The California Connection

Dateline Dayton — Dayton and California, specifically Orange County, have been making the national news this past week. A girl from Dayton gave her baby up for adoption and the baby was legally adopted by a nice lady in California.

Now there is a man living in Dayton who claims he is the father of this baby girl. He wants her back. This outstanding father already has four children, none of whom he cares for. He has been in prison for domestic violence, abused the mother of the child in question and has a child endangerment charge on his record. , According to a judge, he is entitled to have custody of this child.

I realize that our court system is required to be blind, but I didn’t know it also needed to be stupid.

Is there anyone, other than the adopted mother, who is looking out for the best interests of the child? This little girl will come to Dayton, which could happen as early as tomorrow. What will be her future?

Since this so-called father doesn’t care for his other children, she probably will face welfare, child services and foster homes. What a future to look forward to, compared to what she has today, a loving, caring mother.

Who will be paying for all the “loving” care she will be receiving in Dayton? We, the taxpayers.

I realize there are situations like this every day. However, in this case it appears the judge should do some homework prior to sentencing a child to life with a man she does not know and is NOT even listed on her birth certificate.

King James

I’m not much of a sports fan. But I do follow some sporting items. I was one of the many who tuned in last Thursday evening, to hear LeBron James make his decision on where he was going to play basketball next year.

The NBA, like all professional sports, is a business. True, some of the participants may be playing because they love to play their sport. Still, they are in the business for money. James has made a lot of it playing for Cleveland. Now King James says he is making this move to win. According to him, winning is the name of the game. Give me a break. How does he know he will have any better chance of winning with Miami, even with the big three?

I feel sorry for the city of Cleveland and the Cavaliers fans, who have been let down by their local boy. James is from nearby Akron.

Admittedly the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t handle the news well. He must have forgotten that professional basketball is a business. His short- term memory failed him when talking about loyalty because he recently fired the team’s coach for not winning the league championship although they had a great record.

The best of luck to LeBron. Next year when the Miami Heat play the Cavaliers in the playoffs, I hope Cleveland wins!

National Cash Register

July 1 was both a sad and happy day for Dayton.

After more than 125 years, National Cash Register officially left its world headquarters here and moved to Atlanta. In my opinion, NCR actually left Dayton long before July 1, 2010.

That event took place when the NCR Board of Directors, in its infinite wisdom, allowed their new CEO to have his office in New York. I would be willing to go out on a limb and say that Atlanta is not the headquarters of NCR, although it might have a building named that somewhere in the area.

So long, NCR. It was great while the company had leadership that cared about the community and its employees! I hope you treat Atlanta and the employees there better than you did in Dayton. Please don’t dock them for being late because they are stuck in traffic.

The good part of this whole scenario is the University of Dayton took possession of NCR’s world headquarters building on July 1.. So it won’t be another large empty building in Dayton. The university will be moving its research institute, as well as other operations, into this beautiful building and setting. The university is making a real commitment to Dayton and is leading the development efforts of the area around its expanding campus.

Congratulations to the University of Dayton for its involvement in the community.

Mr. Hennessey may be contacted at pmhenn@sbcglobal.net