Monday, May 11, 2009

25-year police veteran to Toledo residents: "Buy guns. Invest in precious metals: lead, gun power and brass."

"For the past several weeks, the Toledo Blade has been reporting on a severe budget short-fall that the City of Toledo has spent itself into.

After weeks of back-and-forth debate between Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, Toledo city council, and unions representing police and firefighters' unions, the Finkbeiner administration has announced plans to issue layoff notices to as many as 350 city employees. While not yet being specific as to who will be laid off, Councilman Frank ­Szollosi has introduced legislation that would eliminating the jobs of 151 police officers, 100 firefighters, and 90 nonsafety personnel."

I post this one up as Toledo is close to my birth town. I am sure that this comment went over like a lead balloon with some of the anti-gun bunch there.

When I was a wee lad, we would go to the big town for items that could not be purchased locally. We thought that Toledo was huge! Temperance, at that time, had one gas station, a drug store, a small general store with a fountain, post office, small grocery, and three churches. No alcohol was sold and there were no bars.

I remember going to downtown Toledo around Christmas time to go to Tiedtke's Department Store as they had everything anyone could ever want. It seemed that way anyways. We couldn't afford much but window shopping was an event in itself. The toy department went on forever - couldn't afford that either. Have you ever stood in front of a window watching a chicken grilling on the spit? We thought it was a good time just to watch it turn but if you wanted chicken you could just wait until you got home and go catch the one pointed out to you.

Going back today to Toledo is a bit different. Tiedtke's is long gone and downtown is really nasty. You can't roam the streets anymore. The decrease of police officers is really going to be bad news in this town.

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