Letters to the Editor 04-16-2001
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
- Hickory Creek - Buy American - Center Street Eyesore - Percussion Ensemble
Hickory Creek
Editor, Times-Union:We don't want to relocate outside of this area. This is our town too. Our home is here and has been for 30 years. Would you like it if after 30 years someone came in and told you that you have no choice, you have to move.
Most of our residents have mental or physical disabilities, Alzheimer's, autism and behavior problems. A lot of other facilities have not been trained to handle people with disabilities and behaviors like we have been. We take great pride in taking care of our extended family members. When you start putting mentally and physically challenged people in a geriatric home, it is not going to be a good thing. Geriatric facilities are not equipped to handle the M.R. population. After all, geriatric facilities are only allowed to house two M.R.s without hiring a QMRP to help with goals and programs for the residents.
As in any type of nursing facility some families don't visit like we wished they would. But when they do visit, it would be easier on the residents and their families not to have to drive so far. Most of our residents will have to move 20 to 50 miles away from the people they love. Is this fair to the residents, their families or the staff that love them so much?
We have 11 people who are involved in community-based program. Which means that they go out in the community and get involved with people and activities around town, through Cardinal Center. We also have people involved with Bowen Center programs. Is it fair to pull them out of interacting with people in the community? We have had a lot of severely abusive residents in the past. But with patience, love, understanding, very hard work and special training, most of these people now go out in the community on a weekly basis. Doesn't that prove the residents trust us enough to help them to lead a semi-normal life? A lot of our residents have come to depend on the staff for their daily living needs. They depend on us for laughing with them when they're are happy, crying with them when they're hurting (like now) and just being there when they don't want to be alone. Listening, loving and laughing are something I truly believe in. Doesn't everyone deserve to be happy?
For some of our residents this facility was their last chance before going to a state facility. What will eventually happen to this family? Will they be sent to state facilities, is that fair to someone who has adjusted to our home so well? Also, most of our residents don't adapt well to change. Some don't understand what is happening to them. Some think they have done something wrong and that is why they have to move.
So in closing, I only have one more thing I feel I need to say. Everything we as a family unit have worked so long and hard to accomplish can all be destroyed if you as the community don't lend your support to help keep us together. The staff can always find another job, maybe not what we want or even like. It is the residents we are deeply worried about. We are really frightened because some of our extended family members will not make it through a transition like this; we've seen it happen before.
Kelli Kiser
Warsaw
via e-mail
Buy American
Editor, Times-Union:Senators Richard Lugar and Evan Bayh:
I would like to know why you allowed the Army to buy their new black berets from a country which is undermining our ability to provide work for our American workers and provide our American workers with good stock buys in American companies. Did you receive gifts from China to look the other way?
What are you going to do to bring manufacturing back to our country? Why are you allowing Motorola to put all their cellular phone plants in foreign countries? If a Finnish company (Nokia) can outsell Motorola, why doesn't Motorola find a cheaper way of manufacturing the cell phone here in our country instead of putting 4,000 employees out of work in Illinois and many elsewhere in our country?
It is amazing we put men on the moon, build a space station, but can't provide our workers with better jobs and more manufacturing plants. When are you going to start passing tariff import taxes to force our factories back to the United States?
Have you looked into the invasions of illegal workers not in the census figures and force them out of the country? We treat them better than our own African-American people and the American Indian.
Sorry for being so uptight about what is happening to our great country. Is the army's morale that bad that we have to try to make them think that they are Black Berets? I think the general that thought that idea up should cancel the order or buy the berets with his own money and use them for dust rags. Leave the black berets where they are and give the army TAN berets. Make sure it is an American company that makes them.
CHINA, what a farce! We should cut off all payments for anything which has been imported to us. We should stop all orders for goods from China, for the next 10 years at least. CHINA HAS NOTHING THAT WE NEED. BUY AMERICAN.
Jack W. Klinefelter Sr.
Warsaw
Center Street Eyesore
Editor, Times-Union:When is the city of Warsaw going to do something about the huge front row eyesore of a store at 110 E. Center St. next door to the Kosciusko County Solid Waste Management District Office? This store has been boarded up for at least five years without any work being done. I've heard that the owner of this store started with grand plans but then fell into hard times, but enough is enough!
After the city of Warsaw spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on renewing the downtown streets, sidewalks and fancy brick crosswalks, I'm surprised they have abandoned their civic duty and allowed such an obvious black mark to mar the otherwise fine, civic atmosphere. I would think the city would at least inform the public (Times-Union article) on the nature of this unsightly situation, their reason for procrastination and then act! Owners of stores have spent their hard earned money and sweated through back breaking work to provide quality goods and services, which have provided hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to the city and county. I realize some businesses come and go, but there are many good, solid businesses on Center Street and I'm quite sure they don't like this eyesore either.
I don't live in Warsaw but come to the downtown area quite often on various errands and I hate driving on the main street of Warsaw with the beautiful Kosciusko County courthouse in full view and seeing such an ugly sight as this storefront. When will the mayor and City Council do something? Legal, schmeegal. There is no acceptable excuse. Five years is enough
Robert A. Ragland
Tippecanoe Lake
Percussion Ensemble
Editor, Times-Union:On behalf of the parents of the WCHS Percussion Ensemble, we wish to thank each member of this year's group for an outstanding season, filled with memories that will be cherished for years to come! This group should be congratulated once again for being named "Indiana State Champs" and for the outstanding job they did at the World Competition held recently at Milwaukee, Wisc, placing sixth in the WORLD! Our kids were truly blessed with having Mr. Ratliff leading this group and they worked hard because of the commitment he had to them. We will never forget the great times and the proud moments shared during the season. We are all looking forward to 2002!
Parents of WCHS Percussion Ensemble
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- Hickory Creek - Buy American - Center Street Eyesore - Percussion Ensemble
Hickory Creek
Editor, Times-Union:We don't want to relocate outside of this area. This is our town too. Our home is here and has been for 30 years. Would you like it if after 30 years someone came in and told you that you have no choice, you have to move.
Most of our residents have mental or physical disabilities, Alzheimer's, autism and behavior problems. A lot of other facilities have not been trained to handle people with disabilities and behaviors like we have been. We take great pride in taking care of our extended family members. When you start putting mentally and physically challenged people in a geriatric home, it is not going to be a good thing. Geriatric facilities are not equipped to handle the M.R. population. After all, geriatric facilities are only allowed to house two M.R.s without hiring a QMRP to help with goals and programs for the residents.
As in any type of nursing facility some families don't visit like we wished they would. But when they do visit, it would be easier on the residents and their families not to have to drive so far. Most of our residents will have to move 20 to 50 miles away from the people they love. Is this fair to the residents, their families or the staff that love them so much?
We have 11 people who are involved in community-based program. Which means that they go out in the community and get involved with people and activities around town, through Cardinal Center. We also have people involved with Bowen Center programs. Is it fair to pull them out of interacting with people in the community? We have had a lot of severely abusive residents in the past. But with patience, love, understanding, very hard work and special training, most of these people now go out in the community on a weekly basis. Doesn't that prove the residents trust us enough to help them to lead a semi-normal life? A lot of our residents have come to depend on the staff for their daily living needs. They depend on us for laughing with them when they're are happy, crying with them when they're hurting (like now) and just being there when they don't want to be alone. Listening, loving and laughing are something I truly believe in. Doesn't everyone deserve to be happy?
For some of our residents this facility was their last chance before going to a state facility. What will eventually happen to this family? Will they be sent to state facilities, is that fair to someone who has adjusted to our home so well? Also, most of our residents don't adapt well to change. Some don't understand what is happening to them. Some think they have done something wrong and that is why they have to move.
So in closing, I only have one more thing I feel I need to say. Everything we as a family unit have worked so long and hard to accomplish can all be destroyed if you as the community don't lend your support to help keep us together. The staff can always find another job, maybe not what we want or even like. It is the residents we are deeply worried about. We are really frightened because some of our extended family members will not make it through a transition like this; we've seen it happen before.
Kelli Kiser
Warsaw
via e-mail
Buy American
Editor, Times-Union:Senators Richard Lugar and Evan Bayh:
I would like to know why you allowed the Army to buy their new black berets from a country which is undermining our ability to provide work for our American workers and provide our American workers with good stock buys in American companies. Did you receive gifts from China to look the other way?
What are you going to do to bring manufacturing back to our country? Why are you allowing Motorola to put all their cellular phone plants in foreign countries? If a Finnish company (Nokia) can outsell Motorola, why doesn't Motorola find a cheaper way of manufacturing the cell phone here in our country instead of putting 4,000 employees out of work in Illinois and many elsewhere in our country?
It is amazing we put men on the moon, build a space station, but can't provide our workers with better jobs and more manufacturing plants. When are you going to start passing tariff import taxes to force our factories back to the United States?
Have you looked into the invasions of illegal workers not in the census figures and force them out of the country? We treat them better than our own African-American people and the American Indian.
Sorry for being so uptight about what is happening to our great country. Is the army's morale that bad that we have to try to make them think that they are Black Berets? I think the general that thought that idea up should cancel the order or buy the berets with his own money and use them for dust rags. Leave the black berets where they are and give the army TAN berets. Make sure it is an American company that makes them.
CHINA, what a farce! We should cut off all payments for anything which has been imported to us. We should stop all orders for goods from China, for the next 10 years at least. CHINA HAS NOTHING THAT WE NEED. BUY AMERICAN.
Jack W. Klinefelter Sr.
Warsaw
Center Street Eyesore
Editor, Times-Union:When is the city of Warsaw going to do something about the huge front row eyesore of a store at 110 E. Center St. next door to the Kosciusko County Solid Waste Management District Office? This store has been boarded up for at least five years without any work being done. I've heard that the owner of this store started with grand plans but then fell into hard times, but enough is enough!
After the city of Warsaw spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on renewing the downtown streets, sidewalks and fancy brick crosswalks, I'm surprised they have abandoned their civic duty and allowed such an obvious black mark to mar the otherwise fine, civic atmosphere. I would think the city would at least inform the public (Times-Union article) on the nature of this unsightly situation, their reason for procrastination and then act! Owners of stores have spent their hard earned money and sweated through back breaking work to provide quality goods and services, which have provided hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to the city and county. I realize some businesses come and go, but there are many good, solid businesses on Center Street and I'm quite sure they don't like this eyesore either.
I don't live in Warsaw but come to the downtown area quite often on various errands and I hate driving on the main street of Warsaw with the beautiful Kosciusko County courthouse in full view and seeing such an ugly sight as this storefront. When will the mayor and City Council do something? Legal, schmeegal. There is no acceptable excuse. Five years is enough
Robert A. Ragland
Tippecanoe Lake
Percussion Ensemble
Editor, Times-Union:On behalf of the parents of the WCHS Percussion Ensemble, we wish to thank each member of this year's group for an outstanding season, filled with memories that will be cherished for years to come! This group should be congratulated once again for being named "Indiana State Champs" and for the outstanding job they did at the World Competition held recently at Milwaukee, Wisc, placing sixth in the WORLD! Our kids were truly blessed with having Mr. Ratliff leading this group and they worked hard because of the commitment he had to them. We will never forget the great times and the proud moments shared during the season. We are all looking forward to 2002!
Parents of WCHS Percussion Ensemble
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