Letters to the Editor 03-11-1998
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
- Attitude - Political Ethics - Meatout - Crooks Sentencing
Attitude
Editor, Times-Union:Dear Miss Pugilistic Fourth Grader from North Webster:
Don't let being different worry you or give you a wrong start in life. Sometimes being different can be a valuable gift. Just after I began fourth grade my folks moved from our farm to Bloomington where they put me in fifth grade class (why I don't know) so I was both a stranger and much smaller and thus "different." As a result, everything I did was watched and teased, one decent boy became a friend. As we were leaving school two rough boys started throwing stones at us so my friend "Bob" caught one like catching a fly ball and threw it back at the thrower and hit him on top of his head. It was a very long throw, too. After that I realized that it was permitted to repulse an attack. Being a country boy and a pretty good shot with a stone, Bob and I were little bothered after that.
The point I wish to make is: being different is somehow an advantage, if you use it right. Bob needed a decent friend and so did I. Real friends stick together and you only get them one at a time, so don't crowd things. Sometimes we get lonesome and try to "sell" our friendship or give it away too quickly; don't do that. Wait and be sure you want that person as a friend. Do this all your life. Being different can be turned to an advantage if you handle the teasing right.
A few years later I was still a skinny smallish boy. Boys in our family matured more slowly than most so I was always different and, by that time, did well in school. I don't know why the town "bully," as we called such then, decided to block me as I delivered my newspapers that day, but he decided he was going to "clean up on me," whatever that meant. I supposed that it meant a 'fist fight," as I had seen others do but had never done so myself. Soon he knocked me down, sat on me, and kept pounding my face. Now that wasn't fair, but it was pretty hard to argue. Then he decided to put his fingers into my eyes and blind me! That made me mad and pretty scared. I grabbed his throat and buried my face in his chest so he couldn't get at my eyes. Pretty soon he passed out so I rolled him off, went half a block away, and sat on some steps to ask myself how it felt to kill somebody - which is what I then thought I had done. I was relieved when he finally rolled over and slowly got up; so I went home.
I had fought differently. That's the way to win at chess, too. So be different and be nice. Be very careful and be sure that you attract good friends.
I don't have as much melanin in my skin as you do but I hope you don't feel that everybody is against you because we, lots of us, believe that this country is still a place for people who are free and equal. That's why the Revolutionary War and the Civil War were fought, and pretty much why we helped Europe in two World Wars - to help people be free and equal.
So now make all of us proud of you and make that "N" word a compliment instead of an epithet. Deeds are more important than words; so beat those who would embarrass you! Beat them in the classroom with grades. Yes, get mad and beat them at the game that really counts!
Rex Bradt
President
Materials Research Innovations Corp.
Political Ethics
Editor, Times-Union:Upon reading Potpourri Feb. 28, a Kosciusko County Political Chairman said that he is supporting a certain person who is running for Sheriff on his ticket. I always thought that it is not ethical for a County Chairman to openly support a candidate in a primary election especially when more than one candidate is running for the same office. It should be up to the voters to elect their preference for such office.
Merlin E. Yoder
Nappanee
Meatout
Editor, Times-Union:In honor of "The Great American Meatout" (March 20), I'd like for all those non-vegetarians out there to take a moment to meet their meat.
Pigs, better know as bacon, sausage or ham, are for one, just as intelligent as man's own best friend - the dog. These beautiful creatures (yes beautiful), along with cows, chickens, lambs and others, are slaughtered by the millions each week in the U.S. meat industry. Even before they are killed, these animals lead a miserable existence.
Most animals raised for human consumption are confined to cages or stalls so small that they are unable to even turn around. (Imagine living your life in a space almost as big as a shower stall.) These animals live their entire lives in these filthy concrete, iron bar and wire mesh worlds, never to see the light of day or feel soil or grass beneath their feet. These crowded conditions on a modern day "factory farm" are meant to maximize profit but often lead to injury, cannibalism, self-mutilation and rampant disease. These things, however, are masked with antibiotics in feed and physical mutilation, such as beak shearing (without anesthesia), to "reduce" injury.
Unfortunately, it doesn't end there. During transportation in the winter, animals can freeze to the sides of trucks. In the summer, they can die from heat exhaustion. Upon arrival at the stockyard, animals too weak, sick, or injured to move are tied to the back of a truck and dragged to an area where they are piled on top of each other for easy killing and butchering. These "downed animals" may lie suffering for days without food or water, but because farm animals are considered "food" they have little to no protection under animal cruelty laws that would apply to other animals such as dogs and cats. And this makes sense because ...?
At one time, the attention of American people, among others, was drawn to horrifying pictures of dogs crated for slaughter in the markets of the Philippines. The images of these animals, as they struggled for space in these crowded crates, were chilling. One periodical that ran the story reported that more than 150,000 protest letters from all over the world were received on the issue. People were outraged to have seen dogs bound, beaten and having their throats slit by grinning men and boys. It amazes me that such a response is seen in the name of those we call "pets" yet few seem to care about the suffering of those we call "food." What was the Philippine government's response? They simply pointed out that the U.S. tolerates the same sorts of abuses to equally frightened and vulnerable animals - lambs, chickens, pigs and cows - whose faces register horror (and whose bodies feel pain) as clearly as do those of the Philippine dogs. The bottom line - Animal suffering is animal suffering ... period.
Heather Michael
Fort Wayne
- "The Great American Meatout" on March 20 is sponsored by FARM (Farm Animal Reform Movement).
Crooks Sentencing
Editor, Times-Union:Realizing that I only acquired the information that the radio station chose to air, when I heard the newscast this morning telling me that Kristina Crooks only received 10 years with a possible five years probation, I was sick. Especially when it was relayed that the judge said she had made some bad decisions and he felt sorry for her. Who is feeling sorry for her baby who died? Who is giving her a chance to grow and be a blessing in someone's life? How can an adult who has made the choice to neglect her child to the point of the child dying be felt sorry for because she had made some bad decisions? Letting her baby die has got to be one of the worst bad decisions she made - and she's going to be able to continue to live and continue to produce babies? I, for one, am not interested in my taxes going to house, feed and educate this woman further. Babies are our future! She should have no more future than she allowed her baby.
Cecelia Rothenberger
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- Attitude - Political Ethics - Meatout - Crooks Sentencing
Attitude
Editor, Times-Union:Dear Miss Pugilistic Fourth Grader from North Webster:
Don't let being different worry you or give you a wrong start in life. Sometimes being different can be a valuable gift. Just after I began fourth grade my folks moved from our farm to Bloomington where they put me in fifth grade class (why I don't know) so I was both a stranger and much smaller and thus "different." As a result, everything I did was watched and teased, one decent boy became a friend. As we were leaving school two rough boys started throwing stones at us so my friend "Bob" caught one like catching a fly ball and threw it back at the thrower and hit him on top of his head. It was a very long throw, too. After that I realized that it was permitted to repulse an attack. Being a country boy and a pretty good shot with a stone, Bob and I were little bothered after that.
The point I wish to make is: being different is somehow an advantage, if you use it right. Bob needed a decent friend and so did I. Real friends stick together and you only get them one at a time, so don't crowd things. Sometimes we get lonesome and try to "sell" our friendship or give it away too quickly; don't do that. Wait and be sure you want that person as a friend. Do this all your life. Being different can be turned to an advantage if you handle the teasing right.
A few years later I was still a skinny smallish boy. Boys in our family matured more slowly than most so I was always different and, by that time, did well in school. I don't know why the town "bully," as we called such then, decided to block me as I delivered my newspapers that day, but he decided he was going to "clean up on me," whatever that meant. I supposed that it meant a 'fist fight," as I had seen others do but had never done so myself. Soon he knocked me down, sat on me, and kept pounding my face. Now that wasn't fair, but it was pretty hard to argue. Then he decided to put his fingers into my eyes and blind me! That made me mad and pretty scared. I grabbed his throat and buried my face in his chest so he couldn't get at my eyes. Pretty soon he passed out so I rolled him off, went half a block away, and sat on some steps to ask myself how it felt to kill somebody - which is what I then thought I had done. I was relieved when he finally rolled over and slowly got up; so I went home.
I had fought differently. That's the way to win at chess, too. So be different and be nice. Be very careful and be sure that you attract good friends.
I don't have as much melanin in my skin as you do but I hope you don't feel that everybody is against you because we, lots of us, believe that this country is still a place for people who are free and equal. That's why the Revolutionary War and the Civil War were fought, and pretty much why we helped Europe in two World Wars - to help people be free and equal.
So now make all of us proud of you and make that "N" word a compliment instead of an epithet. Deeds are more important than words; so beat those who would embarrass you! Beat them in the classroom with grades. Yes, get mad and beat them at the game that really counts!
Rex Bradt
President
Materials Research Innovations Corp.
Political Ethics
Editor, Times-Union:Upon reading Potpourri Feb. 28, a Kosciusko County Political Chairman said that he is supporting a certain person who is running for Sheriff on his ticket. I always thought that it is not ethical for a County Chairman to openly support a candidate in a primary election especially when more than one candidate is running for the same office. It should be up to the voters to elect their preference for such office.
Merlin E. Yoder
Nappanee
Meatout
Editor, Times-Union:In honor of "The Great American Meatout" (March 20), I'd like for all those non-vegetarians out there to take a moment to meet their meat.
Pigs, better know as bacon, sausage or ham, are for one, just as intelligent as man's own best friend - the dog. These beautiful creatures (yes beautiful), along with cows, chickens, lambs and others, are slaughtered by the millions each week in the U.S. meat industry. Even before they are killed, these animals lead a miserable existence.
Most animals raised for human consumption are confined to cages or stalls so small that they are unable to even turn around. (Imagine living your life in a space almost as big as a shower stall.) These animals live their entire lives in these filthy concrete, iron bar and wire mesh worlds, never to see the light of day or feel soil or grass beneath their feet. These crowded conditions on a modern day "factory farm" are meant to maximize profit but often lead to injury, cannibalism, self-mutilation and rampant disease. These things, however, are masked with antibiotics in feed and physical mutilation, such as beak shearing (without anesthesia), to "reduce" injury.
Unfortunately, it doesn't end there. During transportation in the winter, animals can freeze to the sides of trucks. In the summer, they can die from heat exhaustion. Upon arrival at the stockyard, animals too weak, sick, or injured to move are tied to the back of a truck and dragged to an area where they are piled on top of each other for easy killing and butchering. These "downed animals" may lie suffering for days without food or water, but because farm animals are considered "food" they have little to no protection under animal cruelty laws that would apply to other animals such as dogs and cats. And this makes sense because ...?
At one time, the attention of American people, among others, was drawn to horrifying pictures of dogs crated for slaughter in the markets of the Philippines. The images of these animals, as they struggled for space in these crowded crates, were chilling. One periodical that ran the story reported that more than 150,000 protest letters from all over the world were received on the issue. People were outraged to have seen dogs bound, beaten and having their throats slit by grinning men and boys. It amazes me that such a response is seen in the name of those we call "pets" yet few seem to care about the suffering of those we call "food." What was the Philippine government's response? They simply pointed out that the U.S. tolerates the same sorts of abuses to equally frightened and vulnerable animals - lambs, chickens, pigs and cows - whose faces register horror (and whose bodies feel pain) as clearly as do those of the Philippine dogs. The bottom line - Animal suffering is animal suffering ... period.
Heather Michael
Fort Wayne
- "The Great American Meatout" on March 20 is sponsored by FARM (Farm Animal Reform Movement).
Crooks Sentencing
Editor, Times-Union:Realizing that I only acquired the information that the radio station chose to air, when I heard the newscast this morning telling me that Kristina Crooks only received 10 years with a possible five years probation, I was sick. Especially when it was relayed that the judge said she had made some bad decisions and he felt sorry for her. Who is feeling sorry for her baby who died? Who is giving her a chance to grow and be a blessing in someone's life? How can an adult who has made the choice to neglect her child to the point of the child dying be felt sorry for because she had made some bad decisions? Letting her baby die has got to be one of the worst bad decisions she made - and she's going to be able to continue to live and continue to produce babies? I, for one, am not interested in my taxes going to house, feed and educate this woman further. Babies are our future! She should have no more future than she allowed her baby.
Cecelia Rothenberger
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