Letters to the Editor 09-21-1999
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
- Theology - CROP Walk - Skate Letter - Irreverence - Left And Right - Petty Issues - Lost Ring - Thanks To Historical Society
Theology
Editor, Times-Union:How interesting. Matthew Trier of Warsaw replaced the trendy topic of animal rights with yet another trendy topic, modern mythology. But both belong in what he complained, "petty complaints."
For this instance, what does animal rights and Christianity have in common? Both presumptuously impose their ethics on citizens that do not need them, support them, or will live through them. Mr. Trier and others, as a Christian would you politically require every man to obtain his morality from your obsolete book, where you prescribe the only precepts from which he must solely live by? If yes, and men with your theistic ideas continue to dominate politics, the American concept of freedom will suffer.
As you complained, times a-changing, our culture is becoming more secular and god is just another word mentioned in exclamatory idioms. We now have more secularists like me that believe faith is the evil, that god is not the priority. So if I have rejected the invalid concept of god, where do you get your power to make me believe abortion is murder? If you had your way, would it be a crime to reject god too? (Your Christian god mandates the answer as, yes. Hence the loss of freedom of ideas, and consequently freedom itself).
One of the differences in our politics is that in my ideal society I would allow religion. Why? Because I believe in the political premise of the autonomy of the non-infringing citizen. I would not wear the pseudo-good-guy-badge and obstruct or alter a person's activity if it does not infringe on another person's life? Just like your notion of abortion being "murder," homosexuality can only be decadent through the pretense of Christianity. You are not concerned for the liberty and happiness of men and women, when your religion lets them live only a second of it. What you are concerned for is your golden ticket to heaven. To win, it is an orthodox requirement from your Bible to reiterate your god's condemnations; to claim your joyous cloud-ride you must manifest and make others follow your god's unjustified fiat. That's the general rule you must follow in order to go to heaven.
For modern theists, politics is the means to the end: admission inside the gate of pearls. This means politically repressing non-infringing citizens through the legislation of unconstitutional and dangerously superfluous laws permitted by the illusions of theism, as if in a neo-divine rights of kings, notwithstanding the fact that some don't believe in divinity or in kings.
There are men like us not reinforced by a heaven or a hell - men with morality apart from revelation, where the standard is a prosperous, happy life. We appreciate life now here on earth, every second of every breath. And we ask men like you, Mr. Trier, "If I do not force others to do what they ought not here on earth, why do you go against this by forcing me an afterlife?"
Dennerick Flores
via e-mail
(Editors, for purpose of prose and philosophy, please don't capitalize the word "god." Thank you.)
CROP Walk
Editor, Times-Union:10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 ... In the time it took you to read that, one child died in the world from hunger. We have all seen the pictures of dying children suffering from malnutrition. It's easier to turn our heads and ignore the pictures. It seems so hopeless.
Locally, we also have people going to bed hungry, families struggling to put food on the table or buy much needed medicine. It's frustrating and hard to know how to help.
There is something you can do! The Greater Warsaw Ministerial Association is sponsoring a hunger-awareness weekend coming up Oct. 8-10.
On Friday evening, Oct. 8, at 7 p.m. at the Center Lake Pavilion in Warsaw, there will be a family-oriented musical production called "Under Construction" by Filling the Gap, a non-profit interdenominational ministry. Admission is free, but donations of money and non-perishable food will be accepted. Any proceeds from this day or Saturday's events will go directly to Combined Community Services, Our Father's House and Salvation Army, all of which are agencies that feed the hungry in our community.
On Saturday, we are encouraging the community to "Fast and Pray." For every meal you skip you could donate food or money that you would have used for meals. You could pray for the hungry of the community and the world.
On Sunday is CROP Walk at 1:30 p.m. starting at CCS. Participants walk an 8K route winding through Warsaw and going by Our Father's House, The Salvation Army and returning to CCS. Before you walk, you solicit pledges for the walk. One hundred percent of the money collected goes to helping the poor and 25 cents of every dollar raised is returned to the above local agencies. Church World Service enables the poorest of the poor to lift themselves up through programs of self-help, emergency response and refugee assistance.
If you would like to participate in CROP Walk or donate money to a walker, check with your church leadership. If they are not yet participating, they can still sign up. Or call one of the names listed below and we will see that you are signed up.
Please join together with us to fight hunger in our community and the world!
CROP Walk Committee
Gary Richard (269-7745)
Greg Hall, co-chairman (267-2717)
Cindy Gackenheimer, treasurer (267-4032)
Bill Shipman; Ralph Royer; Mary Jo Gremling; Theresa Kauffman; and Peter Albertson, committee members
Skate Letter
Editor, Times-Union:Your paper recently published a letter that impressed me greatly. It was a letter from Brandon Sensibaugh on not having a place to skateboard.
Brandon, what a fine young man you must be. Your letter was a good example of how a person can state his opinion in an intelligent and articulate manner. When I first read your letter my thoughts immediately were, "Wow, what a good letter. This kid deserves a park where he and his friend can skate."
Your letter deserves a response of respect, Brandon. It's a shame Denise Beno couldn't respond in the same "intelligent manner." Don't judge all parent-types by her letter. This is one 41-year-old woman who thinks you deserve a big pat on the back instead of a slap in the face. Nice job, Brandon!
Lola Hively, Warsaw
Irreverence
Editor, Times-Union:You know those auto decals that are popular right now-the ones with the bratty-looking little guy urinating on various corporate logos (i.e., Ford, Chevy, etc.), or boldly and defiantly displaying his middle finger? I'm really sick and tired of seeing those! Not only are they disgusting to look at, but they're evidence of an incredible lack of morality as well. I see them as an outward manifestation of what's in that person's heart and mind, and I can't help but wonder ... if we knew that the Lord was coming back tomorrow, would you want to be caught with one of those decals on YOUR car window?
Shelley Clupper, Warsaw
Left And Right
Editor, Times-Union:While reading the front page of the Sept. 15 Times-Union, I couldn't help but notice the vast difference between the right wing and the left wing.
On the right side of the page was a picture of Warsaw Community High School students participating in "See You At The Pole"; a group of students who you will probably not see their names appear in the court news. A group who for the most part, honor their parents, honor their teachers and other school administrators, and have a respect for the law and those who make and enforce the law.
Near the left side of the same page, I read an article about a student being caught drunk and was suspended from extracurricular school activities by the principal, who was doing his job in a positive manner, but is now being faced with a lawsuit. This student is getting a message loud and clear, "Honey, you don't have to follow rules or obey laws. Who cares if it's the law that you drive on the right side of the road, if you want to drive on the left, go ahead. If someone hits you - SUE THEM."
Students at the pole: The next time you pray, pray for students and parents on the left wing. Warsaw Community High School: Continue to do what's right. Stand by your guns!
Tom Jackson, Syracuse
Petty Issues
Editor, Times-Union:I would like to personally thank Matthew Trier for pointing out all of the petty issues people worry about. It was a great reminder about how petty the Christian Right with all of their agendas has become. Let's look at the issue in context, if that's OK with Mr. Trier. That an individual in society would claim that what two people do behind closed doors or what a woman chooses to do with her body should be upheld in the public eye for the scrutiny of all is odd at best. And the fact that Mr. Trier would claim that an antiquated religion based upon a incredulous book dating from 2,000 plus years ago is not petty is just plain laughable. I wonder. Have these people ever stopped to listen to themselves?
You refuse to even entertain the idea that a woman making a medical decision in the best interest of her life and body is acceptable. Yet you will proclaim emphatically that it's really true that some fantastical and whimsical god, spanning all time and eternity, having no beginning and no end, created a magical garden with two fully developed Homo Sapiens that walked as upright as we do now, and was persuaded by a talking snake to eat a sinful fruit. You will deny the validity of two people's love for each other despite their sexual orientation. Yet you try to pass off as doctrine of truth the story of a man named Jonah who was swallowed by a giant whale, and spit out alive and well three days later. Come on, Matthew, who's really being petty? Who is asking too much of people, the left who simply asks that you respect a woman's choice to do with her body as she sees fit and any person's decision to love who they please? Or is it the right, who wishes to force their fascist and theocratic world-view on non-infringing citizens?
I disagree when you insinuate that we should live each day as if it were our last. I want to do more than live for the moment. I will strive to make a better world for others and myself by engaging in open and democratic forums that institute social and economic change.
David Hoskins, via e-mail
Lost Ring
Editor Times-Union:On Sunday September 19th I was working at the Warsaw Wal-Mart on a register. Sometime in the afternoon I bagged someones things and my boyfriend's class ring slipped off my finger into someone's bag. I didn't realize it was missing till time for me to go home. I checked around the register and looked at the floor when I was walking to the back, but nothing. Please, if someone got it in their sack please call Wal-Mart and tell them you found it, or bring it in to the front desk. Thank you.
Heather Lockridge, via e-mail
Thanks To Historical Society
Editor Times-Union:I would like to extend a letter of appreciation to the Kosciusko County Historical Society and all the participants who opened their homes for the 1999 Kosciusko County Historic Home Tour. The combination of a beautiful day, lovely homes and gracious hosts made for a very interesting as well as educational event. Thank you!
Theta Mort, Pierceton via e-mail
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- Theology - CROP Walk - Skate Letter - Irreverence - Left And Right - Petty Issues - Lost Ring - Thanks To Historical Society
Theology
Editor, Times-Union:How interesting. Matthew Trier of Warsaw replaced the trendy topic of animal rights with yet another trendy topic, modern mythology. But both belong in what he complained, "petty complaints."
For this instance, what does animal rights and Christianity have in common? Both presumptuously impose their ethics on citizens that do not need them, support them, or will live through them. Mr. Trier and others, as a Christian would you politically require every man to obtain his morality from your obsolete book, where you prescribe the only precepts from which he must solely live by? If yes, and men with your theistic ideas continue to dominate politics, the American concept of freedom will suffer.
As you complained, times a-changing, our culture is becoming more secular and god is just another word mentioned in exclamatory idioms. We now have more secularists like me that believe faith is the evil, that god is not the priority. So if I have rejected the invalid concept of god, where do you get your power to make me believe abortion is murder? If you had your way, would it be a crime to reject god too? (Your Christian god mandates the answer as, yes. Hence the loss of freedom of ideas, and consequently freedom itself).
One of the differences in our politics is that in my ideal society I would allow religion. Why? Because I believe in the political premise of the autonomy of the non-infringing citizen. I would not wear the pseudo-good-guy-badge and obstruct or alter a person's activity if it does not infringe on another person's life? Just like your notion of abortion being "murder," homosexuality can only be decadent through the pretense of Christianity. You are not concerned for the liberty and happiness of men and women, when your religion lets them live only a second of it. What you are concerned for is your golden ticket to heaven. To win, it is an orthodox requirement from your Bible to reiterate your god's condemnations; to claim your joyous cloud-ride you must manifest and make others follow your god's unjustified fiat. That's the general rule you must follow in order to go to heaven.
For modern theists, politics is the means to the end: admission inside the gate of pearls. This means politically repressing non-infringing citizens through the legislation of unconstitutional and dangerously superfluous laws permitted by the illusions of theism, as if in a neo-divine rights of kings, notwithstanding the fact that some don't believe in divinity or in kings.
There are men like us not reinforced by a heaven or a hell - men with morality apart from revelation, where the standard is a prosperous, happy life. We appreciate life now here on earth, every second of every breath. And we ask men like you, Mr. Trier, "If I do not force others to do what they ought not here on earth, why do you go against this by forcing me an afterlife?"
Dennerick Flores
via e-mail
(Editors, for purpose of prose and philosophy, please don't capitalize the word "god." Thank you.)
CROP Walk
Editor, Times-Union:10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 ... In the time it took you to read that, one child died in the world from hunger. We have all seen the pictures of dying children suffering from malnutrition. It's easier to turn our heads and ignore the pictures. It seems so hopeless.
Locally, we also have people going to bed hungry, families struggling to put food on the table or buy much needed medicine. It's frustrating and hard to know how to help.
There is something you can do! The Greater Warsaw Ministerial Association is sponsoring a hunger-awareness weekend coming up Oct. 8-10.
On Friday evening, Oct. 8, at 7 p.m. at the Center Lake Pavilion in Warsaw, there will be a family-oriented musical production called "Under Construction" by Filling the Gap, a non-profit interdenominational ministry. Admission is free, but donations of money and non-perishable food will be accepted. Any proceeds from this day or Saturday's events will go directly to Combined Community Services, Our Father's House and Salvation Army, all of which are agencies that feed the hungry in our community.
On Saturday, we are encouraging the community to "Fast and Pray." For every meal you skip you could donate food or money that you would have used for meals. You could pray for the hungry of the community and the world.
On Sunday is CROP Walk at 1:30 p.m. starting at CCS. Participants walk an 8K route winding through Warsaw and going by Our Father's House, The Salvation Army and returning to CCS. Before you walk, you solicit pledges for the walk. One hundred percent of the money collected goes to helping the poor and 25 cents of every dollar raised is returned to the above local agencies. Church World Service enables the poorest of the poor to lift themselves up through programs of self-help, emergency response and refugee assistance.
If you would like to participate in CROP Walk or donate money to a walker, check with your church leadership. If they are not yet participating, they can still sign up. Or call one of the names listed below and we will see that you are signed up.
Please join together with us to fight hunger in our community and the world!
CROP Walk Committee
Gary Richard (269-7745)
Greg Hall, co-chairman (267-2717)
Cindy Gackenheimer, treasurer (267-4032)
Bill Shipman; Ralph Royer; Mary Jo Gremling; Theresa Kauffman; and Peter Albertson, committee members
Skate Letter
Editor, Times-Union:Your paper recently published a letter that impressed me greatly. It was a letter from Brandon Sensibaugh on not having a place to skateboard.
Brandon, what a fine young man you must be. Your letter was a good example of how a person can state his opinion in an intelligent and articulate manner. When I first read your letter my thoughts immediately were, "Wow, what a good letter. This kid deserves a park where he and his friend can skate."
Your letter deserves a response of respect, Brandon. It's a shame Denise Beno couldn't respond in the same "intelligent manner." Don't judge all parent-types by her letter. This is one 41-year-old woman who thinks you deserve a big pat on the back instead of a slap in the face. Nice job, Brandon!
Lola Hively, Warsaw
Irreverence
Editor, Times-Union:You know those auto decals that are popular right now-the ones with the bratty-looking little guy urinating on various corporate logos (i.e., Ford, Chevy, etc.), or boldly and defiantly displaying his middle finger? I'm really sick and tired of seeing those! Not only are they disgusting to look at, but they're evidence of an incredible lack of morality as well. I see them as an outward manifestation of what's in that person's heart and mind, and I can't help but wonder ... if we knew that the Lord was coming back tomorrow, would you want to be caught with one of those decals on YOUR car window?
Shelley Clupper, Warsaw
Left And Right
Editor, Times-Union:While reading the front page of the Sept. 15 Times-Union, I couldn't help but notice the vast difference between the right wing and the left wing.
On the right side of the page was a picture of Warsaw Community High School students participating in "See You At The Pole"; a group of students who you will probably not see their names appear in the court news. A group who for the most part, honor their parents, honor their teachers and other school administrators, and have a respect for the law and those who make and enforce the law.
Near the left side of the same page, I read an article about a student being caught drunk and was suspended from extracurricular school activities by the principal, who was doing his job in a positive manner, but is now being faced with a lawsuit. This student is getting a message loud and clear, "Honey, you don't have to follow rules or obey laws. Who cares if it's the law that you drive on the right side of the road, if you want to drive on the left, go ahead. If someone hits you - SUE THEM."
Students at the pole: The next time you pray, pray for students and parents on the left wing. Warsaw Community High School: Continue to do what's right. Stand by your guns!
Tom Jackson, Syracuse
Petty Issues
Editor, Times-Union:I would like to personally thank Matthew Trier for pointing out all of the petty issues people worry about. It was a great reminder about how petty the Christian Right with all of their agendas has become. Let's look at the issue in context, if that's OK with Mr. Trier. That an individual in society would claim that what two people do behind closed doors or what a woman chooses to do with her body should be upheld in the public eye for the scrutiny of all is odd at best. And the fact that Mr. Trier would claim that an antiquated religion based upon a incredulous book dating from 2,000 plus years ago is not petty is just plain laughable. I wonder. Have these people ever stopped to listen to themselves?
You refuse to even entertain the idea that a woman making a medical decision in the best interest of her life and body is acceptable. Yet you will proclaim emphatically that it's really true that some fantastical and whimsical god, spanning all time and eternity, having no beginning and no end, created a magical garden with two fully developed Homo Sapiens that walked as upright as we do now, and was persuaded by a talking snake to eat a sinful fruit. You will deny the validity of two people's love for each other despite their sexual orientation. Yet you try to pass off as doctrine of truth the story of a man named Jonah who was swallowed by a giant whale, and spit out alive and well three days later. Come on, Matthew, who's really being petty? Who is asking too much of people, the left who simply asks that you respect a woman's choice to do with her body as she sees fit and any person's decision to love who they please? Or is it the right, who wishes to force their fascist and theocratic world-view on non-infringing citizens?
I disagree when you insinuate that we should live each day as if it were our last. I want to do more than live for the moment. I will strive to make a better world for others and myself by engaging in open and democratic forums that institute social and economic change.
David Hoskins, via e-mail
Lost Ring
Editor Times-Union:On Sunday September 19th I was working at the Warsaw Wal-Mart on a register. Sometime in the afternoon I bagged someones things and my boyfriend's class ring slipped off my finger into someone's bag. I didn't realize it was missing till time for me to go home. I checked around the register and looked at the floor when I was walking to the back, but nothing. Please, if someone got it in their sack please call Wal-Mart and tell them you found it, or bring it in to the front desk. Thank you.
Heather Lockridge, via e-mail
Thanks To Historical Society
Editor Times-Union:I would like to extend a letter of appreciation to the Kosciusko County Historical Society and all the participants who opened their homes for the 1999 Kosciusko County Historic Home Tour. The combination of a beautiful day, lovely homes and gracious hosts made for a very interesting as well as educational event. Thank you!
Theta Mort, Pierceton via e-mail
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