The ideas for columns often come to me at strange times and from unusual places. The thought behind this week's effort for the Toledo Free Press, "What's A Fair Price For Safety" came from a comparison made in casually in conversation. This casual thought found expression in as a comment to a post on the reasons behind the union-led demonstrations in Madison, Wisconsin over a proposed change in state law in well-respected blogger and occasional radio talk show host Maggie Thurber's blog Thurber's Thoughts.
With a reply by her to that comment, Maggie in turn set my mind to the task of expanding that thought into a cohesive piece of writing (or at least as cohesive a piece as I am capable of). Once again, editor-in-chief Michael Miller was gracious enough to place "What's A Fair Price For Safety" online at the TFP website early this week. This means that you will have the rest of the week to spend going over not only the mid-week Star edition, but the flagship edition at the end of the week.
I'm sure that by the time the weekend arrives, that there will be many exciting stories to follow in Toledo largest Sunday circulation newspaper, The Toledo Free Press.
This week's effort for the Toledo Free Press was something a little different for me. "A Tale of Two Cities" occurred to me when I read the numbers in a piece for the Kansas City Star by Yael T Abouhalkah on the expansion of the Kansas City (Missouri) police and fire departments.
While I went into the piece with what I thought were definite opinions about how these numbers related to Kansas City and to Toledo, I found myself growing less sure of previously held assertions as the research that I did progressed. In the end, I couldn't decide whether KC's example was a path to follow or a warning to heed.
I have always believed that the beginning of wisdom is having more questions than answers to begin with and a willingness to shed assumptions if the information discovered persuades one otherwise. Perhaps working on this piece is the beginning of such wisdom for me (yet another sign of the Apocalypse, no doubt).
But enough of this or I will ruin the piece for you entirely. Besides, there is infinitely more worthy of reading in this week's TFP; and anyone who wants to catch up with all that's going on in Toledo and NW Ohio will be spending a bit of time this weekend with Toledo's largest Sunday circulation newspaper.
