Letters to the Editor 09-21-2004
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
- World Compassion - Celebraci-n Latina - Cost Of War - War Hero - Seat Belts - Short Memory - Unsolicited Mail - Atwood Closing Questioned - Politics As Usual - Our Father's House
World Compassion
On behalf of World Compassion Network and the victims of Hurricane Ivan, we say thanks to the Kosciusko County residents, supporting churches and others who donated items to help the victims of Hurricane Ivan. We thank Metzger Trucking at Silver Lake for donating the truck, fuel and time to deliver the supplies. We extend our thanks to the city of Warsaw for allowing us to use the parking lot at the police station as our collection center and to WRSW radio of their multiple announcements about out relief effort. Thanks also to Owens, Marsh and Wal-Mart for allowing us to place signs at their locations announcing the collection center location and purpose. We are grateful to the many volunteers who came to help us at the collection center.More than 350 individuals and families from the county stopped by our truck at the police station in Warsaw and donated food, water, paper products and other supplies. We were also able to purchase 4,000 gallons of water, canned vegetables, baby food and other paper products to fill the truck. We purchased a semi truck full of badly needed ice with part of the funds donated.
The residents of this county have shown that they care about others. Many of you stopped by to thank us for helping in Florida but you are the real heroes of this effort. I feel very proud of you for caring about people living more than a thousand miles away.
We arrived in Pensacola, Fla., a few hours before the hurricane cleared the area After an eight-hour wait because of the storm and bridges being washed out, we set up a distribution center along with our partners at Convoy of Hope and immediately began distributing water and ice. The other items will be distributed during the following week when more volunteers are available and security is improved.
There was no electricity, water, gasoline or groceries for hundreds of thousands in the area. Everyone regardless of social or economic status was reduced to waiting in lines miles long for these basic needs. The National Guard and police are dealing with huge traffic problems because the traffic lights were not working. Emergency services are hampered because of downed power lines and downed trees on the roadway. But you helped bring hope to them all.
Joe Wilkey
Executive Director
World Compassion Network
Warsaw
via e-mail
Celebraci-n Latina
Editor, Times-Union:I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who came out and supported the Miss Latina contestants this weekend. Both nights of the pageant, we had a nice turnout. Everyone was so supportive of us. It was such a wonderful experience this year.
I would like to personally thank the Rays of Hope, and the Parks Department for sponsoring this event.
Also on a person-to-person basis, I would like to thank Sister Joan, Sylvia Gonzalez, my parents and everyone else for their continued support through the year(s).
Again, thank you to everyone!
Adriana M. Gutierrez
La Segunda Dama
(second runner up)
Warsaw
via e-mail
Cost Of War
Editor, Times-Union:As we mourn the loss of 1,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq (along with 11,252 Iraqi civilians and an estimated 5,000 Iraqi soldiers and insurgents), let us not forget the dollar cost of the war. So far, the U.S. has spent $151 billion on the war and reconstruction efforts in Iraq. What else could this money have bought? For the same amount, we could have:
* hired 2,343,720 new public school teachers for one year; or
* provided health care for 27 million uninsured people for one
year; or
* fed half of all the malnourished people in the world for two
years; or
* provided basic immunizations for every child in the world for the next 45 years (and prevent 3 million deaths each year).
Has it been worth it to spend this money on the war? Sen. John Kerry says that Bush's "wrong choices have led America in the wrong direction in Iraq, and they left America without the resources we need here at home."
Who will you vote for in November?
Abigail A. Fuller
North Manchester
via e-mail
War Hero
Editor, Times-Union:The word hero is defined as: A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life.
Ken McIntosh is a hero. On September 15th, he made a difference. He sacrificed his own life to save another when he pulled a victim from a burning structure. If not for Mr. McIntosh's actions, the victim would have had no chance for survival.
On behalf of the Pierceton Fire Department, I would like to say thank you for your heroic actions. You have truly made a difference.
To the residents of Kosciusko County, please make sure that you have smoke detectors and that they are functional. Smoke detectors are available to anyone that needs one through the efforts of the Kosciusko County Fire Association and your local fire department.
Gordon Baker, Chief
Pierceton Fire Department
via e-mail
Seat Belts
Editor, Times-Union:I just read the article on wearing seat belts.
I suggest that everyone who is stopped for not wearing a seat belt take a mandatory Defensive Drivers Course, where the individuals will learn that the seatbelt keeps the driver in the proper position should the airbag deploy.
More details will come in the class about this. At least it is discussed in DDC here in Texas, where they are mandatory.
Your ticket is my safety, just the same as protecting me from a drunk driver.
Mike Hankins
Warsaw native
Belton, Texas
via e-mail
Short Memory
Editor, Times-Union:Mr. Kofi Anan, "your U.N. slip is showing!"
Saturday you stood before the world and stated that the Iraq War is "illegal." We could hardly believe our ears! How short your memory, sir!
How many times in the last dozen years has Saddaam thumbed his nose at your U.N. resolution? Remember? (Too many times to count?) And when "sanctions" were imposed for S's illegal acts, your U.N. worked out generous, "Food and medicines deal for Iraq oil" deals.
Last night's TV news showed the illegal way Saddam and and the U.N. got billions of dollars out of the sly deceptions while extravagant palaces were built all over Iraq and the children starved without medicines! At the same time, "S." imported luxury cars they had no use for, while lining your pockets with billions of dollars to keep you and the U.N. happy and quite! We can now see what you were up t and why you feel you must "go down swinging" when your underhanded illegal dealings have finally caught up with you!
The world saw on last night's TV news that Iraq ordered 40 million pencil sharpeners shipped via Afghanistan with your United Nations held, to name just one example of the hundreds of tricks now uncovered. Mr. Anan, if I were you I would hand my head in shame, or try to find someplace on earth to hide all of me, and hope I could escape without being tried in the World Court like the "uncommon" thief that you now appear!
And all this when the world desperately needs the U.N. for which it was created many years ago! Millions of us are "idealists" who have turned aside wave after wave of criticism of the U.N. Now it makes us look stupid for defending you all these years. We feel betrayed. And don't say you were innocent while others who worked under you did all the"greedy stuff!" The "buck" stops with you, sir!
While I'm at it, I'm wondering just whose side you have been on all along? I am convinced that if the U.N., had really been against the Al Qaida, and if America had been truly united against them, there might never have been the attack on Sept. 11, 2001! Or, if they had dared do it, the war would have been over and Iraq would already have a stable, democratically elected government, and the Al Qaida all "on the run" if not destroyed. And, yes, I am shocked that so-called patriotic (even some Christian?) citizens can blatantly violate the Scriptures that clearly say" "Do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people." (See Exodus 22:28 and Acts 23:5.)
Even a few people I have talked to need to "take those two Scriptures and smoke them in their proverbial spiritual pipe" for a while. Thanks for letting be "speak my mind" on a thing or two. Truth can set us free!
J. Robert and Jodie Boggs
Winona Lake
Unsolicited Mail
Editor, Times-Union:A friend recently told me his method for responding to the flood of unsolicited credit card applications. He shreds any documents that contain his personal information. Next he puts the advertising pamphlets into the self addressed, "No Postage Necessary" envelope and returns it to the company. He enjoys knowing that the credit card company has to pay the postage for the envelope he sends back. He theorizes that if everyone did this with the unwanted credit applications, it would eventually be cost-prohibitive for the companies to continue this mass-mailing marketing method. He postulates that the expense of the returned "junk" envelopes would, at some point, exceed the benefit of new customers gained.
I don't know if a Return the Envelopes Revolution could actually deter the credit card companies from bombarding us with their applications, but I am having fun sending them back. I especially enjoy putting the advertising brochures from Visa into a MasterCard envelope, or vice versa. Some days I stuff them full of whatever other junk mail arrived that day. Or perhaps a plastic bag that I can't put in the recycle bin. You get the picture. I have found this to be a small (though somewhat perverse) pleasure. I thought some folks in your reading audience might like to join in on the fun.
Kathy Simpson
Warsaw
via e-mail
Atwood Closing Questioned
Editor, Times-Union:I have a question for Dr. McGuire and the WCS school board. Explain to me once again why you have closed the only four star school in our county. I simply cannot understand the logic behind all this. I though that a good education was the goal of our school system and closing Atwood Elementary School, the best of the lot, does not make sense to me. Think about it!
Dodie Stoops
Warsaw
Politics As Usual
Editor, Times-Union:We have young men and women who are making tremendous sacrifices for us, and yet the politicians are carrying on the same as usual. The political parties held their conventions even though the candidates were already selected. This was at a tremendous cost to us, the taxpayers, for the extra security required. They could have found another way to make the candidate selection official with the use of the computer technology. But no, they had to give us all the rhetoric, which we could easily have done without.
Candidate Kerry gives us a lot of loud talk finding fault, but I have not heard one solid idea from him of how to meet our problems. He is a senator and if he has solutions he should be doing his job he is now being paid for and present them. I also wonder if he gets elected so he lives in the White House, if he will find his war medals he threw over the fence. He then could toss them back over the fence into the street.
Fred R. Yohey
Warsaw
Our Father's House
Editor, Times-Union:We at Our Father's House want to take this time to thank all of the football moms and players and coaches for donating the leftovers from their programs. These tasty additions to our food program are a welcome delicious change for our recipients. We have always had a soft spot in our heart for the football team but this just goes to show that they are heroes on and off the field. We are so happy to see that we can all make differences, one person at a time.
Your fans at Our Father's House
Roz Morgan director
Warsaw
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- World Compassion - Celebraci-n Latina - Cost Of War - War Hero - Seat Belts - Short Memory - Unsolicited Mail - Atwood Closing Questioned - Politics As Usual - Our Father's House
World Compassion
On behalf of World Compassion Network and the victims of Hurricane Ivan, we say thanks to the Kosciusko County residents, supporting churches and others who donated items to help the victims of Hurricane Ivan. We thank Metzger Trucking at Silver Lake for donating the truck, fuel and time to deliver the supplies. We extend our thanks to the city of Warsaw for allowing us to use the parking lot at the police station as our collection center and to WRSW radio of their multiple announcements about out relief effort. Thanks also to Owens, Marsh and Wal-Mart for allowing us to place signs at their locations announcing the collection center location and purpose. We are grateful to the many volunteers who came to help us at the collection center.More than 350 individuals and families from the county stopped by our truck at the police station in Warsaw and donated food, water, paper products and other supplies. We were also able to purchase 4,000 gallons of water, canned vegetables, baby food and other paper products to fill the truck. We purchased a semi truck full of badly needed ice with part of the funds donated.
The residents of this county have shown that they care about others. Many of you stopped by to thank us for helping in Florida but you are the real heroes of this effort. I feel very proud of you for caring about people living more than a thousand miles away.
We arrived in Pensacola, Fla., a few hours before the hurricane cleared the area After an eight-hour wait because of the storm and bridges being washed out, we set up a distribution center along with our partners at Convoy of Hope and immediately began distributing water and ice. The other items will be distributed during the following week when more volunteers are available and security is improved.
There was no electricity, water, gasoline or groceries for hundreds of thousands in the area. Everyone regardless of social or economic status was reduced to waiting in lines miles long for these basic needs. The National Guard and police are dealing with huge traffic problems because the traffic lights were not working. Emergency services are hampered because of downed power lines and downed trees on the roadway. But you helped bring hope to them all.
Joe Wilkey
Executive Director
World Compassion Network
Warsaw
via e-mail
Celebraci-n Latina
Editor, Times-Union:I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who came out and supported the Miss Latina contestants this weekend. Both nights of the pageant, we had a nice turnout. Everyone was so supportive of us. It was such a wonderful experience this year.
I would like to personally thank the Rays of Hope, and the Parks Department for sponsoring this event.
Also on a person-to-person basis, I would like to thank Sister Joan, Sylvia Gonzalez, my parents and everyone else for their continued support through the year(s).
Again, thank you to everyone!
Adriana M. Gutierrez
La Segunda Dama
(second runner up)
Warsaw
via e-mail
Cost Of War
Editor, Times-Union:As we mourn the loss of 1,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq (along with 11,252 Iraqi civilians and an estimated 5,000 Iraqi soldiers and insurgents), let us not forget the dollar cost of the war. So far, the U.S. has spent $151 billion on the war and reconstruction efforts in Iraq. What else could this money have bought? For the same amount, we could have:
* hired 2,343,720 new public school teachers for one year; or
* provided health care for 27 million uninsured people for one
year; or
* fed half of all the malnourished people in the world for two
years; or
* provided basic immunizations for every child in the world for the next 45 years (and prevent 3 million deaths each year).
Has it been worth it to spend this money on the war? Sen. John Kerry says that Bush's "wrong choices have led America in the wrong direction in Iraq, and they left America without the resources we need here at home."
Who will you vote for in November?
Abigail A. Fuller
North Manchester
via e-mail
War Hero
Editor, Times-Union:The word hero is defined as: A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life.
Ken McIntosh is a hero. On September 15th, he made a difference. He sacrificed his own life to save another when he pulled a victim from a burning structure. If not for Mr. McIntosh's actions, the victim would have had no chance for survival.
On behalf of the Pierceton Fire Department, I would like to say thank you for your heroic actions. You have truly made a difference.
To the residents of Kosciusko County, please make sure that you have smoke detectors and that they are functional. Smoke detectors are available to anyone that needs one through the efforts of the Kosciusko County Fire Association and your local fire department.
Gordon Baker, Chief
Pierceton Fire Department
via e-mail
Seat Belts
Editor, Times-Union:I just read the article on wearing seat belts.
I suggest that everyone who is stopped for not wearing a seat belt take a mandatory Defensive Drivers Course, where the individuals will learn that the seatbelt keeps the driver in the proper position should the airbag deploy.
More details will come in the class about this. At least it is discussed in DDC here in Texas, where they are mandatory.
Your ticket is my safety, just the same as protecting me from a drunk driver.
Mike Hankins
Warsaw native
Belton, Texas
via e-mail
Short Memory
Editor, Times-Union:Mr. Kofi Anan, "your U.N. slip is showing!"
Saturday you stood before the world and stated that the Iraq War is "illegal." We could hardly believe our ears! How short your memory, sir!
How many times in the last dozen years has Saddaam thumbed his nose at your U.N. resolution? Remember? (Too many times to count?) And when "sanctions" were imposed for S's illegal acts, your U.N. worked out generous, "Food and medicines deal for Iraq oil" deals.
Last night's TV news showed the illegal way Saddam and and the U.N. got billions of dollars out of the sly deceptions while extravagant palaces were built all over Iraq and the children starved without medicines! At the same time, "S." imported luxury cars they had no use for, while lining your pockets with billions of dollars to keep you and the U.N. happy and quite! We can now see what you were up t and why you feel you must "go down swinging" when your underhanded illegal dealings have finally caught up with you!
The world saw on last night's TV news that Iraq ordered 40 million pencil sharpeners shipped via Afghanistan with your United Nations held, to name just one example of the hundreds of tricks now uncovered. Mr. Anan, if I were you I would hand my head in shame, or try to find someplace on earth to hide all of me, and hope I could escape without being tried in the World Court like the "uncommon" thief that you now appear!
And all this when the world desperately needs the U.N. for which it was created many years ago! Millions of us are "idealists" who have turned aside wave after wave of criticism of the U.N. Now it makes us look stupid for defending you all these years. We feel betrayed. And don't say you were innocent while others who worked under you did all the"greedy stuff!" The "buck" stops with you, sir!
While I'm at it, I'm wondering just whose side you have been on all along? I am convinced that if the U.N., had really been against the Al Qaida, and if America had been truly united against them, there might never have been the attack on Sept. 11, 2001! Or, if they had dared do it, the war would have been over and Iraq would already have a stable, democratically elected government, and the Al Qaida all "on the run" if not destroyed. And, yes, I am shocked that so-called patriotic (even some Christian?) citizens can blatantly violate the Scriptures that clearly say" "Do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people." (See Exodus 22:28 and Acts 23:5.)
Even a few people I have talked to need to "take those two Scriptures and smoke them in their proverbial spiritual pipe" for a while. Thanks for letting be "speak my mind" on a thing or two. Truth can set us free!
J. Robert and Jodie Boggs
Winona Lake
Unsolicited Mail
Editor, Times-Union:A friend recently told me his method for responding to the flood of unsolicited credit card applications. He shreds any documents that contain his personal information. Next he puts the advertising pamphlets into the self addressed, "No Postage Necessary" envelope and returns it to the company. He enjoys knowing that the credit card company has to pay the postage for the envelope he sends back. He theorizes that if everyone did this with the unwanted credit applications, it would eventually be cost-prohibitive for the companies to continue this mass-mailing marketing method. He postulates that the expense of the returned "junk" envelopes would, at some point, exceed the benefit of new customers gained.
I don't know if a Return the Envelopes Revolution could actually deter the credit card companies from bombarding us with their applications, but I am having fun sending them back. I especially enjoy putting the advertising brochures from Visa into a MasterCard envelope, or vice versa. Some days I stuff them full of whatever other junk mail arrived that day. Or perhaps a plastic bag that I can't put in the recycle bin. You get the picture. I have found this to be a small (though somewhat perverse) pleasure. I thought some folks in your reading audience might like to join in on the fun.
Kathy Simpson
Warsaw
via e-mail
Atwood Closing Questioned
Editor, Times-Union:I have a question for Dr. McGuire and the WCS school board. Explain to me once again why you have closed the only four star school in our county. I simply cannot understand the logic behind all this. I though that a good education was the goal of our school system and closing Atwood Elementary School, the best of the lot, does not make sense to me. Think about it!
Dodie Stoops
Warsaw
Politics As Usual
Editor, Times-Union:We have young men and women who are making tremendous sacrifices for us, and yet the politicians are carrying on the same as usual. The political parties held their conventions even though the candidates were already selected. This was at a tremendous cost to us, the taxpayers, for the extra security required. They could have found another way to make the candidate selection official with the use of the computer technology. But no, they had to give us all the rhetoric, which we could easily have done without.
Candidate Kerry gives us a lot of loud talk finding fault, but I have not heard one solid idea from him of how to meet our problems. He is a senator and if he has solutions he should be doing his job he is now being paid for and present them. I also wonder if he gets elected so he lives in the White House, if he will find his war medals he threw over the fence. He then could toss them back over the fence into the street.
Fred R. Yohey
Warsaw
Our Father's House
Editor, Times-Union:We at Our Father's House want to take this time to thank all of the football moms and players and coaches for donating the leftovers from their programs. These tasty additions to our food program are a welcome delicious change for our recipients. We have always had a soft spot in our heart for the football team but this just goes to show that they are heroes on and off the field. We are so happy to see that we can all make differences, one person at a time.
Your fans at Our Father's House
Roz Morgan director
Warsaw
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