"The Week That Was..." 09/19/08
    A few weeks ago I mentioned what a busy week it had been in the WJER News Department. I take it back…THIS was really, really, busy week in the newsroom and for WJER Radio. It all started Sunday when the winds started ripping through the state including Tuscarawas County. As Dover Fire Chief Russ Volkert told me in an interview, it was the worst winds he had experienced maybe since 1969. He had me there, as I barely remember 1969. 
    I was at the Tuscarawas County Fairgrounds Sunday afternoon interviewing a number of the 4-H kids who were setting up the fair booth displays. We heard the wind blowing and certainly experienced the wind firsthand when we walked outside the barns, and as you all know, they were gusting and then some. Little did we know that the aftermath of those winds would leave more than half the county without power for days, and as of this writing many thousands are still without power. 
    I know there was a lot of frustration over not having power. But most everyone I talked to said that they better understood what the people in Louisiana and Texas were going through, and realized that the inconvenience of not having power didn't compare to what so many in those states were faced with. I heard others say that they were going to take being prepared for such emergencies a lot more seriously. One lady said, “I hear you on the radio always talking about being prepared with bottled water, working flashlights, candles and food items that don't require cooking or little preparation, and certainly having a radio with good working batteries so that we could listen to WJER to find out what was going on.” Good advice for sure.
    I also heard comments about how neighbors who had power were assisting those who didn't, and how places like the YMCA, as well as some area schools and businesses, were coming to the aid of those without power with showering opportunities and refuge from darkened homes. Once again, Tuscarawas Countians are coming to the aid of friends and neighbors who need assistance. One interesting thought I heard was that "maybe every now and then we need to have something like this happen to bring us back to reality and appreciate the fact that we have electricity, water, and all the other conveniences we enjoy." I guess a dose of reality doesn't hurt any of us. However, if you are still one of the many without power, that dose may be becoming particularly distasteful at this point. But hang in there, they are working to get the power restored. 
    And speaking of a dose of reality, I do think that those overpaid executives of Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns, the Fannies, and AIG are being taught the reality of incompetence and greed. And I think that they had better feel the pain. Our government should require them to repay those of us who are now bailing them out their bonuses, and big portions of those huge salaries they were getting while they recklessly and, in many cases, blatantly misused the funds of shareholders and overlooked the rules and procedures of running a business. I think we have enough Harvard MBA's, and maybe we just need to get back to the fundamentals of those Business Management 101 classes. And oh yes, how about some character and ethics classes, which obviously they didn't take. The two words that I think best describe the Wall Street mess this week are incompetence and greed
    

Well, those are my views. If you would like to see more, check out the WJER website at wjer.com.