Letters to the Editor 06-25-2001
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
- Graduation Memorial - Graduation Candles - Accident Thanks - Good Job, WRSW - Golf Team Says Thanks - Wage Dependence
Graduation Memorial
Editor, Times-Union:I am writing over my distress due to Warsaw Community High School's graduation ceremony, June 8. An event my daughter, Ashley, should have been a part of. Yet, according to the ceremony, my daughter never existed as a student at WCHS.
I was told a week prior to the ceremony, from a school official no less, that candles would be lit and a moment of silence held in honor of my daughter and her fellow fallen classmates. I was even sent tickets for me and my family to attend the ceremony and told to pick up my daughter's commemorative candle afterwards.
Perhaps my hopes for the memorial were too high. After all, I was only basing my opinions on previous memorials. When my oldest daughter graduated two years ago, her entire ceremony was dedicated to her fallen classmate. I thought the same thoughtfulness and respect would be given to my daughter and her fellow classmates.
Instead, candles were lit while people were still filing in and no one ever explained what was happening. My daughter's name was never once mentioned during the entire ceremony. I can't speak for the other two families, but my family and I felt as though we had been slapped in the face.
I found out only days ago that there were ulterior motives behind the principal's reasoning for yanking the memorial. I challenge him to step forward and defend his actions because what he did was wrong. He all but denied the existence of three students who were very much alive in the hearts and minds of their families and their classmates.
It's sad to me that three balloons tied to Ashley's headstone from my daughters and I were more of a celebration and acknowledgement of what would've been one of her proudest achievements than the ceremony itself.
Rita Jackson
Warsaw
Graduation Candles
Editor, Times-Union:In reference to the WCHS graduation ceremony: my sister's light burned brighter than any candle you classless jerks ever lit.
Chasity Sloderbeck
Warsaw
Accident Thanks
Editor, Times-Union:My family and I would just like to take a moment to thank all those who helped with the accident, June 2, at CRs 600S and 400E.
I've always been on the other side of the fence and never realized what important support systems firemen, policemen and wonderful individuals who stop to help are.
All of you really make a difference.
Thanks again.
Lisa A Hatfield
Rick Hatfield and family
Warsaw
Good Job, WRSW
Editor, Times-Union:Yes I would like to send a letter to the editor. This has to do with the radio DJs on second and third shift at WRSW. I think they are doing a very good job with the music that they play. Warsaw needs a little more variety. I guess there has been a few people complaining about what is being played. Do these people have anything else to do than complain? Maybe they should adjust their knowledge towards learning how to change a radio dial, I know there is a lot of other people out there that are satisfied with what is played, so Jellyman and Charlie Miller keep up the good work.
Roy Krouse
Columibia City
via e-mail
Golf Team Says Thanks
Editor, Times-Union:The Warsaw Tiger boys golf team would like to take this opportunity to thank the following for their support during our season and trip to the state finals. First of all, thank you to all of the businesses for their messages of encouragement on their signs. Secondly, thank you to the representatives of Warsaw Community High School who came down in the 90-plus heat and humidity and supported us. We would also like to say thank you to all of the parents, grandparents and loyal fans who came to our matches and gave us bits of encouragement throughout the season. Thank you to Rozella Ford Golf Course and especially to Stonehenge Golf Club for allowing us to practice on your courses.
Lastly, we would like to publicly thank our coach who gives us so much of his time to help us out. Also, for giving us the opportunity to contend at the state finals by making certain we get to play the toughest competition on the best courses in the state throughout our season.
Greg Clay, Joe Clevenger, Adam Johnson,
Matt Osbeck, David Slater, Aaron Turner
Warsaw Tiger Golf Team
Wage Dependence
Editor, Times-Union:All my life I've heard people say how we are no longer a nation of freemen. Many people feel this way but seem at a loss to explain those feelings. They come up with all sorts of reasons but never really seem satisfied with what they say. Maybe the following paragraph from James M. McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom" will help you understand why you feel as you do.
"Although the working poor of New York would explode into the worst riot of American history in 1863, these people did not provide the cutting edge of labor protest in the antebellum era. It was not so much the level of wages as the very concept of wages itself that fueled much of this protest. Wage labor was a form of dependency that seemed to contradict the republican principles on which the country had been founded. The core of republicanism was liberty, a precious but precarious birthright constantly threatened by corrupt manipulations of power. The philosopher of republicanism, Thomas Jefferson, had defined the essence of liberty as independence, which required the ownership of productive property. A man dependent on others for a living could never be truly free, nor could a dependent class constitute the basis of a republican government. Women, children and slaves were dependent; that defined them out of the polity of republican freemen. Wage laborers were also dependent; that was why Jefferson feared the development of industrial capitalism with its need for wage laborers. Jefferson envisaged an ideal America of farmers and artisan producers who owned their means of production and depended on no man for a living."
Now I'm sure that doesn't make you feel any better and in today's society there is no way we can return to those old ideals, but maybe it gives you a little insight into how you feel and what our founding fathers had in mind those 225 years ago.
Harold Kitson
Warsaw
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Graduation Memorial
Editor, Times-Union:I am writing over my distress due to Warsaw Community High School's graduation ceremony, June 8. An event my daughter, Ashley, should have been a part of. Yet, according to the ceremony, my daughter never existed as a student at WCHS.
I was told a week prior to the ceremony, from a school official no less, that candles would be lit and a moment of silence held in honor of my daughter and her fellow fallen classmates. I was even sent tickets for me and my family to attend the ceremony and told to pick up my daughter's commemorative candle afterwards.
Perhaps my hopes for the memorial were too high. After all, I was only basing my opinions on previous memorials. When my oldest daughter graduated two years ago, her entire ceremony was dedicated to her fallen classmate. I thought the same thoughtfulness and respect would be given to my daughter and her fellow classmates.
Instead, candles were lit while people were still filing in and no one ever explained what was happening. My daughter's name was never once mentioned during the entire ceremony. I can't speak for the other two families, but my family and I felt as though we had been slapped in the face.
I found out only days ago that there were ulterior motives behind the principal's reasoning for yanking the memorial. I challenge him to step forward and defend his actions because what he did was wrong. He all but denied the existence of three students who were very much alive in the hearts and minds of their families and their classmates.
It's sad to me that three balloons tied to Ashley's headstone from my daughters and I were more of a celebration and acknowledgement of what would've been one of her proudest achievements than the ceremony itself.
Rita Jackson
Warsaw
Graduation Candles
Editor, Times-Union:In reference to the WCHS graduation ceremony: my sister's light burned brighter than any candle you classless jerks ever lit.
Chasity Sloderbeck
Warsaw
Accident Thanks
Editor, Times-Union:My family and I would just like to take a moment to thank all those who helped with the accident, June 2, at CRs 600S and 400E.
I've always been on the other side of the fence and never realized what important support systems firemen, policemen and wonderful individuals who stop to help are.
All of you really make a difference.
Thanks again.
Lisa A Hatfield
Rick Hatfield and family
Warsaw
Good Job, WRSW
Editor, Times-Union:Yes I would like to send a letter to the editor. This has to do with the radio DJs on second and third shift at WRSW. I think they are doing a very good job with the music that they play. Warsaw needs a little more variety. I guess there has been a few people complaining about what is being played. Do these people have anything else to do than complain? Maybe they should adjust their knowledge towards learning how to change a radio dial, I know there is a lot of other people out there that are satisfied with what is played, so Jellyman and Charlie Miller keep up the good work.
Roy Krouse
Columibia City
via e-mail
Golf Team Says Thanks
Editor, Times-Union:The Warsaw Tiger boys golf team would like to take this opportunity to thank the following for their support during our season and trip to the state finals. First of all, thank you to all of the businesses for their messages of encouragement on their signs. Secondly, thank you to the representatives of Warsaw Community High School who came down in the 90-plus heat and humidity and supported us. We would also like to say thank you to all of the parents, grandparents and loyal fans who came to our matches and gave us bits of encouragement throughout the season. Thank you to Rozella Ford Golf Course and especially to Stonehenge Golf Club for allowing us to practice on your courses.
Lastly, we would like to publicly thank our coach who gives us so much of his time to help us out. Also, for giving us the opportunity to contend at the state finals by making certain we get to play the toughest competition on the best courses in the state throughout our season.
Greg Clay, Joe Clevenger, Adam Johnson,
Matt Osbeck, David Slater, Aaron Turner
Warsaw Tiger Golf Team
Wage Dependence
Editor, Times-Union:All my life I've heard people say how we are no longer a nation of freemen. Many people feel this way but seem at a loss to explain those feelings. They come up with all sorts of reasons but never really seem satisfied with what they say. Maybe the following paragraph from James M. McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom" will help you understand why you feel as you do.
"Although the working poor of New York would explode into the worst riot of American history in 1863, these people did not provide the cutting edge of labor protest in the antebellum era. It was not so much the level of wages as the very concept of wages itself that fueled much of this protest. Wage labor was a form of dependency that seemed to contradict the republican principles on which the country had been founded. The core of republicanism was liberty, a precious but precarious birthright constantly threatened by corrupt manipulations of power. The philosopher of republicanism, Thomas Jefferson, had defined the essence of liberty as independence, which required the ownership of productive property. A man dependent on others for a living could never be truly free, nor could a dependent class constitute the basis of a republican government. Women, children and slaves were dependent; that defined them out of the polity of republican freemen. Wage laborers were also dependent; that was why Jefferson feared the development of industrial capitalism with its need for wage laborers. Jefferson envisaged an ideal America of farmers and artisan producers who owned their means of production and depended on no man for a living."
Now I'm sure that doesn't make you feel any better and in today's society there is no way we can return to those old ideals, but maybe it gives you a little insight into how you feel and what our founding fathers had in mind those 225 years ago.
Harold Kitson
Warsaw
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