Letters to the Editor 08-14-2001
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
- Fix CR 200N - Meth Labs - Stem Cells - Rehabilitation - Drug War - Parental Involvement - Water, Water Everywhere
Fix CR 200N
Editor, Times-Union:The city should properly fix 200N as a traffic hazard. They patched in potholes and dumped piles of gravel - poor way of fixing a busy, traveled road!
People drive in wrong lanes to save their vehicles from damage. Parts of the edge of the road are broken away; again, wet cement/gravel just dumped, not leveled, just dumped.
The city, I assume, is collecting their tax dollars for sewers, etc., so why not repair the road correctly before winter! Had the county been collecting tax dollars, it would have been properly repaved long ago.
Maybe Phend and Brown or Wal-Mart should pay? The road was excellent until then, but 24 hours a day, those dump-gravel trucks have broken it all up.
Please, repair it before someone gets killed!
Barbara J. Hawn
Pierceton
Meth Labs
Editor, Times-Union:I read Mark Souder's self serving letter to the editor published on August 11th (Meth Epidemic). Are his thoughts sincere or just another scare tactic used by politicians to get re-elected and get more funds for their state in the never-ending war on drugs? He states that the "methods we used to fight cocaine and heroin may very well not apply to meth." Is he saying we are successful in our fight against these drugs? I think he needs to look at the statistics! If he really wants to fight meth and other illegal drugs and the crime associated with them with a new method, try legalization and regulation. If those who are susceptible to drug abuse could get their drug of choice legally and cheaply, meth labs would disappear. Crime would fall since legally producing drugs is cheap and it is only prohibition that makes them expensive. Police could concentrate on violent crimes. Money saved from taxation and a reduction in the prison population could be used for drug education and treatment. I doubt Rep. Souder has the wisdom or guts to suggest such an approach.
Steve Helms
Southlake, Texas
via e-mail
Stem Cells
Editor, Times-Union:As a pro-life activitist and a Christian, I do not uphold research on embryonic stem cells.
The embryo is the earliest stages of a human being. Yet a five-day-old human embryo is killed for scientific research that could take decades to be of value for some diseases that afflict people today. This is a scientific theory.
The killing of a human embryo, be it inside the womb or outside, is morally wrong. The miracle of life as God created it is the most precious way to bring forth a human being.
Is our country so immoral, so corrupt, that we permit this kind of killing of a human embryo? What kind of nation are we? To kill one life to prolong another life is wrong.
Scientists may not think the embryo is a life or human being, but God knows. When the innocence of a baby is killed this way, is the U.S. safe from God's wrath? Are scientists playing with human life as if it it were a toy, or has no value? Human life is sacred to God.
There must be other ways to cure these diseases instead of using human embryos.
As Christians and pro-life we can write or call those in the House of Representatives and Senate to tell them that we do not uphold this kind of scientific experiments, that there are other ways.
If I did not write this or speak out about how I as a Christian feel on this subject, I feel like I am letting God down.
For I have only to answer to God when my life on earth is ended.
Joyce A. Phaneuf
North Webster
Rehabilitation
Editor, Times-Union:This article is to let the Warsaw community know how prison doesn't rehabilitate a person. However, they do offer a wide variety of courses to help the rehabilitation process, but these courses can be manipulated just to be put on one's prison packet. Rehabilitation comes from within the person, a desiring need for a better and productive life. One does not need to come to prison for rehabilitation.
However, being in prison gives a person a chance to look deep within and to see themselves with no interruptions, from society or loved ones. For I know! I'm currently serving a 10-year prison term for dealing cocaine. I was sentenced on Nov. 10, 1999, which I thought was the worst turn that ever took place in my life. In the process I lost a very special and loving girlfriend and was pulled out from my environment and away from my loved ones. The steps that started my rehabilitation started with depression and a deep grieving process which lasted for several months. After these emotions subsided, I had a deep compassion to learn a different way of life. Dealing drugs was not the life I wanted to return to. Dealing or using drugs only leaves a person with two options: dead or in prison. This is not a way of life!
Education is the only key to a wide variety of positive lifestyles. Since I've been here, I've obtained my G.E.D. with high scores, earned a minister's license, an honorary degree in divinity, two diplomas in Biblical studies and will be completing a vocational trade called Business Computer Applications. I also will be enrolling in a paralegal course in September, after completing my vocational trade.
What I thought was the worst turn in my life turned out to be the best. I recommend to the ones that are involved in drug activity that they pull themselves away and start the rehabilitation process within themselves before they end up coming to a place where they have no choice, prison. The younger generation of Warsaw and other communities need to re-arm themselves with education, not with guns and drugs. Remember, education is the key that will unlock a wide variety of doors for a better and productive life.
Charles F. Robinson I
Westville Correctional Facility
Drug War
Editor, Times-Union:According to Mark Souder U.S. Representative ( R-Ind., District 4) methamphetamine use has reached epidemic levels and more law enforcement is the cure. Meth is the latest dangerous drug to be making headlines, but it won't be the last until policymakers acknowledge the drug war's inherent failure. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. The obscene profits to be made guarantee replacement dealers. In terms of addictive drugs like meth, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime. With alcohol prohibition repealed, liquor producers no longer gun each down in drive-by shootings, nor do consumers go blind drinking unregulated bathtub gin.
Drug policies modeled after alcohol prohibition have given rise to a youth-oriented black market. Illegal drug dealers don't ID for age, but they do push addictive drugs like meth. There are cost-effective alternatives. In Europe, the Netherlands has successfully reduced overall drug use by replacing marijuana prohibition with regulation. Dutch rates of drug use are significantly lower than U.S. rates in every category. Separating the hard and soft drug markets and establishing age controls for marijuana has proven more effective than zero tolerance.
As the most popular illegal drug, marijuana provides the black market contacts that introduce youth to hard drugs like meth. This "gateway" is the direct result of a fundamentally flawed policy. Given that marijuana is arguably safer than legal alcohol - pot has never been shown to cause an overdose death - it makes no sense to waste tax dollars on failed policies that finance organized crime and facilitate the use of highly addictive drugs hard drugs. Drug policy reform may send the wrong message to children, but I like to think the children themselves are more important than the message. Opportunistic "tough on drugs" politicians would no doubt disagree.
A dated comparison of Dutch v. American rates of drug use can be found at: www.netherlands-embassy.org/c_drugstat.html
More recent figures can be found at: www.drugwarfacts.org/thenethe.htm
Robert Sharpe, M.P.A.
Program Officer
The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation
www.drugpolicy.org
Washington, D.C.
Parental Involvement
Editor, Times-Union:This is an open letter to the parents and other patrons of the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation.
The new school year begins in a few days. For the first time in the past 21 years, my wife and I will not have a child attending school in the corporation. Our youngest child graduated last spring. Does this end my involvement with TVSC? No, it doesn't.
Last May I was talking to a school board member and his wife. The wife stated that it takes a village to raise a child. Doesn't it also take a village to educate a child? I am part of the village.
My message to parents or guardians is this: get involved, stay involved. Most every village has a village idiot. Do you want the village idiot to have more input in the education of your children than you do? Take the time to become familiar with attendance policies, dress codes and discipline policies. Schedule parent-teacher conferences, check homework, discuss expectations on effort and behavior in school with your children. With encouragement, most children will strive to succeed.
The school board members, administrators and teachers all have a role in your children's education. Over the years I have met many of them from the central office, Akron Elementary, TVMS and TVHS. Most, if not all, are intelligent, dedicated people who would be willing to hear your concerns and ideas if presented to them with civility and respect. Commenting about footwear or delivering shoe care products will accomplish little. A positive dialogue at an appropriate time can accomplish much.
Near the end of the last school year I was talking to the assistant principal at TVHS. He made the comment that his goal is to graduate as many students as possible. Shouldn't that be a goal for everyone in the corporation? I say again: get involved, stay involved.
In closing, let me give a belated thank you to the teachers who attended the graduation ceremony for the class of 2001. Your presence enhanced the dignity and memories for many of the graduating seniors and guests.
Mark Wilcox
Silver Lake
Water, Water Everywhere
Editor, Times-Union:I was watering my garden last night, with all the heat, I used a nozzle instead of a sprinkler. I wanted the water to go into the garden with no waste in overspray. While running the nozzle, I started to think. I worked on a hog farm in the Mentone area; it was a 1,200-sow unit. There were approximately 2,000 water nipples on that farm. We had them set to put out one gallon per minute. On a hot day, all the pigs would sit and hold the nipple so it would spray. Do you know how much water that is? With the pigs holding them down, a lot of them would break. Then you would have full force, gallons per minute coming out. We only checked the building once in the a.m. and once in the p.m. without breakage, you take 2,000 nipples at one gallon per nipple for 24 hours a day. The building didn't cool down at night, so they will play with the nipples almost 24 hours a day. That's a lot of water. If you live in this area, what does that do to your water table?
I also fish on the Tippy River in the Atwood area. You see all the irrigation systems in the field around there and you know they pump it out of the river. The river is so low you can't fish it. What about the fish? It's too low for them to survive.
I notice a new farm complex is going into the Mentone area, which means even more water. Doesn't everyone have the right to water? May we need the county commissioners to look into this situation!
Kenny Shepherd
Claypool
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- Fix CR 200N - Meth Labs - Stem Cells - Rehabilitation - Drug War - Parental Involvement - Water, Water Everywhere
Fix CR 200N
Editor, Times-Union:The city should properly fix 200N as a traffic hazard. They patched in potholes and dumped piles of gravel - poor way of fixing a busy, traveled road!
People drive in wrong lanes to save their vehicles from damage. Parts of the edge of the road are broken away; again, wet cement/gravel just dumped, not leveled, just dumped.
The city, I assume, is collecting their tax dollars for sewers, etc., so why not repair the road correctly before winter! Had the county been collecting tax dollars, it would have been properly repaved long ago.
Maybe Phend and Brown or Wal-Mart should pay? The road was excellent until then, but 24 hours a day, those dump-gravel trucks have broken it all up.
Please, repair it before someone gets killed!
Barbara J. Hawn
Pierceton
Meth Labs
Editor, Times-Union:I read Mark Souder's self serving letter to the editor published on August 11th (Meth Epidemic). Are his thoughts sincere or just another scare tactic used by politicians to get re-elected and get more funds for their state in the never-ending war on drugs? He states that the "methods we used to fight cocaine and heroin may very well not apply to meth." Is he saying we are successful in our fight against these drugs? I think he needs to look at the statistics! If he really wants to fight meth and other illegal drugs and the crime associated with them with a new method, try legalization and regulation. If those who are susceptible to drug abuse could get their drug of choice legally and cheaply, meth labs would disappear. Crime would fall since legally producing drugs is cheap and it is only prohibition that makes them expensive. Police could concentrate on violent crimes. Money saved from taxation and a reduction in the prison population could be used for drug education and treatment. I doubt Rep. Souder has the wisdom or guts to suggest such an approach.
Steve Helms
Southlake, Texas
via e-mail
Stem Cells
Editor, Times-Union:As a pro-life activitist and a Christian, I do not uphold research on embryonic stem cells.
The embryo is the earliest stages of a human being. Yet a five-day-old human embryo is killed for scientific research that could take decades to be of value for some diseases that afflict people today. This is a scientific theory.
The killing of a human embryo, be it inside the womb or outside, is morally wrong. The miracle of life as God created it is the most precious way to bring forth a human being.
Is our country so immoral, so corrupt, that we permit this kind of killing of a human embryo? What kind of nation are we? To kill one life to prolong another life is wrong.
Scientists may not think the embryo is a life or human being, but God knows. When the innocence of a baby is killed this way, is the U.S. safe from God's wrath? Are scientists playing with human life as if it it were a toy, or has no value? Human life is sacred to God.
There must be other ways to cure these diseases instead of using human embryos.
As Christians and pro-life we can write or call those in the House of Representatives and Senate to tell them that we do not uphold this kind of scientific experiments, that there are other ways.
If I did not write this or speak out about how I as a Christian feel on this subject, I feel like I am letting God down.
For I have only to answer to God when my life on earth is ended.
Joyce A. Phaneuf
North Webster
Rehabilitation
Editor, Times-Union:This article is to let the Warsaw community know how prison doesn't rehabilitate a person. However, they do offer a wide variety of courses to help the rehabilitation process, but these courses can be manipulated just to be put on one's prison packet. Rehabilitation comes from within the person, a desiring need for a better and productive life. One does not need to come to prison for rehabilitation.
However, being in prison gives a person a chance to look deep within and to see themselves with no interruptions, from society or loved ones. For I know! I'm currently serving a 10-year prison term for dealing cocaine. I was sentenced on Nov. 10, 1999, which I thought was the worst turn that ever took place in my life. In the process I lost a very special and loving girlfriend and was pulled out from my environment and away from my loved ones. The steps that started my rehabilitation started with depression and a deep grieving process which lasted for several months. After these emotions subsided, I had a deep compassion to learn a different way of life. Dealing drugs was not the life I wanted to return to. Dealing or using drugs only leaves a person with two options: dead or in prison. This is not a way of life!
Education is the only key to a wide variety of positive lifestyles. Since I've been here, I've obtained my G.E.D. with high scores, earned a minister's license, an honorary degree in divinity, two diplomas in Biblical studies and will be completing a vocational trade called Business Computer Applications. I also will be enrolling in a paralegal course in September, after completing my vocational trade.
What I thought was the worst turn in my life turned out to be the best. I recommend to the ones that are involved in drug activity that they pull themselves away and start the rehabilitation process within themselves before they end up coming to a place where they have no choice, prison. The younger generation of Warsaw and other communities need to re-arm themselves with education, not with guns and drugs. Remember, education is the key that will unlock a wide variety of doors for a better and productive life.
Charles F. Robinson I
Westville Correctional Facility
Drug War
Editor, Times-Union:According to Mark Souder U.S. Representative ( R-Ind., District 4) methamphetamine use has reached epidemic levels and more law enforcement is the cure. Meth is the latest dangerous drug to be making headlines, but it won't be the last until policymakers acknowledge the drug war's inherent failure. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. The obscene profits to be made guarantee replacement dealers. In terms of addictive drugs like meth, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime. With alcohol prohibition repealed, liquor producers no longer gun each down in drive-by shootings, nor do consumers go blind drinking unregulated bathtub gin.
Drug policies modeled after alcohol prohibition have given rise to a youth-oriented black market. Illegal drug dealers don't ID for age, but they do push addictive drugs like meth. There are cost-effective alternatives. In Europe, the Netherlands has successfully reduced overall drug use by replacing marijuana prohibition with regulation. Dutch rates of drug use are significantly lower than U.S. rates in every category. Separating the hard and soft drug markets and establishing age controls for marijuana has proven more effective than zero tolerance.
As the most popular illegal drug, marijuana provides the black market contacts that introduce youth to hard drugs like meth. This "gateway" is the direct result of a fundamentally flawed policy. Given that marijuana is arguably safer than legal alcohol - pot has never been shown to cause an overdose death - it makes no sense to waste tax dollars on failed policies that finance organized crime and facilitate the use of highly addictive drugs hard drugs. Drug policy reform may send the wrong message to children, but I like to think the children themselves are more important than the message. Opportunistic "tough on drugs" politicians would no doubt disagree.
A dated comparison of Dutch v. American rates of drug use can be found at: www.netherlands-embassy.org/c_drugstat.html
More recent figures can be found at: www.drugwarfacts.org/thenethe.htm
Robert Sharpe, M.P.A.
Program Officer
The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation
www.drugpolicy.org
Washington, D.C.
Parental Involvement
Editor, Times-Union:This is an open letter to the parents and other patrons of the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation.
The new school year begins in a few days. For the first time in the past 21 years, my wife and I will not have a child attending school in the corporation. Our youngest child graduated last spring. Does this end my involvement with TVSC? No, it doesn't.
Last May I was talking to a school board member and his wife. The wife stated that it takes a village to raise a child. Doesn't it also take a village to educate a child? I am part of the village.
My message to parents or guardians is this: get involved, stay involved. Most every village has a village idiot. Do you want the village idiot to have more input in the education of your children than you do? Take the time to become familiar with attendance policies, dress codes and discipline policies. Schedule parent-teacher conferences, check homework, discuss expectations on effort and behavior in school with your children. With encouragement, most children will strive to succeed.
The school board members, administrators and teachers all have a role in your children's education. Over the years I have met many of them from the central office, Akron Elementary, TVMS and TVHS. Most, if not all, are intelligent, dedicated people who would be willing to hear your concerns and ideas if presented to them with civility and respect. Commenting about footwear or delivering shoe care products will accomplish little. A positive dialogue at an appropriate time can accomplish much.
Near the end of the last school year I was talking to the assistant principal at TVHS. He made the comment that his goal is to graduate as many students as possible. Shouldn't that be a goal for everyone in the corporation? I say again: get involved, stay involved.
In closing, let me give a belated thank you to the teachers who attended the graduation ceremony for the class of 2001. Your presence enhanced the dignity and memories for many of the graduating seniors and guests.
Mark Wilcox
Silver Lake
Water, Water Everywhere
Editor, Times-Union:I was watering my garden last night, with all the heat, I used a nozzle instead of a sprinkler. I wanted the water to go into the garden with no waste in overspray. While running the nozzle, I started to think. I worked on a hog farm in the Mentone area; it was a 1,200-sow unit. There were approximately 2,000 water nipples on that farm. We had them set to put out one gallon per minute. On a hot day, all the pigs would sit and hold the nipple so it would spray. Do you know how much water that is? With the pigs holding them down, a lot of them would break. Then you would have full force, gallons per minute coming out. We only checked the building once in the a.m. and once in the p.m. without breakage, you take 2,000 nipples at one gallon per nipple for 24 hours a day. The building didn't cool down at night, so they will play with the nipples almost 24 hours a day. That's a lot of water. If you live in this area, what does that do to your water table?
I also fish on the Tippy River in the Atwood area. You see all the irrigation systems in the field around there and you know they pump it out of the river. The river is so low you can't fish it. What about the fish? It's too low for them to survive.
I notice a new farm complex is going into the Mentone area, which means even more water. Doesn't everyone have the right to water? May we need the county commissioners to look into this situation!
Kenny Shepherd
Claypool
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