Letters to the Editor 09-07-2000
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
- Honoring Veterans - Rest Stop - O'Bannon - Third Party - Roemer Visit
Honoring Veterans
Editor, Times-Union:Take a journey with me to the far corners of your imagination. Come to a place where WWII did not end as it actually did. Germany won. We are speaking German in our classrooms because that is now our first language. Hitler has passed on his leadership position to another high ranking Communist. We as a people are miserable. The wars following WWII did not occur because Hitler was in control. But there were many revolts, none of which succeeded because we the people were not as strong as the Nazis. Some of us in this room would not be here, we would not be having this service today or even be in this church. Our freedoms would have vanished - the freedoms so many of us have taken for granted and have never really thought about, especially my generation.
The world truly would be a different place without the struggles your generation went through. Admiration does not even describe what I feel for you, the veterans. Because you answered the call, I can do and be who I am today.
WWII, Korea, Vietnam, all of these were fought by brave young men like my grandpa. There were brave women who heard the call and served their country, too. I have learned from the history books about: WWII, mostly the Holocaust stories; about Korea, not much; Vietnam I have learned from both sides, the veterans and the "hippies," but books cannot teach us what you can.
You have lived through a war. You have felt the intensity of people relying on you to protect them. Not just back home, but your battalion counted on you to guard them and not let them down. You trusted one another and relied heavily on what the person beside you did. There was no time to think for you. You were given a command and you did it, if you did not do something correctly, it could mean someone's life, possibly your own. That kind of pressure I've never had to deal with. I've been scared before but never could I imagine what you felt walking down the streets looking and waiting for any signs of the enemy.
But all wars eventually come to an end. Now comes the joy of coming home. For the Vietnam veterans, that was a struggle all in itself, for all of you coming home faced different consequences. For some of you coming home to your wives and children that missed you was a joyful experience. For some, starting over was what had to be accomplished. You had to find a wife, build a home, start a family, pay the bills, feed the children and in addition to all of this, find a job. All of you brought home skills you had learned in the war, like discipline, leadership and respect for others. These skills helped you stay on track with all the situations that followed. For some today, just raising a family is too much for them and they get out. But you have lived through a war, raised a family and grown as a person. You are no longer that brave young soldier, you are now a brave, wise man.
We honor you veterans for the things you've accomplished. My generation has its strengths and weaknesses. We have been killing our peers in violent shootings. We lack respect for our elders. But we have also seen an explosion of revivals for God because of my generation. We can learn a lot from you. You have an abundance of stories to tell and experiences to share. This wealth of knowledge is what my generation needs to become a people ready and willing to fight for God's cause. To be able to stand up to our peers and tell them who our God is. We can work together to become one great generation. But we cannot do it alone.
Thank you again for serving your country and for giving me the everyday freedoms I enjoy so much. I honor and respect you, we all do.
Angela DeGaetano
1999 Veteran's Dinner
Warsaw First Presbyterian Church
Rest Stop
Editor, Times-Union:I have never written a letter to the editor before, but feel the need to give credit where it is due.
I'm speaking of the wonderful and scenic roadside rest facility that our county offers to weary drivers and travelers. You know the one I'm speaking of. It's on U.S. 30 just west of Warsaw, about a mile outside of town. I live in Etna Green and pass it about every day on my way to Warsaw for work and errands.
This is a really popular place. It's not uncommon for me to see the same cars parked there, often for hours on end. I've also observed that many of the vehicles have 43 (Kosciusko County) plates, so local residents must also be enjoying its benefits.
Wow, what a wonderful place, where someone can just sit and reflect. Both sides must offer the same beautiful scenery and clean restrooms because I often see vehicles exit one side and make a U-turn on U.S. 30 just to get to the other side.
I see many vehicles making U-turns after dark. I haven't figured this one out, though. Maybe they enjoy watching the fireflies light up against the wooded background or the moonlight reflecting off the dense trees.
When I'm driving home from work at about 11:30 p.m. or 12 a.m., you should see the semi's lined up. There's usually about 15-20 on each side. Looks like a big carnival, all lit up. You know it must be a great place when a trucker would rather stop here than up the road at Plymouth where there are clean restrooms, showers, food and gas.
The other day, my husband and I drove through the rest area just to see what all the excitement was about. Unfortunately, most of the cars were empty, so I never really got a chance to ask anyone. My bet is that they were out hiking in the woods or collecting wildflowers.
Kudos to Kosciusko County for offering a beautiful and safe haven to many travelers on the road, day and night.
Keep up the good work.
Julie Reed
Etna Green
O'Bannon
Editor, Times-Union:After living off the taxpayers for 30 years, 70-year-old Frank O'Bannon needs to retire.
Voters can help him enjoy retirement by voting for a new governor. By doing so, voters will assure themselves of a long-overdue 25 percent cut in their property taxes, a vast improvement in Indiana's educational system, better care for the mentally ill and an end to the shameful loss of many millions of dollars in state and federal funds.
O'Bannon broke the promise he made four years ago to give us property tax relief, so only fools will believe him when he makes the same promise again.
O'Bannon's hearing apparently has deteriorated in his old age, because he hasn't heard the cries of anguish from his fellow senior citizens on fixed incomes being forced out of their homes while property taxes soar under this rule.
At age 84, I had to pay an all-time-high $730 property tax last year on my little four-room frame house that is 48 years old. Many others even worse off have had to move into apartments while O'Bannon enjoys living in a tax-free mansion.
O'Bannon has cost Indiana taxpayers $30 million in lost federal aid because of the shameful treatment of Muscatatuck State Hospital patients, and after the state legislature appropriated funds to convert Central State Hospital into a much-needed hospital for mentally ill children, O'Bannon killed the plan.
O'Bannon pretends to be helping motorists by temporarily suspending the state sales tax on gasoline, but all that has done is rob us of $28 million that could have been spent for improvement of our roads. It has really only benefited out-of-state drivers who thus have evaded paying any of the cost of damage to our roads that they have caused.
It is time to let David McIntosh give us the good government that Hoosiers deserve.
Don Freehafer
Logansport
Third Party
Editor, Times-Union:I would like to remind everyone that, when it comes to voting this fall, there are alternatives to the same old redundant big government, money grabbing Democrats and Republicans. As long as we continue to vote them into office, the only changes we will see will be bigger government, less money in our pockets and less freedom. You see, by continuing to vote them into office, they either think we like big government and high taxes or we just don't care. As long as we let them get away with it, they will.
I sincerely hope no one is buying into Al Gore's pretty speeches. Oh, he sounds soooo good, but think about it, he can't possibly deliver on all that he promises. Besides, we wouldn't want him to, we couldn't afford it. Many of the issues he and Bush are making promises on were not intended to be concerns of the federal government anyway. Most of these issues, including education, are supposed to be under local and state government. The reason the federal government keeps taking on more and more of the control is so that the funding for all these programs, our tax dollars, comes to them. Then, in order to get that money back to our local and state governments, we have to comply with federal regulations. This is how they keep enforcing more and more control over every aspect of our lives. Are you getting the big picture, can you see where this could lead? Do you like slavery? I don't.
Go to the polls this fall but vote for a third party wherever you can. Even if the third party candidate doesn't win, those votes tell the two major parties that we are not happy with their big brother government and high taxes. And if they don't reduce the federal government back to its constitutional limits and let us keep our money to spend the way we see fit and on the things we find important, they will be replaced.
They seem to think we are too stupid to spend our own money wisely so they want to take care of us and our money, too, especially our money.
Local and state government can do all the truly needed programs much more efficiently and economically.
P.S. Congratulations to the Times-Union for being one of the few independent newspapers and the third oldest family-owned newspaper in the state.
Deanna Newton
Secretary, Libertarian Party of Kosciusko County
Warsaw
Roemer Visit
Editor, Times-Union:On Aug. 31, the headlines should have read "Roemer Visits A Grade School Production Of Peter And The Wolf" to involve the good name of U.S. Sen. Roemer, use your newspaper as a soapbox to cry wolf and tell the American Medical Association that they are thieves and liars.
Who would you believe if you are sick or injured, your doctor or someone who wants to bring sweat shops and slavery back in style.
This just shows the good community why the American Flint Glass Worker Union is needed at Kimble Glass to help protect the rights of the employees, given to them by the laws of this great nation.
This is my opinion and I may be wrong, but think not.
Robert C. Ruggiero
Winona Lake
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- Honoring Veterans - Rest Stop - O'Bannon - Third Party - Roemer Visit
Honoring Veterans
Editor, Times-Union:Take a journey with me to the far corners of your imagination. Come to a place where WWII did not end as it actually did. Germany won. We are speaking German in our classrooms because that is now our first language. Hitler has passed on his leadership position to another high ranking Communist. We as a people are miserable. The wars following WWII did not occur because Hitler was in control. But there were many revolts, none of which succeeded because we the people were not as strong as the Nazis. Some of us in this room would not be here, we would not be having this service today or even be in this church. Our freedoms would have vanished - the freedoms so many of us have taken for granted and have never really thought about, especially my generation.
The world truly would be a different place without the struggles your generation went through. Admiration does not even describe what I feel for you, the veterans. Because you answered the call, I can do and be who I am today.
WWII, Korea, Vietnam, all of these were fought by brave young men like my grandpa. There were brave women who heard the call and served their country, too. I have learned from the history books about: WWII, mostly the Holocaust stories; about Korea, not much; Vietnam I have learned from both sides, the veterans and the "hippies," but books cannot teach us what you can.
You have lived through a war. You have felt the intensity of people relying on you to protect them. Not just back home, but your battalion counted on you to guard them and not let them down. You trusted one another and relied heavily on what the person beside you did. There was no time to think for you. You were given a command and you did it, if you did not do something correctly, it could mean someone's life, possibly your own. That kind of pressure I've never had to deal with. I've been scared before but never could I imagine what you felt walking down the streets looking and waiting for any signs of the enemy.
But all wars eventually come to an end. Now comes the joy of coming home. For the Vietnam veterans, that was a struggle all in itself, for all of you coming home faced different consequences. For some of you coming home to your wives and children that missed you was a joyful experience. For some, starting over was what had to be accomplished. You had to find a wife, build a home, start a family, pay the bills, feed the children and in addition to all of this, find a job. All of you brought home skills you had learned in the war, like discipline, leadership and respect for others. These skills helped you stay on track with all the situations that followed. For some today, just raising a family is too much for them and they get out. But you have lived through a war, raised a family and grown as a person. You are no longer that brave young soldier, you are now a brave, wise man.
We honor you veterans for the things you've accomplished. My generation has its strengths and weaknesses. We have been killing our peers in violent shootings. We lack respect for our elders. But we have also seen an explosion of revivals for God because of my generation. We can learn a lot from you. You have an abundance of stories to tell and experiences to share. This wealth of knowledge is what my generation needs to become a people ready and willing to fight for God's cause. To be able to stand up to our peers and tell them who our God is. We can work together to become one great generation. But we cannot do it alone.
Thank you again for serving your country and for giving me the everyday freedoms I enjoy so much. I honor and respect you, we all do.
Angela DeGaetano
1999 Veteran's Dinner
Warsaw First Presbyterian Church
Rest Stop
Editor, Times-Union:I have never written a letter to the editor before, but feel the need to give credit where it is due.
I'm speaking of the wonderful and scenic roadside rest facility that our county offers to weary drivers and travelers. You know the one I'm speaking of. It's on U.S. 30 just west of Warsaw, about a mile outside of town. I live in Etna Green and pass it about every day on my way to Warsaw for work and errands.
This is a really popular place. It's not uncommon for me to see the same cars parked there, often for hours on end. I've also observed that many of the vehicles have 43 (Kosciusko County) plates, so local residents must also be enjoying its benefits.
Wow, what a wonderful place, where someone can just sit and reflect. Both sides must offer the same beautiful scenery and clean restrooms because I often see vehicles exit one side and make a U-turn on U.S. 30 just to get to the other side.
I see many vehicles making U-turns after dark. I haven't figured this one out, though. Maybe they enjoy watching the fireflies light up against the wooded background or the moonlight reflecting off the dense trees.
When I'm driving home from work at about 11:30 p.m. or 12 a.m., you should see the semi's lined up. There's usually about 15-20 on each side. Looks like a big carnival, all lit up. You know it must be a great place when a trucker would rather stop here than up the road at Plymouth where there are clean restrooms, showers, food and gas.
The other day, my husband and I drove through the rest area just to see what all the excitement was about. Unfortunately, most of the cars were empty, so I never really got a chance to ask anyone. My bet is that they were out hiking in the woods or collecting wildflowers.
Kudos to Kosciusko County for offering a beautiful and safe haven to many travelers on the road, day and night.
Keep up the good work.
Julie Reed
Etna Green
O'Bannon
Editor, Times-Union:After living off the taxpayers for 30 years, 70-year-old Frank O'Bannon needs to retire.
Voters can help him enjoy retirement by voting for a new governor. By doing so, voters will assure themselves of a long-overdue 25 percent cut in their property taxes, a vast improvement in Indiana's educational system, better care for the mentally ill and an end to the shameful loss of many millions of dollars in state and federal funds.
O'Bannon broke the promise he made four years ago to give us property tax relief, so only fools will believe him when he makes the same promise again.
O'Bannon's hearing apparently has deteriorated in his old age, because he hasn't heard the cries of anguish from his fellow senior citizens on fixed incomes being forced out of their homes while property taxes soar under this rule.
At age 84, I had to pay an all-time-high $730 property tax last year on my little four-room frame house that is 48 years old. Many others even worse off have had to move into apartments while O'Bannon enjoys living in a tax-free mansion.
O'Bannon has cost Indiana taxpayers $30 million in lost federal aid because of the shameful treatment of Muscatatuck State Hospital patients, and after the state legislature appropriated funds to convert Central State Hospital into a much-needed hospital for mentally ill children, O'Bannon killed the plan.
O'Bannon pretends to be helping motorists by temporarily suspending the state sales tax on gasoline, but all that has done is rob us of $28 million that could have been spent for improvement of our roads. It has really only benefited out-of-state drivers who thus have evaded paying any of the cost of damage to our roads that they have caused.
It is time to let David McIntosh give us the good government that Hoosiers deserve.
Don Freehafer
Logansport
Third Party
Editor, Times-Union:I would like to remind everyone that, when it comes to voting this fall, there are alternatives to the same old redundant big government, money grabbing Democrats and Republicans. As long as we continue to vote them into office, the only changes we will see will be bigger government, less money in our pockets and less freedom. You see, by continuing to vote them into office, they either think we like big government and high taxes or we just don't care. As long as we let them get away with it, they will.
I sincerely hope no one is buying into Al Gore's pretty speeches. Oh, he sounds soooo good, but think about it, he can't possibly deliver on all that he promises. Besides, we wouldn't want him to, we couldn't afford it. Many of the issues he and Bush are making promises on were not intended to be concerns of the federal government anyway. Most of these issues, including education, are supposed to be under local and state government. The reason the federal government keeps taking on more and more of the control is so that the funding for all these programs, our tax dollars, comes to them. Then, in order to get that money back to our local and state governments, we have to comply with federal regulations. This is how they keep enforcing more and more control over every aspect of our lives. Are you getting the big picture, can you see where this could lead? Do you like slavery? I don't.
Go to the polls this fall but vote for a third party wherever you can. Even if the third party candidate doesn't win, those votes tell the two major parties that we are not happy with their big brother government and high taxes. And if they don't reduce the federal government back to its constitutional limits and let us keep our money to spend the way we see fit and on the things we find important, they will be replaced.
They seem to think we are too stupid to spend our own money wisely so they want to take care of us and our money, too, especially our money.
Local and state government can do all the truly needed programs much more efficiently and economically.
P.S. Congratulations to the Times-Union for being one of the few independent newspapers and the third oldest family-owned newspaper in the state.
Deanna Newton
Secretary, Libertarian Party of Kosciusko County
Warsaw
Roemer Visit
Editor, Times-Union:On Aug. 31, the headlines should have read "Roemer Visits A Grade School Production Of Peter And The Wolf" to involve the good name of U.S. Sen. Roemer, use your newspaper as a soapbox to cry wolf and tell the American Medical Association that they are thieves and liars.
Who would you believe if you are sick or injured, your doctor or someone who wants to bring sweat shops and slavery back in style.
This just shows the good community why the American Flint Glass Worker Union is needed at Kimble Glass to help protect the rights of the employees, given to them by the laws of this great nation.
This is my opinion and I may be wrong, but think not.
Robert C. Ruggiero
Winona Lake
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