Tuesday's debate involving the four candidates for three seats on the Butler County Board of Commissioners was polite, with the candidates making general comments about things such as taxes, recreation, water and sewage, and roads.

But for the voters to be able to make a distinction between the candidates and to judge who should run the county government for the next four years, the voters also should be hearing what the candidates think was done wrong over the past few years and how they would have handled the situations.

Unless, of course, all of the candidates are totally comfortable with how the Government Center has been operating in recent years.

It's good that the candidates are being respectful toward one another, but Tuesday's debate cheated the voters by being merely a free forum for the candidates, not really a debate.

It is to be hoped that the four candidates will be more aggressive in their campaigns during the next three weeks.

The voters deserve that.

The National Football League Players Association isn't engaging in image-enhancement in its decision to appeal an arbitrator's ruling in the Michael Vick dogfighting case.The arbitrator ruled that Vick, the disgraced Atlanta Falcons quarterback, should repay most of the nearly $20 million bonus money he got while secretly bankrolling the long-running, despicable dogfighting operation.While it's not really a big surprise that the players union has stepped forward on Vick's behalf, no doubt many sports fans within and beyond the Falcons' fan base had hoped that the association would be content to remain on the sidelines and allow the case to move toward a conclusion.Now the case could be far from over as the association argues on behalf of Vick's financial interests.During the arbitration process, the Falcons presented the logical argument that Vick, who has pleaded guilty to federal dogfighting charges, was aware that he was violating the contract when he signed a 10-year, $130 million deal in December 2004.The Falcons said he used proceeds from the contract to fund the illegal operation.The bonus money in question, a total of $19.97 million, was paid over the last three years.The case now will go to a district court judge in Minneapolis.While the players association doesn't condone dogfighting, it shouldn't create the impression that it in any way looks lightly on such despicable behavior.In the eyes of some people, that might be exactly how its appeal is being perceived, and that's unfortunate.

Increasingly, highways are being named after politicians who were instrumental in gaining funds for them. In essence, the politicians are being honored for simply doing their jobs.More meaningful is how the road accessing Butler Township Park has been named.It is now Abie Abraham Lane, honoring a true Butler County military hero.Abraham, 94, a native of Lyndora who now lives in Renfrew, is a survivor of the Bataan Death March in World World II. He survived more than three years as a prisoner of war, during which time he was beaten, stabbed, shot and sickened by malaria before being rescued.For two years after his rescue, he remained on foreign soil to help identify and bury bodies of other soldiers.His overseas service was in Panama, China and the Philippines. Overall, he served 30 years in the military.In addition to his worthy classification as a military hero, Abraham also is a hero at the Butler Veterans Affairs Medical Center, where he has logged thousands of hours of volunteer service, aiding others who have served the nation.Butler Township made the right decision in the naming of the road.Cheer CThe latest entry to be filed under the category "local guy makes good" is the Sept. 29 promotion of Butler native Jonathan Greenert to the position of admiral.Prior to his promotion to admiral and commander of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command (USFF) in Norfolk, Va., Greenert, a 1971 graduate of Butler High School, was serving as deputy chief of naval operations for integration of capabilities and resources in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations at the Pentagon.A 1975 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Greenert is a past recipient of Butler High's Distinguished Graduate Award.In recent years, Greenert has served as commanding officer of the USS Honolulu in Pearl Harbor and as commander, Submarine Squadron Eleven and COMSUBPAC Rep West Coast, where he was responsible for nine submarines and submarine repair on the West Coast.