Letters to the Editor 05-26-2000
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
- Homage To Veterans - Gun Laws - Social Security - A Visit To The Wall
Homage To Veterans
Editor's Note: The following was submitted by Alvon Abbott, of Warsaw. It was written by his son, Steve, a Warsaw High School graduate who now resides in Carmel. The younger Abbott recently wrote the piece, "An Homage To My Father's Generation," and sent a copy to his father, an uncle and a friend - all of whom are World War II veterans. In an accompanying letter, Abbott wrote, "My appreciation for each of you has grown over the years. It is because of each of you and the thousands of men and women like you that my generation is able to live lives of freedom today. So, in commemoration of your gift to our generation, I have made a contribution in each of your names to the World War II Memorial being built in our nation's capital. And, although I have in the past tried to express my gratitude to each of you personally for the liberty I enjoy, I have now resorted to making my feelings more permanent. The attached thoughts are dedicated to each of you and all the fallen brothers, uncles, cousins and comrades you stand for."An Homage To My Father's Generation
History has judged you. Your time, critical; your sacrifice, eternal,
(It is, after all, a lie, "the Great War." None are.
But yours, at least, was honorable.)
Perhaps that is why I envy you.
The clarity of Duty. The stubborn resolve.
The resolute, crisis-forged friendships, trouble-tempered.
I envy the simplicity of your life's code, taking for granted
Responsibility, deference, the common weal.
(We too have a code. We assume license, prosperity, disjunction.)
War's wake washed us all. Forever.
You could not foresee that. We cannot change it.
Fathers, uncles, friends, die of my casting,
I cannot know what your dreams were,
But your times reverberate across my stage.
The fabric of your age was steel and stratagems and desperation.
(We too have a fabric. Ours is filaments and nodes and loopholes.)
Resecting freedom's manifest pathogens your brilliant gift to history.
(We too have foes, but they have no faces.
They seep, like the anonymous fog, from low places; lurking,
fanatic, on the outskirts of reason; in fatal binary errors,
in absentia, in ambush of Progress.
Our enemies hijack innocence and dream up a rationale.)
History has found you worthy. It will, no doubt,
Judge us too, standing in your shadow,
with a glance; with a shrug.
Has the torch passed safely? It is not mine to say.
You may fairly wonder if we've squandered our birthright.
We took it with reluctance to some logical conclusions.
We took it to ambivalent, mystic places.
But this meager tribute honors your immeasurable bequest.
I would not be thought ungrateful.
So, then, - simply - thank you.
For standing bitter vigil on the bridges of your watch.
For contesting the tedious seas,
and stretching, bloodstained beaches;
For stalking the sullen islands, and bright icy skies.
Thank you for putting whatever your ambitions were aside -
rising to defend our unborn right to freely choose our dreams.
For confronting your personal demons -
a world away from the Future.
Thank you, for putting your lives on hold,
risking every thing you were, for everything we might be.
Have we wasted the gift? It is not mine to say.
You may fairly wonder at our diffidence. But let that be.
This is to acknowledge your incalculable sacrifice.
I would not be thought ungrateful.
Steve Abbott
Carmel
Gun Laws
Editor, Times-Union:The 20,000-plus gun laws are working. Gun violence, according to President Clinton, is down significantly and is the lowest that it's been in many years. Decades. However, gun violence reporting in the media is up some 700 percent in the last few years according to Dr. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, Texas State Representative for the 54th District. She is recognized worldwide as one of the leading advocates for an individual's right to carry a concealed weapon. In 1991, after leaving her gun in her car in order to comply with the law, Suzanna watched helplessly as both her parents, along with 21 others, were gunned down in a mass shooting at a local restaurant. The government cannot protect you or your family individually. As a survivor of this tragedy, her impassioned calls for the right of citizens to self-defense have thrust her into the national debate on the right to keep and bear arms. Since the Killeen massacre, she has testified numerous times across the country for the restoration of the Second Amendment.
I challenge the media-at-large to report every case involving a firearm being used correctly and safely to save a life or prevent a rape with the same tenacity used to demonize gun owners and those who have penned numerous writings surrounding the Bill of Rights. We should consider legal opinions that regard this right, and yes all of our rights equally rather than listen to those who attempt to dissect the only document that stands between us and a systematic blurring of individual rights.
For example: "[To deny that the (Second Amendment) right protected is one enforceable by individuals] the following set of propositions must be accepted: (1) when the first Congress drafted the Bill of Rights it used "right of the people" in the First Amendment to denote a right of individuals (assembly); (2) then, some sixteen words later, it used the same phrase in the Second Amendment to denote a right belonging exclusively to the states; (3) but then, forty-six words later, the Fourth Amendment's "right of the people" had reverted to its normal individual right meaning; (4) "right of the people" was again used in the natural sense in the Ninth Amendment; and (5) finally, in the Tenth Amendment the first Congress specifically distinguished "the states" from "the people," although it had failed to do so in the Second Amendment. Thus, say Standard Model writers, the Second Amendment protects the same sort of individual right that other parts of the Bill of Rights provide. To hold otherwise, these writers argue, is to do violence to the Bill of Rights since, if one "right of the people" could be held not to apply to individuals, then so could others." - Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Associate Professor of Law, University of Tennessee. J.D. Yale Law School, 1985.
I rest my case ... for now.
Patrick Brown
Warsaw
via e-mail
Social Security
Editor, Times-Union:As of 5-1-2000, Social Security discontinued my benefits. Now I have to fight for the next three to six months to get it back. My wife can't work and only receives $134 a month and I mow lawns part-time, but only make about $125 a month from that, and now we are trying to take care of our four-year-old nephew which makes it harder still. This is not a letter of sympathy just for all those is this area to pray for us.
Arthur E. Clark
Warsaw
A Visit To The Wall
Editor, Times-Union:As I prepared for my first trip to "The Wall That Heals," many things went through my mind like how would I act, feel or handle whatever happened. Because of the thin traffic, I was able to cover 90 miles in record time.
When I first saw the Wall from a distance, I started to feel a great sadness come over me. There was a tent over the walkway 200 feet before the Wall. Every time I tried to go through it to get to the Wall I would break down and start to cry. While the volunteers and others tried to comfort me, I kept trying to get the nerve to go the last 200 feet with no luck. So they got me a chair to sit down. I tried to pull myself together. I kept saying to myself, "I came 90 miles, now I must travel the last 200 feet," as soldiers never give up, even older ones. Then after numerous tries I walked those last 200 feet slowly and steadily.
As I arrived at the Wall, I said a prayer for all those listed on our Wall knowing some and not knowing if others made it or not. The tears returned to my eyes as they do now as I am typing this. Please never think of them as just a name on a Wall, for they are boyfriends and girlfriends, sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, even childhood friends and, in my case, fellow soldiers.
As I looked for local Vietnam veterans, I started thinking how close I came to having my name among those whose names appear on the Wall that day, and how thankful I am to have been spared so I could find my very special friend of today. When I found each one I touched their names, I thanked and said a little prayer for each of them. I met other Vets there and as we hugged each other that day, I learned how a simple hug eases the pain no matter what causes it. That day I promised 58,743 children of our Heavenly Father that I would do my best to comfort those who are in pain and in need.
As I was driving back home, I looked at the sunset and what a beautiful sunset it was. I thought about all of those who never take the time to stop and smell the roses. I think of all of those on the Wall and tell them not to pay attention to those who say it was a wrong or useless war as all wars are wrong. May God bless all of them! I was then and I am now proud to have served with them.
Robert L. Reed
Warsaw
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- Homage To Veterans - Gun Laws - Social Security - A Visit To The Wall
Homage To Veterans
Editor's Note: The following was submitted by Alvon Abbott, of Warsaw. It was written by his son, Steve, a Warsaw High School graduate who now resides in Carmel. The younger Abbott recently wrote the piece, "An Homage To My Father's Generation," and sent a copy to his father, an uncle and a friend - all of whom are World War II veterans. In an accompanying letter, Abbott wrote, "My appreciation for each of you has grown over the years. It is because of each of you and the thousands of men and women like you that my generation is able to live lives of freedom today. So, in commemoration of your gift to our generation, I have made a contribution in each of your names to the World War II Memorial being built in our nation's capital. And, although I have in the past tried to express my gratitude to each of you personally for the liberty I enjoy, I have now resorted to making my feelings more permanent. The attached thoughts are dedicated to each of you and all the fallen brothers, uncles, cousins and comrades you stand for."An Homage To My Father's Generation
History has judged you. Your time, critical; your sacrifice, eternal,
(It is, after all, a lie, "the Great War." None are.
But yours, at least, was honorable.)
Perhaps that is why I envy you.
The clarity of Duty. The stubborn resolve.
The resolute, crisis-forged friendships, trouble-tempered.
I envy the simplicity of your life's code, taking for granted
Responsibility, deference, the common weal.
(We too have a code. We assume license, prosperity, disjunction.)
War's wake washed us all. Forever.
You could not foresee that. We cannot change it.
Fathers, uncles, friends, die of my casting,
I cannot know what your dreams were,
But your times reverberate across my stage.
The fabric of your age was steel and stratagems and desperation.
(We too have a fabric. Ours is filaments and nodes and loopholes.)
Resecting freedom's manifest pathogens your brilliant gift to history.
(We too have foes, but they have no faces.
They seep, like the anonymous fog, from low places; lurking,
fanatic, on the outskirts of reason; in fatal binary errors,
in absentia, in ambush of Progress.
Our enemies hijack innocence and dream up a rationale.)
History has found you worthy. It will, no doubt,
Judge us too, standing in your shadow,
with a glance; with a shrug.
Has the torch passed safely? It is not mine to say.
You may fairly wonder if we've squandered our birthright.
We took it with reluctance to some logical conclusions.
We took it to ambivalent, mystic places.
But this meager tribute honors your immeasurable bequest.
I would not be thought ungrateful.
So, then, - simply - thank you.
For standing bitter vigil on the bridges of your watch.
For contesting the tedious seas,
and stretching, bloodstained beaches;
For stalking the sullen islands, and bright icy skies.
Thank you for putting whatever your ambitions were aside -
rising to defend our unborn right to freely choose our dreams.
For confronting your personal demons -
a world away from the Future.
Thank you, for putting your lives on hold,
risking every thing you were, for everything we might be.
Have we wasted the gift? It is not mine to say.
You may fairly wonder at our diffidence. But let that be.
This is to acknowledge your incalculable sacrifice.
I would not be thought ungrateful.
Steve Abbott
Carmel
Gun Laws
Editor, Times-Union:The 20,000-plus gun laws are working. Gun violence, according to President Clinton, is down significantly and is the lowest that it's been in many years. Decades. However, gun violence reporting in the media is up some 700 percent in the last few years according to Dr. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, Texas State Representative for the 54th District. She is recognized worldwide as one of the leading advocates for an individual's right to carry a concealed weapon. In 1991, after leaving her gun in her car in order to comply with the law, Suzanna watched helplessly as both her parents, along with 21 others, were gunned down in a mass shooting at a local restaurant. The government cannot protect you or your family individually. As a survivor of this tragedy, her impassioned calls for the right of citizens to self-defense have thrust her into the national debate on the right to keep and bear arms. Since the Killeen massacre, she has testified numerous times across the country for the restoration of the Second Amendment.
I challenge the media-at-large to report every case involving a firearm being used correctly and safely to save a life or prevent a rape with the same tenacity used to demonize gun owners and those who have penned numerous writings surrounding the Bill of Rights. We should consider legal opinions that regard this right, and yes all of our rights equally rather than listen to those who attempt to dissect the only document that stands between us and a systematic blurring of individual rights.
For example: "[To deny that the (Second Amendment) right protected is one enforceable by individuals] the following set of propositions must be accepted: (1) when the first Congress drafted the Bill of Rights it used "right of the people" in the First Amendment to denote a right of individuals (assembly); (2) then, some sixteen words later, it used the same phrase in the Second Amendment to denote a right belonging exclusively to the states; (3) but then, forty-six words later, the Fourth Amendment's "right of the people" had reverted to its normal individual right meaning; (4) "right of the people" was again used in the natural sense in the Ninth Amendment; and (5) finally, in the Tenth Amendment the first Congress specifically distinguished "the states" from "the people," although it had failed to do so in the Second Amendment. Thus, say Standard Model writers, the Second Amendment protects the same sort of individual right that other parts of the Bill of Rights provide. To hold otherwise, these writers argue, is to do violence to the Bill of Rights since, if one "right of the people" could be held not to apply to individuals, then so could others." - Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Associate Professor of Law, University of Tennessee. J.D. Yale Law School, 1985.
I rest my case ... for now.
Patrick Brown
Warsaw
via e-mail
Social Security
Editor, Times-Union:As of 5-1-2000, Social Security discontinued my benefits. Now I have to fight for the next three to six months to get it back. My wife can't work and only receives $134 a month and I mow lawns part-time, but only make about $125 a month from that, and now we are trying to take care of our four-year-old nephew which makes it harder still. This is not a letter of sympathy just for all those is this area to pray for us.
Arthur E. Clark
Warsaw
A Visit To The Wall
Editor, Times-Union:As I prepared for my first trip to "The Wall That Heals," many things went through my mind like how would I act, feel or handle whatever happened. Because of the thin traffic, I was able to cover 90 miles in record time.
When I first saw the Wall from a distance, I started to feel a great sadness come over me. There was a tent over the walkway 200 feet before the Wall. Every time I tried to go through it to get to the Wall I would break down and start to cry. While the volunteers and others tried to comfort me, I kept trying to get the nerve to go the last 200 feet with no luck. So they got me a chair to sit down. I tried to pull myself together. I kept saying to myself, "I came 90 miles, now I must travel the last 200 feet," as soldiers never give up, even older ones. Then after numerous tries I walked those last 200 feet slowly and steadily.
As I arrived at the Wall, I said a prayer for all those listed on our Wall knowing some and not knowing if others made it or not. The tears returned to my eyes as they do now as I am typing this. Please never think of them as just a name on a Wall, for they are boyfriends and girlfriends, sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, even childhood friends and, in my case, fellow soldiers.
As I looked for local Vietnam veterans, I started thinking how close I came to having my name among those whose names appear on the Wall that day, and how thankful I am to have been spared so I could find my very special friend of today. When I found each one I touched their names, I thanked and said a little prayer for each of them. I met other Vets there and as we hugged each other that day, I learned how a simple hug eases the pain no matter what causes it. That day I promised 58,743 children of our Heavenly Father that I would do my best to comfort those who are in pain and in need.
As I was driving back home, I looked at the sunset and what a beautiful sunset it was. I thought about all of those who never take the time to stop and smell the roses. I think of all of those on the Wall and tell them not to pay attention to those who say it was a wrong or useless war as all wars are wrong. May God bless all of them! I was then and I am now proud to have served with them.
Robert L. Reed
Warsaw
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