Regarding The Blade story about Toledo city employees choosing not to live within the geographical boundaries of the city (“Many of city’s top staff don’t live in Toledo; Mayor feels strongly they should,” Jan. 15), I find the decisions to live elsewhere arrogant and hypocritical.
I was a public sector employee for 41 years in a number of Ohio political subdivisions, in Florida, and in North Carolina.
My work in the public sector included command positions in the Lucas County Sheriff’s Office and the Durham, N.C., police department, and four years as safety director in Findlay.
In each of those jobs, I made it a point to live within the confines of the political subdivision, often when better neighborhoods or schools were located elsewhere. And no, I’ve never believed the old excuse that a public official’s children would be bullied if they lived in the place where the children’s parent works.
My reasoning was that, if a unit of government was willing to put food on my table in exchange for my work, that table would certainly sit within the political subdivision.
And it always did, despite my occasional wish to live in a tonier suburb than where I lived and worked. And yes, as a retired attorney, I know what the current law in Ohio is regarding residency requirements.
Living in the place that feeds you, though, should engender some loyalty.
When a public official chooses to live somewhere outside the the city or county or township limits, I wonder how sincere that official’s commitment is to the betterment of the community that pays him or her.
If the public official does find that the area from whom the official will take money isn’t good enough to live in, let this official set an example by living in it despite its flaws and using his or her public platform to work to improve the community.
What better way to lead than to invest in a tangible way in the community the official serves?
That’s the definition of putting one’s money [dare I say, residence] where one’s mouth is.
EILEEN BENSEN
Maumee
New flag lacks identity
Toledo’s current flag was adopted in 1909, and revised in 1994, with its design depicting significant historical aspects.
To interpret its divergent symbolic meanings would take very little effort.
The flag under consideration has nothing that would identify Toledo and in a crowd of flags could be claimed as any entity’s identity.
In contrast, the current flag leaves little or any doubt as to its origin.
BOB DIETRICH
Lambertville
Wake more to woke
Conservatives will make you believe that this is a word and a movement that is evil and bad for us.
The word implies a breakdown of social norms and must be stopped to save our country. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida says that his state is a place “where woke comes to die.”
Most people don’t even know what woke means. Ask someone to define it for you. If you look it up, definitions can mean that a person is awake.
Or an alternative definition through Google, is “alert to social injustice and discrimination.”
An activist might be woke. And whether he or she is awake or alert to social injustice and discrimination, neither of these are bad.
In fact, maybe more of us need to be woke. Governor DeSantis does not want people to think about or act on social injustice and discrimination. His “don’t say gay” law and bashing of Disney for its sensitivity to LGBTQ issues epitomizes the culture war mentality of many in the GOP.
Obviously, they follow a former president who thrived on promoting both social injustice and discrimination. Republicans are good at framing issues with words that twist information and pull on moral and emotional strings, but they lie about their meanings.
Being alert to social injustice and discrimination must be addressed, and the fact that the woke movement is doing that is good for all of us.
Get woke!
MAURICE ROTONDO
Sylvania
First Published January 22, 2023, 5:00 a.m.
