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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 > 2010 > February > 11
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Guest column: Greene County benefits from efforts of coalition
This commentary was written by Greene County Commissioner Rick Perales.
I agree with the spirit of the Jan. 29 editorial, “Greene County snubs its best advocate.”
Greene County needs to continue to support the regional collaboration that the Dayton Development Coalition brings to the Miami Valley. This is precisely why I voted against the Greene County 2010 budget.
My fellow commissioners and I agree on the vast majority of issues and budget expenditures. However, we respectfully disagree regarding financial support for the development coalition.
The future of the region requires that we all pull together. I believe Greene County needs to collaborate and participate in a regional economic development strategy to create jobs and recruit businesses. It is our best opportunity for sustained prosperity.
As the leader of that regional strategy, the development coalition is the right place for such an investment.
True, Greene County faces a difficult budget year, and we have painful choices to make. However, we cannot get ourselves out of this downturn by cutting investment. Greene County needs to maintain critical spending for sustained, future job growth or we will be faced with even more economic uncertainty.
Growing jobs means growing prosperity and is a core function of county government. The development coalition has a demonstrated record of success.
With it taking the lead, our region put its best foot forward, contributing greatly to the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) gains at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which Greene County and the rest of the region are just beginning to realize.
In the next two years, more than 1,000 government jobs will transfer here, with thousands more private-sector jobs expected. But that’s the tip of the iceberg.
With the numerous and diverse missions at WPAFB — research and development, acquisition, intelligence, the Air Force Institute of Technology, international assistance — there is a great opportunity for our region to capture much more of the contract-support funding associated with the base. The development coalition is especially qualified to act as the region’s intermediary, aligning industry, small businesses and academics to support the missions.
Because the base is located primarily in Greene County, it is likely to be a major beneficiary of this economic impact.
Cities and counties invest in the development coalition for many reasons. Some believe in the value of being part of a regional movement. Others do so because they value the opportunity to partner with international initiatives for business recruitment.
For Greene County, the principal benefit is its efforts with WPAFB and the jobs that are created as a result. Supporting the development coalition is an investment and the right thing for Greene County.
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Martin Gottlieb: Underage sex slavery is very real in Ohio
“I was walking down the street and this guy … he just picked me up and started beating me … and he told me I was going to be his ho.… He said if I didn’t do what he said, he was going to hurt my little brothers and sisters and my mom. And I didn’t want that to happen. So I did what he said.” — “Katie,” quoted in “Report on Prevalence of Human Trafficking in Ohio.”
That study estimates how many underage girls are forced into prostitution statewide in a year.
Perhaps, however, what’s most interesting from a Dayton perspective is a look at Toledo, where some numbers aren’t estimates.
That similar-size city ranks a shocking fourth in the country in arrests, investigations and rescues involving these girls. It’s behind Miami, Portland and Las Vegas.
Now, those other three are also not the biggest cities in the country. Nevertheless, one is not shocked to find Miami and Las Vegas on the list. But Toledo?
The reason is clear: arrests, investigations and rescues aren’t measures of what’s going on. They are measures of what is discovered. And what is discovered depends, in part, on what is looked for, on just how intensely a community is focused on a problem. Toledo has been one of the national leaders in focusing on human trafficking. As a result, Toledo “has been involved in almost every national investigation into domestic minor sex trafficking” since 2000, says the study.
One such investigation in 2005, Operation Precious Cargo, resulted in guilty pleas or convictions for 18 traffickers, 17 of whom were from Toledo. Sentences were up to 25 years for the guilty pleas; higher for the two who went to trial.
Precious Cargo found 151 “victims of prostitution,” 78 being from Toledo. Of the 151, at least 45 were children, ranging in age down to 12.
According to the study, “at least six other Toledo-based traffickers have been prosecuted.”
The study comes from a group put together by Attorney General Richard Cordray last year in response to rising alarms about human trafficking, in large measure spurred by Toledo and by federal probes. Cordray appointed people from law enforcement, academia and organizations that come into contact with the victims of traffickers.
One of the first orders of business was to get a handle on the size of the problem. That’s not easy, and the reason is not simply that human traffickers don’t register with the state. It’s that traditionally, people in law enforcement and social work have not focused on trafficking as an American problem. To many ears, it sounds like something that happens in a Third World hellhole.
Even when dealing with foreign prostitutes in Ohio, American officials don’t necessarily ask whether they were forced into it.
When confronted by a case like one in Dayton not long ago of a mother prostituting her child to pay her rent, authorities don’t fit it into a category that has statistics connected.
So a task force subcommittee researching trafficking (with Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly as a member) had to make estimates. It knew, for example, that a certain percentage of runaways who are gone from home for a couple of weeks end up in forced prostitution. It went from there.
The group eventually concluded that about a thousand Ohio children a year get trafficked for sex.
Besides those cases, there are immigrants — a slightly smaller number — who are forced into prostitution or other forced labor, not to mention the adult Americans in forced prostitution (not estimated). The study says its estimates are conservative, and that more research is needed (and ongoing).
How does trafficking happen? The report (available online at ohioattorneygeneral.gov/) offers examples like Katie’s. Another:
Julie was 12, daughter of drunken, poverty-stricken, physically abusive father. One day, a car pulled up alongside her. After a long talk, the driver convinced her to get in. Physical force wasn’t a big part of the story, but manipulation was. She ended up offering herself at a truck stop.
Often when governments and newspapers start paying more attention to a subject, it’s because something has changed to make the subject more pertinent. In the case of human trafficking, however, few people are saying that much has changed recently.
It’s just that the phenomenon is real and, until recently, not much understood.
When Toledo is ranking fourth in the country, it’s not a time for Toledo jokes. It’s time to recognize just how unfocused and clueless we have been.
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Victor Fehrenbach: Ridding military of gays diminishes our security
U.S. Sen. John McCain has always been a hero to me, and I’ve voted for U.S. Rep. John Boehner, the House Minority leader who represents my hometown of Huber Heights in Congress. After 18 years of decorated service, I must ask them: Why do you want me kicked out of the U.S. Air Force?
Last April, I faced a military discharge board — basically, a modern-day witch trial — which recommended that I be honorably discharged under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The board ruled that my “continued presence was detrimental to good order and discipline, morale, and unit cohesion.”
This was not based on any evidence or testimony, but simply on a baseless presumption at the core of this corrupt law — that the mere existence of gay service members is incompatible with effective military operations.
The claim is demonstrably false.
For nine months, I have waited for my discharge to become final, while my career and my life hang in limbo. At the same time, I have hoped and prayed for President Barack Obama to fulfill his campaign promise to end this policy.
Recently it looked as if my prayers might be answered. President Obama proclaimed during his State of the Union address in late January that “this year” he would keep his promise. Just days later, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, testified in a Senate hearing that the policy should end now, because it is “the right thing to do.”
For the first time in history, top military leaders openly supported ending the ban on gays in the military. This was a historic moment. After the hearing, I had never been so proud to wear my uniform. I am proud to serve under the command of Admiral Mullen. Sadly, some of our leaders, including men I admire like Sen. McCain and Rep. Boehner, resorted to tired, baseless arguments in support of this outdated law. They claimed it’s “working” and it’s “successful.” They further claimed that, in the midst of two wars, “now is not the time” to change the policy.
They could not be more wrong and more out of touch.
Before I was “outed” in May of 2008, I served my country with honor and distinction. I was deployed overseas five times and participated in seven major combat operations. I was highly decorated and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
At the same time, I abided by the rules of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, keeping my private life private, even from my family. Nobody knew anything about my personal life or that I was gay.
After I came out publicly last summer, I continued to serve in the Air Force — in the same job, in the same squadron — as an openly gay man with no negative impact whatsoever.
The law should be changed because it is unconstitutional, discriminatory and denies basic rights of privacy, due process and equal protection to those who defend those rights with their lives.
But it also should change because it actually harms good order and discipline, morale and unit cohesion. It also hurts the combat effectiveness of the military.
“Don’t ask, don’t tell” unjustly discharges well-trained, highly skilled, motivated, and combat-seasoned veterans. Discharging dedicated people with critical combat skills — 13,500 of them since the law was put in place — has cost billions. Their skills are lost, the money spent training and preparing them is wasted, and the costs are high to train their replacements. In this way, the law makes us less safe.
So I have a few questions for Rep. Boehner and Sen. McCain. How is this law “working” for me? How is this “successful” for our country? Why is this not the right time? When is the right time? Never?
Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach grew up in Huber Heights and is an F-15 fighter pilot with the U.S. Air Force currently stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base near Boise, Idaho.
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