I am the last person to disparage anyone’s civil liberties and I would support your right to the death to keep them. Having said that, if you ride a motorcycle without a helmet I must question your intelligence and your love for your family should you have one. I speak from the experience of a flight nurse for over five years and multiple scene runs to pick up the remains of motorcyclists who did and did not wear helmets. Of the many accident victims I took back to Metro Health Medical Center, the best outcomes were the folks who wore helmets. Many of those who did not wear helmets are now in wheelchairs or are confined to hospital beds for the remainder of their lives. Some of these accidents resulted in a long nap, never to wake again.
Having a family and not wearing a helmet is the ultimate in selfishness. I know you’re never going to have an accident. I hope you don’t. However, the graveyard is full of those “never going to happen to me” riders. Should you not be killed you might have a long hospital stay. Society then begins to foot the bill for your care. Take a look at the cost of long term care. Most long term care facilities cost between five and seven thousand a month. But, you’re not going to need that because you’re the exception to the rule. Right, you’re lucky ……..then why haven’t you won the lottery?
I have been in aviation since graduating high school and a pilot friend of mind told me that if I stayed in aviation long enough someone I know would get killed. He was right. It took many years but two very good friends were killed in a crash. Statistically, flying is safer than driving and certainly safer than riding a motorcycle. Nonetheless they were killed, but you won’t because you’re special.
I’ll never talk many of you into putting on that helmet when you’re out on the road. So, why not do something else for your family and for mankind? Sign a donor card and have a living will made donating your organs to someone who needs them and who will take very good care of them for the rest of their lives. Moreover, it will make your family feel good that you showed some intelligence and that you are not selfish at all.

Neighborhood Development

Many communities around the state and around the country have taken the razing of abandoned buildings one step further. Waiting for years to seize the abandoned buildings is now down to a year in some communities. Eminent domain takes the building after a year of having no occupants then is demolished to the ground and left to go back to the original state before development.
Many communities are transforming these empty lots and spaces into community gardens and parks, built and managed by the residents in and around the area. Could we do this in Lorain? Optimistically, I would say yes. We have one man who decorates several corners in Lorain and it seems that the vandals have left the decorations alone. Would the gardens and parks established by private citizens stay intact and flourish? The city is doing the demolishing; now the land should be donated to the local residents to take and improve.
Additionally, we have an area on the south side of Colorado Avenue at the end of Missouri Avenue. Setting idle for more than two years, the area has become a great area for deer habitat. Many evenings the deer move close to Colorado Avenue while feeding. We can take the area and turn it in to community gardens. The area sits idle so why not let it become a place where folks can grow food for themselves and their neighbors. Leaving it sit idle is just plain wrong.

No free drinks

I had to shake my head when I heard the Ohio house decided that there would be no free drinks in the casinos. I suspect that they will want to pick out the carpet and decide which way the toilet paper comes off the roll also.
I hope the casinos will counter this by charging, say, a penny a drink. The whole idea of the free drinks is to compensate patrons in a small way while they spend their money. I cannot decide whether it’s outright greed on the legislatures’ parts or are they simply reminding the voters who is really in charge!
Seemingly, the legislators want to mess with what has already been shown to work in every other casino. I would hope they would stick to screwing up the regular things and leave things they know nothing about alone. WRONG! The people have spoken, but the legislature wants to make it known that the people will have fun only at the lawmaker’s pleasure.