Letters to the Editor 09-26-2001
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
- Wal-Mart Thanks - Sentences Questioned - Build Indiana - Back To The Days - Day At The Lake
Wal-Mart Thanks
Editor, Times-Union:I am writing about our fund-raiser for CMN, which donates 100 percent of all money raised to Riley's Hospital for Children.
Aug. 31 through Sept. 3, we held a cookout and raffle at Wal-Mart with a goal to raise $2,000, which was surpassed by $519, for a total of $2,519. I would like to thank all of our Warsaw community businesses and state vendors for their generosity and thank everyone who participated with donations.
Thank you.
Dawnetta Dockery
Warsaw Wal-Mart
Sentences Questioned
Editor, Times-Union:In the Sept. 21 edition of the Times-Union, did anyone else notice the Court Briefs section? I did, and let me tell you it was no surprise to find all four stories were in the infamous Judge Huffer's (Superior Court) courtroom and surprise, surprise, all four criminals were given suspended sentences and/or probation. Well, one offender has to serve a big 'ole weekend in the county jail. And one drug dealer is under house arrest. Whoa!! You deal drugs and you have to stay home for a year? Now that's justice. One has to wonder why the criome rate hasn't gone down, why should it? You don't get punished for it in this court. I guess we should be thankful that Judge Huffer isn't in a federal court or Osama bin Laden would be walking free ...
Vic Andrews
Warsaw
Build Indiana
Editor, Times-Union:I am trustee of Jackson Township Kosciusko County and a registered Republican. Since the adjournment of our state Legislature this spring there have been numerous newspapers throughout our state publishing news articles about the misuse of BIF (Build Indiana Fund) monies by some, perhaps many of our legislators. The BIF statute states this money (from gambling receipts) is to be granted to political subdivisions, towns, cities, townships, counties and school districts. These grants, if accepted, become separate appropriations in the state budget and appropriated by the Legislature's Ways and Means Committee. This may not be the exact path of distribution, but close. Reported by many papers, and some TV pieces have documented, our representatives have distributed these monies to parochial schools and charities and above all else one representative gave $25,000 to the Marion Easter Pageant. When confronted, the representative allowed his constituents thought it was a good idea. This is a novel excuse. The ICLU is now involved in investigating this outrage and hopefully our representatives will rethink their approach to this fund. Indiana's Attorney General's office for the most part has been blind and hard of hearing and offered the excuse that since the BIF was placed in the budget the legislators were not bound by statute! Some representatives have gone on record that this statute must be changed, which is an omission of their improprieties and some have said it must be changed since VFDs are not political subdivisions and are not included in BIF grants. This must come as a surprise to many trustees. Jackson Township received a BIF grant in 1998 used to purchased a new 2,000-gallon tanker/pumper for our VFD. The domino effect of this was we were able to use these cumulative funds meant for a new tanker/pumper to a nice down payment on a new fire rescue unit replacing a 33-year-old unit. We will need to replace our pumper unit in this decade and we are looking forward to applying for BIF to assist in this purchase.
I for one will be very diligent in seeking the identity of all representatives who have misappropriated BIF and I urge all citizens of this great state to question their reps how they have dispensed their BIF grant.
Donald Slater
Claypool
via e-mail
P.S. Remember a few years ago when a representative proposed changing pi to 3 since this would be easier for students to remember?
Back To The Days
Editor, Times-Union:I have always looked forward to the "Back to the Days of Kosciuszko" festival each year and this year was no different. They always have great food and I enjoy all the activities and people that participate.
This year I decided to take my 5-year-old nephew with me to enjoy the festival. It started out great as usual. We made it around the north side and down to the lake enjoying the sights and food when all of the sudden we heard some drums start to beat. My nephew got excited and we went over to check out what was going on. There in front of us was a detachment of about seven men marching along with a woman prisoner. I didn't think much of it until they stopped at a big tree and tied the woman to it. The soldiers then removed some of her clothing and very realistically proceeded to simulate beating her with a whip. I couldn't believe it. What in the world was the point of showing this to a bunch of little kids? As we walked away over the screaming of this girl my nephew wanted to know why they were beating her. He thought it was real and I kept explaining to him that it was fake and she wasn't really being hurt.
Well, you would think that was enough but as we proceeded out of the park we saw a woman standing in front of a tent with what we both thought was clown makeup on. My nephew asked her if she was a clown and she proceeded to tell us that she was a lady of the night and that her tent was a whorehouse. Well, that was also a lot of fun to explain to my nephew. Believe me, I am all for freedom of speech and I don't want to seem like a book burner here, but I really wish they would have told me at the gate or something about what I might see inside. You know what kills me is that as far as I could tell I was the only adult with a child that seemed to mind this show, we left and everyone else just stood around and watched. Trust me when I say there was no point in having small children watch this. I hope in the future the Back to the Days committee will use some better judgment. If they cannot then I would certainly recommend not taking young children to this event.
Tim Ellis
Warsaw
via e-mail
Day At The Lake
Editor, Times-Union:Congratulations to Carolyn Condon, Connie Rufenbarger and their committee for a wonderful "Day at the Lake." It was an inspiring, uplifting, life-affirming day to participate with other breast cancer survivors, their families and friends, to benefit research at the Indiana University Cancer Center. Cheers to all the people who opened their beautiful, interesting homes for the tour. Thanks to all the people responsible for restoring Winona Lake, its homes and its park to such a beautiful, peaceful (and fun) place to be. Keep the good work in your community because you set a prime example for other communities to emulate.
Colleen Benninghoff
Fort Wayne
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- Wal-Mart Thanks - Sentences Questioned - Build Indiana - Back To The Days - Day At The Lake
Wal-Mart Thanks
Editor, Times-Union:I am writing about our fund-raiser for CMN, which donates 100 percent of all money raised to Riley's Hospital for Children.
Aug. 31 through Sept. 3, we held a cookout and raffle at Wal-Mart with a goal to raise $2,000, which was surpassed by $519, for a total of $2,519. I would like to thank all of our Warsaw community businesses and state vendors for their generosity and thank everyone who participated with donations.
Thank you.
Dawnetta Dockery
Warsaw Wal-Mart
Sentences Questioned
Editor, Times-Union:In the Sept. 21 edition of the Times-Union, did anyone else notice the Court Briefs section? I did, and let me tell you it was no surprise to find all four stories were in the infamous Judge Huffer's (Superior Court) courtroom and surprise, surprise, all four criminals were given suspended sentences and/or probation. Well, one offender has to serve a big 'ole weekend in the county jail. And one drug dealer is under house arrest. Whoa!! You deal drugs and you have to stay home for a year? Now that's justice. One has to wonder why the criome rate hasn't gone down, why should it? You don't get punished for it in this court. I guess we should be thankful that Judge Huffer isn't in a federal court or Osama bin Laden would be walking free ...
Vic Andrews
Warsaw
Build Indiana
Editor, Times-Union:I am trustee of Jackson Township Kosciusko County and a registered Republican. Since the adjournment of our state Legislature this spring there have been numerous newspapers throughout our state publishing news articles about the misuse of BIF (Build Indiana Fund) monies by some, perhaps many of our legislators. The BIF statute states this money (from gambling receipts) is to be granted to political subdivisions, towns, cities, townships, counties and school districts. These grants, if accepted, become separate appropriations in the state budget and appropriated by the Legislature's Ways and Means Committee. This may not be the exact path of distribution, but close. Reported by many papers, and some TV pieces have documented, our representatives have distributed these monies to parochial schools and charities and above all else one representative gave $25,000 to the Marion Easter Pageant. When confronted, the representative allowed his constituents thought it was a good idea. This is a novel excuse. The ICLU is now involved in investigating this outrage and hopefully our representatives will rethink their approach to this fund. Indiana's Attorney General's office for the most part has been blind and hard of hearing and offered the excuse that since the BIF was placed in the budget the legislators were not bound by statute! Some representatives have gone on record that this statute must be changed, which is an omission of their improprieties and some have said it must be changed since VFDs are not political subdivisions and are not included in BIF grants. This must come as a surprise to many trustees. Jackson Township received a BIF grant in 1998 used to purchased a new 2,000-gallon tanker/pumper for our VFD. The domino effect of this was we were able to use these cumulative funds meant for a new tanker/pumper to a nice down payment on a new fire rescue unit replacing a 33-year-old unit. We will need to replace our pumper unit in this decade and we are looking forward to applying for BIF to assist in this purchase.
I for one will be very diligent in seeking the identity of all representatives who have misappropriated BIF and I urge all citizens of this great state to question their reps how they have dispensed their BIF grant.
Donald Slater
Claypool
via e-mail
P.S. Remember a few years ago when a representative proposed changing pi to 3 since this would be easier for students to remember?
Back To The Days
Editor, Times-Union:I have always looked forward to the "Back to the Days of Kosciuszko" festival each year and this year was no different. They always have great food and I enjoy all the activities and people that participate.
This year I decided to take my 5-year-old nephew with me to enjoy the festival. It started out great as usual. We made it around the north side and down to the lake enjoying the sights and food when all of the sudden we heard some drums start to beat. My nephew got excited and we went over to check out what was going on. There in front of us was a detachment of about seven men marching along with a woman prisoner. I didn't think much of it until they stopped at a big tree and tied the woman to it. The soldiers then removed some of her clothing and very realistically proceeded to simulate beating her with a whip. I couldn't believe it. What in the world was the point of showing this to a bunch of little kids? As we walked away over the screaming of this girl my nephew wanted to know why they were beating her. He thought it was real and I kept explaining to him that it was fake and she wasn't really being hurt.
Well, you would think that was enough but as we proceeded out of the park we saw a woman standing in front of a tent with what we both thought was clown makeup on. My nephew asked her if she was a clown and she proceeded to tell us that she was a lady of the night and that her tent was a whorehouse. Well, that was also a lot of fun to explain to my nephew. Believe me, I am all for freedom of speech and I don't want to seem like a book burner here, but I really wish they would have told me at the gate or something about what I might see inside. You know what kills me is that as far as I could tell I was the only adult with a child that seemed to mind this show, we left and everyone else just stood around and watched. Trust me when I say there was no point in having small children watch this. I hope in the future the Back to the Days committee will use some better judgment. If they cannot then I would certainly recommend not taking young children to this event.
Tim Ellis
Warsaw
via e-mail
Day At The Lake
Editor, Times-Union:Congratulations to Carolyn Condon, Connie Rufenbarger and their committee for a wonderful "Day at the Lake." It was an inspiring, uplifting, life-affirming day to participate with other breast cancer survivors, their families and friends, to benefit research at the Indiana University Cancer Center. Cheers to all the people who opened their beautiful, interesting homes for the tour. Thanks to all the people responsible for restoring Winona Lake, its homes and its park to such a beautiful, peaceful (and fun) place to be. Keep the good work in your community because you set a prime example for other communities to emulate.
Colleen Benninghoff
Fort Wayne
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