Fairborn commencement
Badin graduation
Division I regional track finals
Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2007 > August > 27
Monday, August 27, 2007
Oakwood meeting’s surprise ending
The defining moments of tonight’s Oakwood City Council meeting, with its standing room only house, came just before the crowd disbursed at 10:15.
The main event was a presentation by and questions posed to Dayton Metropolitan Housing Authority Executive Director Greg Johnson about public housing and Section 8 rental subsidies. Much of what transpired was predictable.
The crowd’s silent majority wore concerned expressions throughout the evening. They worried about reports that Dayton’s troubled public housing projects might empty into their backyards. A few resentful residents made dire predictions of crime, instability, declining home sales, and a deterioration of this affluent community’s idyllic quality of life — because, they argued, that’s what happens when the poor move nearby.
Some atmospherics were a pleasant surprise: All three members of the Montgomery County Commission — Debbie Lieberman, Dan Foley, and Judy Dodge — came to the meeting, along with County Administrator Deborah Feldman. So did the entire DMHA board. Kettering Mayor Don Patterson and City Council Member Peggy Lehner were there, too.
They seemed to offer an example of solidarity, of how sensible people who keep their heads can work things through.
Mayor Judy Cook set a dignified tone. She and council members who spoke clearly understood the sensitivity of the topic. They supported the public right to exhaust their questions and be fully informed, but pushed for a rational discussion driven by facts.
DMHA Director Greg Johnson made a careful presentation anticipating the deepest concerns and offering credible answers that should have brought some comfort. He met even the most pointed and least friendly questions with endless patience.
But these things did not move the crowd in any noticeable way.
Rather, it was a sincere, 40-something women who came nervously to the podium toward the very end of the meeting. She said she had lived on Irving Avenue for 10 years near a building with publicly subsidized apartments. She said she never had one minute’s trouble. She said the problems on her street came from upper middle class kids attending UD.
The crowd acknowledged her powerful point with a laugh and a nod.
This was followed by a most remarkable mea culpa.
Lance Winkler, editor of The Oakwood Register, said his recent reporting about potentially hundreds of section 8 tenants flooding the area near the Oakwood-Kettering border had been faulty. He called what he wrote “the journalistic equivalent of shouting fire in a crowded theater.”
He apologized — a brave and responsible act from the editor of an otherwise bright community weekly.
Mayor Cook concluded with these remarks:
“Anyone is welcome in our community who shares (our) standards and values as demonstrated by their willingness to maintain our property maintenance standards and obey our laws.
“Knowing this to be true, we need to offer support to efforts aimed at improving the quality of life for those in need. It would not be characteristic of our community to add to the problem.”
Romney a conservative, supporter says
We continue with our endorsements of presidential candidates. Today: Mitt Romney, by Nathan Burd. I didn’t know Mr. Burd before the little e-mail exchange below. He’s 29 and a veteran of a bunch of Republican campaigns. He’s running for the Ohio house of representatives in Reynoldsburg and eastern Franklin County and is the founder of Americans for Mitt: http://www.americansformitt.com
Q: What is it that attracts you to Romney and why do you support him?
A: As voters continue to become familiar with Governor Romney, they’ll see that he’s far and away the most accomplished candidate in the field. As governor, Romney has erased a $3 billion budget deficit by reducing waste and cutting taxes. Massachusetts can no longer be called “Taxachusetts” due to Romney’s bold leadership. The principles of fiscal discipline that he has shown in Massachusetts are sorely needed in Washington, D.C.
Romney has also earned praise for applying conservative principles to his landmark plan to provide universal health care coverage to every citizen in Massachusetts.
On education, Romney created the John and Abigail Adams scholarship program that allows high-achieving students to attend state colleges tuition-free for four years. The result of this incentive? Students in Massachusetts rank at the top of nearly academic category.
And on the vital social issues of the day, Romney has been a champion for traditional marriage and for protecting the unborn. By vetoing efforts to expand embryonic stem-cell research and emergency contraception, Romney has made defending human life a top priority. No leader has been as outspoken as Romney on the need to protect traditional marriage. By openly criticizing the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage and by vocally supporting the Federal Marriage Amendment, Romney has been one of the strongest voices for the traditional values movement in America.
Prior to becoming governor, Romney ran the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. These games were held just months after 9/11 and Romney oversaw the massive security effort to keep the games safe. He has also traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan to encourage our troops and to get a first-hand look at the challenges we face. He has spoken clearly on the need to defeat the radical Jihadists who aim to destroy our way of life.
Mitt Romney should be our next president because he’s taken action on all of the major issues of our time and he has the leadership ability to ensure that America remains the world’s economic and military superpower.
Q: A central part of your case is that he’s the best candidate for conservatives. As you know, that’s precisely the matter about which most questions have been raised. In truth, he has always been known as a moderate before. He ran against Ted Kennedy in 1994 as the moderate alternative. There was simply no way a Republican in Massachusetts would run as a conservative. As recently as his governorship, he was known as a moderate. Health care is a case in point. He might apply conservative principles, but he’s still proposing universal care, with a government mandate that a person get coverage. As for gay rights, yes, he opposes gay marriage. But gay rights were a hot issue before that particular issue arose, and he was on the moderate or liberal side. He acknowledges that he was pro-choice until very recently. Tell me the truth: Aren’t you and other conservatives backing him simply because there isn’t any really authentic conservative among the announced major candidates?
A: The idea that Governor Romney isn’t a true conservative is laughable.
Much has been made of the alleged “flip flops”, but the truth is that Romney has only had one major change of opinion: from pro-choice to pro-life. And as lifelong conservative pro-lifer, I can assure you that we want people to convert to our cause. Governor Romney has clearly explained his conversion and, most importantly, he has taken action by vetoing every pro-abortion bill sent to him by the Massachusetts legislature.
Governor Romney has always been against gay marriage. When he ran against Ted Kennedy in 1994, gay marriage wasn’t on the agenda. He spoke of the need to treat gay Americans respectfully then and he speaks of the need to treat gay Americans respectfully now. But Romney agrees with the overwhelming majority of Americans who believe that marriage is an institution between one man and one woman.
Conservatives don’t oppose finding new ways to provide health insurance to uninsured individuals. We oppose a single-payer system, a.k.a. Hillary Care, that would put the federal government in control of all health-related decisions. Governor Romney understands that market-based health care reform is the responsible solution to this problem.
As governor, Romney cut taxes and slashed duplicative and wasteful government programs. That is something that is sorely needed in Washington, D.C. today and conservatives recognize that Romney is the man to make it happen.
There are authentic conservatives in this race and Governor Romney is at the top of that list. His record speaks for itself.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: 2008 endorsements, National politics
Dayton, Kettering, Centerville, Huber Heights: Check out 911 dispatch up north
If you’re keeping up with what’s happening around the state on 911 emergency dispatch, check out this from The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: 911 Emergency Dispatch
Kettering City Council responds
In Sunday’s Opinion section of the newspaper, we published a response from Kettering City Council about its decision to quit talks on a regional emergency dispatch system. Here’s how it began.
We rarely engage in editorial sparring, but we feel compelled to set the record straight regarding our decision to withdraw from the proposed regional dispatch center.
A recent blog posting by Ellen Belcher, editorial page editor for the Dayton Daily News, accused Kettering City Council of taking the easy way out; she said that the council was not as “enlightened” as previous councils; and mentioned that the current council did not want to fight a ballot issue that was forthcoming.
Belcher should have watched our last council meeting in its entirety.
Click here to read the entire article.
Permalink | | Categories: 911 Emergency Dispatch
