On June 30, we took our children to the Reds game for Sean Casey Bobblehead Night. My 10- and 11-year-old sons saw Casey signing autographs and went down to get their bobbleheads signed as well. In the chaos, one son got his signed. The other was waiting with his bobblehead out when an adult jockeying for position knocked it out my son's hand and it broke in half.

Casey reached out for my son's bobblehead, and my son had to make a decision. He stuck out his right hand and shook Casey's outstretched hand and said, "Good luck, Mr. Casey." He was upset that his bobblehead was broken, but excited that he shook Casey's hand. When life gives you a lemon, make lemonade!

Beth Dulle
Anderson Township

Use luggage-finding tech to find troops

Delta Air Lines has turned to microtechnology to track lost luggage by adding a radio tag to each bag (Finding lost luggage - quickly," July 1). It seems so easy. These tags will send a signal with a distinct code and will be tracked by a computer, and the lost luggage can be tracked and returned quickly to its owner. Why can't we do this with our soldiers in Iraq? Spc. Keith Matthew Maupin could be home and enjoying the holidays with his luggage and his family.

Steve Stross
Monfort Heights

Luken ignores voters' will on casinos

Mayor Charlie Luken again proves that he's fiddling while Cincinnati burns ("Luken calls for riverboat gambling," June 30). Didn't the voters already scream no on this issue? Oh that's right; Luken only listens to the voters before he's elected.

Philip Wilsey
Evendale

Nobody just 'takes' in a free market

Richard Cohen's column ("Reagan not great; Bush could be," June 20) was thought-provoking, although perhaps not in the way he intended. Contrasting Reagan's accomplishments to those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Cohen stated that FDR's New Deal "expand(ed) welfare (and) moderat(ed) the inherent cruelty of winner-take-all capitalism." I was struck by this assertion because of the way Cohen, almost in passing, elevates socialism to a higher moral level than he ascribes to for a free-market system.

Free-market economies do indeed have winners and losers, but the "winners" do not "take all." In fact, they "take" nothing. When I buy a new car, the dealer does not "take" my money, anymore than I "take" my employer's money on payday. In free markets, the "winners" are those who earn their pay. FDR's New Deal enshrined programs that compel the "haves" to give to the "have-nots," including those who refuse to work.

Stacey Woolley
Clifton

Mentoring programs easily worth cost

What is a mentor? First, he or she is a role model ("Mentoring early yields more success" June 28). What he does or doesn't do will make a vast impression on a child from an impoverished and/or dysfunctional home. Once he has earned the trust of the young person, the mentor can begin to show him the way toward a better life in spite of home situation, peer pressure and the world he lives in. The caring can keep the child less vulnerable to tobacco, other drugs and gangs.

At times it must be difficult for the youngster to believe that there are people you can trust and rely upon, and that there is a way out of the deprived life he/she is living. It will be the road less traveled, but he/she can make it with support. There is no way to express the rewards of a mentor who has helped a student find the way to higher education and a better life. Therefore, I support the legislation introduced by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., to establish a national demonstration for early intervention programs. These programs will ultimately pay for themselves.

Helen W. Joffe
Hamilton

Why is word OK for some, not others?

If folks like Dick Spatta ("Foolish Democrats deserve expletives," July 1) or Vice President Dick Cheney find using the "F" word so refreshing, then why have they battled for years to keep folks like Eminem or Bono from saying it?

Brian Snape
Wilder