating a more conducive business climate, and striving to keep young, educated college graduates within our borders.

It never occurred to me back in 1992, when I dashed off my first “Letter to the Editor,” that it would become the avocation it has for me or the grand experiences it would bring me.

I don’t know how many such little opinion pieces I’ve written since then – well over a thousand for sure – but I do know that about 600 of them have been printed in various publications, to name a few: the Observer, The Plain Dealer, USA Today, Time, Readers Digest, The National Review, Cleveland Magazine, The Sun Papers, West-Life, the Nashville Tennessean and other local papers and publications.

My topics have included almost anything and everything. Once in preparing an introduction for a talk I give on my letter writing experiences, I calculated that – in terms of circulation alone, without regard for Internet distribution – that over 350 million copies of my words have been printed.

Immigration reform is a very heated topic these days. Arizona is probably taking an extreme course to remedy a problem that's plagued this country for decades, illegal aliens. The majority of illegal aliens, who are mostly of Latino descent, are hard-working individuals that take on jobs that most "homegrown" Americans won't take because it may require breaking a sweat and earning pay that doesn't equal the work performed.

With nearly 47,000 jobs lost over the past 18 months, my number one goal as your state representative is to create jobs for nearly 100,000 unemployed individuals in our region. My mantra, “It’s all about jobs,” has become much more than a slogan; it has been my motivation throughout the 128th General Assembly as I introduced and co-sponsored legislation to put our hard-working citizens back to work.

I have spearheaded numerous efforts to create conditions for economic recovery in Ohio. Last fall, I unveiled the “Future of Ohio” job creation package, which will keep jobs in Ohio and encourage small businesses to expand. This package of 10 bills includes a tax credit for businesses that expand their payroll and occupy a vacant facility, an online resource portal for small businesses, and an in-depth study of why companies choose to leave the Buckeye state.

I don't remember watching fireworks on the Fifth of July before, but this year was different. In the past the Fourth of July meant toting folding chairs, blankets or, perhaps, a cooler filled with the makings for a picnic supper to wherever we decided to go.

Excited children in tow, we would search frantically for the best spot to watch the fireworks. Some years we would go to Edgewater Park, others would find us at Clague Park. When Great Northern Mall sponsored fireworks we would walk to the end of our street and sit in front of Baskin and Robbins to watch. When our children were teenagers my husband and I were on our own. Sometimes we would go as far as Berea to watch the fireworks. Mighty adventurers were we.

I know they are long-standing traditions but the time of Food Eating Contests must come to an end. It just seems that there is no sensitivity to the fact that people around the world, let alone in our own country, go days  and sometimes weeks without a proper meal.

Now do a split-screen with Joey Chestnut wolfing down 54 hot dogs in ten minutes – please! I'm sure some starving person in Africa would be thankful to to have one hot dog a day for 54 days. What satisfaction do people get from watching these competitions? Has our society become so desensitized to the entertainment factor that we can't see what's clearly right in front of us on the daily news – that people are starving in the world?

We were seated in a circle at Pebble Ledge Ranch in Geauga County, cancer survivors, caregivers and family members, when someone began giggling. She looked  across at me and said, "Do you know there's a horse behind you?" I looked up and there was a large brown horse whose head was inches from mine. "Oh my gosh," I wondered, "how did this happen?"

The morning retreat was about horses and healing. Ten of us plus several staff members from the ranch were getting briefed on horses' innate ability to tune into human emotions. That morning I was feeling lonely and uncertain.

 

Summer is my favorite season. The days are long and the sunrays are bright. What I enjoy about summer is that I get to learn new things and interact and play with my friends at the same time. I have been doing lots of fun and creative things. I have been learning different styles of art like Still Art, Tie and Dye, how to make three-dimensional cards, etc.

I am learning how to play the violin and how to play tennis. I enjoy swimming in the summer. The serene water makes me feel cool and I love relaxing on my Spiderman surfboard as much as I do swimming. I like to ride my bike around the neighborhood with my friends. I recently got a cool new helmet.

 

How will you spend your Father's Day this year? Cards, cake and presents help us honor the man who was there for us as we were growing up. He went to work, paid the bills, taught us right from wrong and cheered us on as we tackled the complicated hurdles of adolescence. Perhaps this is not reflective of everyone's experience of dad but many of us can relate to it.

Unfortunately, there are children who grow up without a father. Some men walk away from fatherhood, unwilling or unable to commit to caring for their families. For these children, Father's Day is just another day, or a painful reminder that there is someone out there who should be a part of their lives, but isn't.

I was reviewing real estate ads on the Internet recently when I came across an ad for a house on Columbia Rd. in Bay Village. The ad caught my eye because that house was the first house that my wife, Bev, and I lived in when we moved to Bay in 1971.

Two years later, we bought our first house on Elmwood Rd., and, over time, owned homes on West Oviatt Rd. and Bates Dr.  During our 33 years of living in Bay Village we lived in all four wards, and our children attended every public school in the city. In our son Scott's case, he actually may be the only person who ever attended all four elementary schools as well as the old middle school and the high school. In a bit of minor irony, Scott was on the Board of Education when the new middle school was approved and built and his name is included on the dedication plaque.

Six years ago Bev and I moved to a condo in Avon Lake. We did so after two years of searching for a viable alternative to our large "empty nest" on Bates. We wanted to stay in Bay Village, but we recognized that a condo or cluster home was what we needed, and the available alternatives in Bay did not meet the profile that we were looking for. 

As a long-time resident of Cuyahoga County, it is heartbreaking to see thousands of our friends and neighbors losing their jobs or struggling to put food on the table. With Ohio’s unemployment rate at 10.9 percent, families have now endured 12 consecutive months of double-digit unemployment. They are looking to their elected leaders to guide our state out of this recession and do what it takes to create jobs. While serving as your state representative in Columbus, I have fought to create the environment to retain, create and attract jobs for those back home who are barely making ends meet in this difficult economy.

Ohio has joined the ranks of many states that have raised taxes in an effort to fill budget deficits. However, soaking the taxpayers in financial burdens that discourage economic activity has actually had the opposite effect in Ohio. Many small business owners and entrepreneurs have left our state, taking jobs and investments with them. We must stop the bleeding.

It's lilac time again. How do I know this living on the sixth floor overlooking the tree tops? My exposure to lilacs is non-existent. An asphalt parking lot surrounds my building.

Don't get me  wrong. I love my apartment with its wall of windows facing north toward the lake. Unfortunately, living on an upper floor of an apartment building can sometimes blur the seasons. Clouds and the sky don't change that much from day to day.

I was recently reminded of the beauty of spring and the kindness of others at a writers group I attend at the Rocky River Senior Center. Carole Calladine, published author, director of the senior center and group mentor, remembered I had shared a story about loving lilacs.

As a baby boomer who is creeping up on 50 years old it is amazing that dining out has become a way of life for most people in this day and age. Growing up, going out to dinner was an occasional event that was very exciting; now it is just common place in society. 

Now that I've stated the completely obvious why hasn't most of the restaurant industry caught on to the fact that families are dining out? Mom, Dad and the children. Most restaurant do an average job of catering to families. 

Yes, they have their children's menus, but you can go into almost any restaurant, close your eyes, open the children's menu, and recite what's on it and when you open your eyes you may be off by one item. It's time to be more creative with menus for children. How about including a children's selection as part of your daily specials?

Enough already. After six years of hassling over the existence, logistics and location of the skate park, isn't it time to put differences aside and work together for the common good? As a grandmother of small children, I really don't have much of an interest in skate parks, but any activity that promotes outdoor exercise can't be all bad.

I believe there are questions about vandalism, excessive noise, the possibility of violence and concerns about who will clean up the facility at the end of the day. Unfortunately, I am not very knowledgeable about either side's agenda, but I do know for certain that tempers are short and emotions are heated.

I believe a return to civility and respect for others' opinions is in order. After all, if adults fail to observe the rules of good conduct, what can we expect from our children? Obviously, if skate park participants don't abide by the rules, they will suffer the consequences.

Ever lose at Monopoly? I sure have. Isn’t it disturbing to see the money you earned passing “GO” eaten up with rent and taxes before you reach Boardwalk?

But you know, losing that money isn’t really difficult because, well, it’s only Monopoly money after all. The city of Bay Village's Finance Department acts like the city runs on Monopoly money too, as was emphasized to me last Monday evening.

I’m not really sure why, but that night the wife and I intentionally attended the City Council committee session. You should try it sometime. It’s frequently more fun than watching monkeys play football, and it was fun Monday, right up to the finance discussion. 

I feel it is necessary to address possible misinterpretations from my last contribution to this paper. Based on my attendance at a recent Bay Village City Council meeting, I wanted to provide a logical evaluation of the Bay Village Historical Society’s (BVHS) position as it adheres to the Cahoon Will.

I asserted that since the function of the Will was to expressly declare property rights and avoid contention via court proceedings, a lawsuit would contradict the Will. If the Cahoon Will is central to your complaint, then your argument should probably operate within the confines of the document.

My ultimate goal was for the Society to reconsider their “approach.” Threatening legal action was an attempt to coerce the decision and a subsequent suit will squander taxpayer dollars. I felt this presented a perspective that has been ignored until now, but that individuals who are not members of the BVHS or the Bay Skate and Bike Park Foundation would find relevant.

We'd like much more than an ounce of prevention. And you know the rest of the proverb.

There is still anxiety about air pollution in the Knickerbocker/Dover Center area..

The Observer ran our column of months ago. A more recent one got lost in the shuffle, but there is wide community interest.  The bad air that time (11/12/09) came when most people were asleep; a new angle. And warm weather is ripe for trouble.

Puppy mill operators buy and sell “breeder” dogs at auctions. These animals are not treated as pets –  they are valued strictly for their capacity to make money. They are kept in cages for their entire breeding lives, usually living in outbuildings in wire cages instead of homes.

They never run in grass, sleep in a bed, or play with a toy. Instead, they are “fed and bred,” eating and relieving themselves in the same 2-foot-by-2-foot cage until their breeding days are done, at which time they are often destroyed.

The Ohio Dog Auction Act is a state ballot initiative whose mission is to help improve the lives of dogs in commercial breeding operations. The proposed law would make it illegal for anyone to auction or raffle a dog in Ohio.

In the last issue of the Observer, Kevin DeFrank takes issue with the Bay Village Historical Society’s opposition to the current siting of the skate park in city’s Historical Area. His seemingly limitless faith in his city government to do the right thing is admirable. I wish I shared his confidence, but I see the issues quite differently.

Our city officials have approved the siting of a skate park in a Historic Area, an area designated in 1975 to “preserve and restore” the historic character of the city. A historian from the Ohio Historical Society opines that a skate park at this site is inappropriate and will degrade the character of the area, which boasts two National Register Historic buildings in the first donated lakeside park in the city. 

I’ve been closely following the controversy about the skate park location, which has seemed to me more like duck hunting with blanks – lots of noise and little meat – than a reasoned discussion. We’ve investigated a number of sites: Behind the police station (it was a dump), Reese Park (neighbors objected), Bradley Park (those pesky neighbors again), overflow pool parking (another dump) and now the historic area (during our bicentennial?). 

The only location that hasn’t raised a public outcry of one sort or another has been the police station location. The main reason the city council doesn’t want to try to put the skate park there is that it used to be a dump. They’re afraid that, if they go through the EPA process to get approval, they might find out that the prior dump contains toxins that would require that we clean up the whole area. 

This is a response to the Bay Village City Council Meeting on March 15, 2010. During this meeting Council approved the site location for the Bay Skate and Bike Park (BSBP). As a result, the project will now move to the Planning Commission.

Residents representing The Bay Village Historical Society (BVHS) expressed their opposition to this site and promised legal action against the City if such an approval should happen. The BVHS claims that such a location will lead to a violation of the agreement established by the Cahoon Will, and is not the right location because it is within the historical area designated by City Council.

The threat of legal action created a new concern for councilmen deciding the issue because they had to consider the tremendous litigation fees that might burden the City budget as a consequence to their decision. Also during this meeting, Law Director Gary Ebert outlined a historical and legal context surrounding the Cahoon Will and the City’s excellent reputation of addressing possible violations, supporting the idea that simply installing a park does not violate the Will.

I would like to preface my opinion with some background information: I am fond of history. I am fond of Bay Village. I am fond of Bay Village History. After the March 15 meeting, I am NOT fond of The Bay Village Historical Society.

With 10.8 percent of our neighbors in Cuyahoga County unemployed, it has been my continuing priority to attract, create, and retain jobs for our community. Despite the efforts of the Ohio House of Representatives, Ohio is still suffering double-digit unemployment and a loss of businesses from our borders.

Luckily, the legislature has ample opportunities to turn the economy around by enacting common-sense reforms to the way Ohio does business. With all 10 bills of the “Future of Ohio” jobs package now introduced, an effort that I led as ranking member of the Economic Development Committee together with my other hardworking colleagues, we now have a chance to have a pragmatic discussion about how to fix the economy.

A quiet revolution is taking place in several suburbs surrounding Cleveland. Residents are being encouraged to put pen to paper, fingertips to keyboard to let their individual and collective voices be heard. The vehicle which is responsible for promoting community-written newspapers is called the Observer. Residents in Lakewood, Parma, University/Cleveland Heights and Collinwood are publishing their papers under the Observer name.

Resident-written newspapers have been in existence since our country's beginning. Small towns still publish newspapers written by local journalists and reporters, however, those living near cities such as Cleveland must rely on daily papers for the written news.

We are being given a unique opportunity to report local news, share thoughts and opinions, and voice that pride we so often feel as residents of Westlake and Bay Village. As the trend toward regional government gains ground, I believe it is important to preserve the connectedness and vitality shared by those who live, work and are being educated in our community.

Here in Cuyahoga County, many residents of the 16th House District have been affected by the recent energy rate change for all-electric homes by FirstEnergy Corp. I have received countless phone calls, emails and letters about this issue, and I would like to take this opportunity to discuss the issue and the steps that have been taken to mitigate the problem.

For the past 30 years, customers who owned all-electric homes were offered significant discounts on their energy bills. The discount was first implemented when FirstEnergy sought to lower the cost of electricity during the energy crisis of the 1970s.  

The 2010 Bay Village budget process will be coming to closure at the end of March. There is not much time left for residents to make a difference in the direction the city could be headed.
 
There are Bay Village city councilmen that do not understand nor have attempted to grasp the importance of an animal care and control officer. Their lack of understanding potentially raises significant safety issues for our animals and Bay residents.
 
Of the approximate 14,000-plus residents in Bay, it is estimated that at least half of those probably have two or more domesticated pets.

I love spring and I anticipate it like an underfed puppy waiting for his gravy train. There’s lots of yard work to do and I’ll miss hunkering down around the fireplace with a warm toddy like in the winter, but I’d prefer spring to winter any day. Today as I walked to the garage I heard the birds singing, so I think they anticipate spring like I do.

For a moment I ignored the snow and thought about all the things that come with the start of spring – dinner on the patio, the smell of freshly mowed grass, grub treatments. Well, almost everything. I love spending time in my yard and I don’t want anything to ruin the experience.

Nobody wants anything to destroy their enjoyment of their home, and some people call that attitude “Not in my backyard” or NIMBY (if you’ve never heard of that, you pronounce it “Nimbee”).

In some cities, Nimbee is a term that can reasonably be applied to people with the “put that someplace, but not here” attitude, but that actually doesn’t make any sense in Bay Village.

To skate or not to skate, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the noise and disruption of outrageous skate parks, or to take arms against a sea of "thrashers." Paraphrasing Hamlet brings us right up to date relative to the current situation regarding the Bay Skate and Bike Park.

The United States was directly involved in World War II from December, 1941, through August, 1945, a total of 3 years and 9 months. As of this month, skate park discussions in Bay Village government circles have gone on for more than two years longer than U.S. involvement in WWII. That seems a bit extreme, don't you think? The original group of middle-schoolers who were involved in the initiation of the skate park project are now well into their college careers. Time to inject some reality into this situation:

It seems to be a common theme these days – newspapers are dying. You hear it everywhere: newspapers are going away. I view this sentiment with an unfortunate sadness as I happen to like newspapers. The common wisdom seems to hold that newspapers are irrelevant because you can get all your news online these days faster, and for free.

You have got to be kidding me.

When I was growing up, it was called it The Paper. The morning ritual of putting on your slippers, sometime braving the elements, to retrieve The Paper was comforting in its predictability. Sometimes you’d see your neighbors out doing the same. I loved it when The Paper was brought inside during the winter months, when the pages were cold and the print was fresh. You could even detect the faint smell of ink.