Letters to the Editor 11-09-2004
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
- Bush Bad - Nontraditional Careers - Soup Kitchen - Bush Good - One-Party System - Leaf Removal - Flower Baskets - Gray Areas - Deeply Divided - Gospel Concert
Bush Bad
Editor, Times-Union:With the 2004 election behind us, I would like to address all Bush supporters. Tomorrow morning I would like you to contact the payroll office of your employer and request to have additional money withheld from your check to help pay for the Iraq War. After you have done that I would like for you to go to your nearest armed services recruiting office and volunteer to go to Iraq. You also must insist that all family members and friends do the same.
What's that you say? You're too old and your health won't allow you to serve. Not to worry. You can still do your patriotic duty by volunteering to work for Haliburton or some other No Bid Contract company involved in the reconstruction. Or maybe you can volunteer to help with the Iraqi elections in January. I'm sure by then the insurgents will be saying, "Oh my God, we're having elections so we have to behave."
You might be beheaded or blown to bits by a suicide bomber but we have to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here. Isn't that right? Or does that logic apply only to when the blood of someone else's child is being spilled?
Also, since tax evasion has become an art form for the well connected, very wealthy and major corporations perhaps one of you "moral issue" concerned voters can help me with information on how to shield my income and assets in an off-shore account. You should have time to do the research for me on this since you won't be burdened with the time-consuming dilemma of how to keep that dastardly gay couple down the street from getting married. The sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman must be protected from these people or the divorce rate could possibly skyrocket to around 50 percent.
But rights of any kind will soon be passe anyway. By the time your earthly savior fine tunes the Patriot Act and decimates the Constitution via the Supreme Court, there will be no workers' rights, consumers' rights, patient rights, privacy rights, women and other minority rights or individual rights. But by God we will still have the right to purchase our beloved assault rifles to protect us from those notoriously violent homosexuals and anyone else just plain different. Hopefully there will be no pesky background checks or waiting periods to slog through.
In closing, I would like to say that I will be keeping my Kerry-Edwards yard sign. The next time Osama comes a calling my Kerry-Edwards sign will be displayed in my front yard as a reminder to you of just where your priorities were placed.
This is still my country, but this spoiled, rich, draft-dodger is not my president. Perhaps next time he will get to finish "My Pet Goat."
Janet Collins
Etna Green
Nontraditional Careers
Editor, Times-Union:On Oct. 26, 180 sophomore girls from seven area high schools were introduced to nontraditional careers for women. Twenty-seven women presenters employed in nontraditional careers engaged the students in career information conversation and hands-on activities. Students were able to wire electrical outlets, weld, debate a court case, handle artificial joints, explore an 18-wheeler, build tool boxes, build a block wall, and much more. It was a most exciting and successful day for everyone involved and we have many people to thank.
Thank you Biomet Foundation for making it possible for Lyn St. James, seven-time Indy racecar driver, to be our keynote speaker. She impressed the girls as she talked about her Indianapolis 500 experience, and her road to Indy and beyond. We greatly appreciate the generosity of Biomet in their support of this event.
Thank you to all the women speakers (and their employers) who gave up their normal work activities to be with us.
Thank you Alan Limerick, Carpenter and Millwright Training Center, staff and advisory board for graciously letting us take over their facility for the day. We are very appreciative of the space and opportunities their location provided us. Thank you Warsaw Education Foundation Inc. and Carl Perkins Grants for the financial support for the workshop. Also appreciated were the food donations.
Thank you to all the students for your attentiveness and interest in the activities. Each school and community can be proud of these young ladies and how they represented their schools. We also appreciate the support of each school in allowing their students to attend and for the resources they made available to us.
Last but not least, thank you to the committee and helpers that planned and hosted the workshop. The workshop was planned as a joint effort of the Warsaw Area Career Center and the Wawasee Area Career and Technical Cooperative. The school corporations represented: Fairfield, Tippecanoe Valley, Triton, Warsaw, Wawasee, West Noble and Whitko.
Linda Croop, Donna Daniel, Ted Bahney, Diana Yarian,
Phil Metcalf , Ellen Stayer, Anthony Etienne
N.E.W. Workshop Committee
Soup Kitchen
Editor, Times-Union:I wanted to take a moment to congratulate Roz Morgan & Our Father's House on the opening of their new soup kitchen and to thank your paper for your excellent front page article about it in Saturday's paper. I had the opportunity to visit the new "restaurant" at Our Father's House this past week myself and was genuinely impressed by the pleasant and cozy atmosphere, not to mention the good food. Roz and all the volunteers at Our Father's House are one more example of the many Christians in our community devoting themselves to serving others. The Bible teaches us that the poor will always be among us, but how a community treats those less fortunate tells more about those that "have" than those that "have not." Our Father's House is just one example in our community of people working together to treat those in need with dignity and respect. Thanks, Roz, for setting the bar so high for the rest of us!
Laura Kaufman
Executive Director
Combined Community Services
Bush Good
Editor, Times-Union:It's like the story of the emperor's new clothes - he was naked but no one could quite say the truth so they said many other things to describe his new clothes. The election newsbroadcasters and analyzers have great difficulty seeing the truth about why so many people went to vote and Bush was re-elected. The light went on and I knew for sure he would be re-elected when I became personally aware in the last couple days of two local people who traveled back down to Florida, where they also live, just to vote. I'm no politician but I am an American and it is pretty easy to understand the turnout and the re-election of Bush ... even with the economy problems, jobs and the embarrassment of entering Iraq without weapons of mass destruction being found.
First, most Americans are not emotionally ready to reject Bush after the strength and support he offered each and every one of us after 9/11. Terrorism is a frightening reality to all of us now and I think that when each person was actually ready to vote, the need to continue with the person who scares bin Laden would be expressed.
Secondly, however, the moral issues are the drive that made the older men drive to Florida to make their vote count more. A few analysts this morning are able to state that but it appears very difficult for newsbroadcasters on the various stations to digest this fact. They want to explain Bush's victory with his personality, message and campaign. Forget it. The win came from the Christians, Catholic and Protestants alike, across the country, who do not want to face God someday and try to explain why they voted for Kerry who believes partial birth abortions are OK. Same-sex marriages don't make moral sense and that is what the majority of Americans believe and Democrats are going to have to switch and support civil unions or some other legal agreements for same-sex couples or doom their party. Moral issues are what brought the vote out and they cannot be tucked under the carpet and ignored.
This third point is still really moral issues and it is very specifically related to Kerry's personal moral standards. When I heard it, I trusted that if America is as honorable as I have always felt, Kerry's particular 30 seconds of rudeness would affect other people's votes, both Republicans and Democrats. I felt distaste for Edwards when he tried to make a point in the vice-presidential debate with Cheney by being sure America was aware Cheney's daughter was lesbian. But when Kerry felt the need to bring it up again in his final debate with Bush, the word "trash" jumped in my mind and stayed there till I voted for Bush.
Now, I've had my say and I can go back in and watch everybody else's theories. Thank you, editor, for the opportunity of free expression you offer our community.
Jan Nelson
Winona Lake
via e-mail
One-Party System
Editor, Times-Union:I did my civic duty and voted Nov. 2. There were no surprises on the national or state ballots, but I was surprised by the county ballots. I have heard it said that God himself could run on the Democratic ticket and lose. Now I know why. The Republicans were all unopposed! The last time I heard of an election that was this one-sided was the last time Fidel Castro ran for president of Cuba.
Dissent has been so stifled by extremist views in this county that one loyal Leesburg citizen made a comment in the letters to the editor about a year ago that anyone that voted Democratic was a Communist!
Maybe it was time we opened our eyes and threw away the terms Republican and Democrat in this county and used some other terms to determine our political leanings. Maybe then we could have a real election and not a farce like this last election for county offices.
James Townsend
Warsaw
via e-mail
Leaf Removal
Editor, Times-Union:I would to thank the city employees for a great job of picking up the leaves. Three times this fall they have come by. Each time they did a good job. Thanks for your diligence.
Leroy Konkle
Warsaw
via e-mail
Flower Baskets
Editor, Times-Union:Before the snow flies and the baskets are put away, I would like to thank the Warsaw Merchants for the beautiful hanging and window baskets of flowers that decorated the downtown area this summer. I truly enjoyed the bright spots of color they provided. PLEASE do it again next year!
Leslie Piazza
Warsaw
via e-mail
Gray Areas
Editor, Times-Union:I wanted to make a needed response to John Burtoft's letter on 11/4/04. Although I don't believe Brandy Webb needs me to come to her defense, I wanted to comment on some criticisms Mr. Burtoft had about it.
First, he seems to think that Ms. Webb's personal position against abortion is in conflict with her not wanting to thrust her morals and judgments on the rest of the country. I wanted to let him know that many people, myself included, would personally never choose nor counsel someone to only consider abortion; but we believe that each individual woman has a right to choose that for herself. Let me remind you that the law also allows this.
Second, Mr. Burtoft is under the impression that the government is supposed to tell us what to do and what not to do. He might never have heard of a thing called The Constitution, where the people are given the right to tell the government what is right and wrong by electing officials that will represent their views. So far, over and over again our government has done what the majority of people want ... guarantee that under specific circumstances and guidelines every woman, rich or poor, has a right to choose.
Finally, it is unfortunate that with the current administration and direction of this government, that "rich or poor" part I mentioned above is becoming less and less true. Abortion opponents are increasingly ensuring that only those who are in the economic circumstances to have access to good information, good counseling, good health care and good prevention are also the only ones who will have access to safe and legal abortions in this country.
It is easy to see the world in the black and white terms that Mr. Burtoft sees it, but the many areas of gray are the reality most of us live in.
Lisa Rector
Warsaw
Deeply Divided
Editor, Times-Union:As I sit here waiting for John Kerry to make his concession speech; I keep hearing that this nation is deeply divided. Why is that?
The liberals of this nation have promoted homosexuality, abortion, taking God out of schools, the Ten Commandments out of public places - just to mention a few things.
One survey showed that morals was the leading concern of voters. I hope Bush doesn't give in on his beliefs. I know I will not give one inch in what I believe - wrong is wrong. Some of these things are not only wrong but outright sinful.
Buck up the world hasn't come to an end yet!
Dale Beery
Claypool
Gospel Concert
Editor Times-Union:The Southern Gospel Concert for American Diabetes at Ramanda Wagon Wheel Theatre in Warsaw was Nov. 6.
We would like to thank all our sponsors for their help in this endeavor. Without them it would not be as successful as it has been. We have had four previous concerts that have made it possible to give more than $34,000 to the diabetes association for research. There's nothing more I would like to see than a cure of this devastating disease.
God bless all of you.
Pastor Ralph Dotson
Silver Lake
via e-mail
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- Bush Bad - Nontraditional Careers - Soup Kitchen - Bush Good - One-Party System - Leaf Removal - Flower Baskets - Gray Areas - Deeply Divided - Gospel Concert
Bush Bad
Editor, Times-Union:With the 2004 election behind us, I would like to address all Bush supporters. Tomorrow morning I would like you to contact the payroll office of your employer and request to have additional money withheld from your check to help pay for the Iraq War. After you have done that I would like for you to go to your nearest armed services recruiting office and volunteer to go to Iraq. You also must insist that all family members and friends do the same.
What's that you say? You're too old and your health won't allow you to serve. Not to worry. You can still do your patriotic duty by volunteering to work for Haliburton or some other No Bid Contract company involved in the reconstruction. Or maybe you can volunteer to help with the Iraqi elections in January. I'm sure by then the insurgents will be saying, "Oh my God, we're having elections so we have to behave."
You might be beheaded or blown to bits by a suicide bomber but we have to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here. Isn't that right? Or does that logic apply only to when the blood of someone else's child is being spilled?
Also, since tax evasion has become an art form for the well connected, very wealthy and major corporations perhaps one of you "moral issue" concerned voters can help me with information on how to shield my income and assets in an off-shore account. You should have time to do the research for me on this since you won't be burdened with the time-consuming dilemma of how to keep that dastardly gay couple down the street from getting married. The sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman must be protected from these people or the divorce rate could possibly skyrocket to around 50 percent.
But rights of any kind will soon be passe anyway. By the time your earthly savior fine tunes the Patriot Act and decimates the Constitution via the Supreme Court, there will be no workers' rights, consumers' rights, patient rights, privacy rights, women and other minority rights or individual rights. But by God we will still have the right to purchase our beloved assault rifles to protect us from those notoriously violent homosexuals and anyone else just plain different. Hopefully there will be no pesky background checks or waiting periods to slog through.
In closing, I would like to say that I will be keeping my Kerry-Edwards yard sign. The next time Osama comes a calling my Kerry-Edwards sign will be displayed in my front yard as a reminder to you of just where your priorities were placed.
This is still my country, but this spoiled, rich, draft-dodger is not my president. Perhaps next time he will get to finish "My Pet Goat."
Janet Collins
Etna Green
Nontraditional Careers
Editor, Times-Union:On Oct. 26, 180 sophomore girls from seven area high schools were introduced to nontraditional careers for women. Twenty-seven women presenters employed in nontraditional careers engaged the students in career information conversation and hands-on activities. Students were able to wire electrical outlets, weld, debate a court case, handle artificial joints, explore an 18-wheeler, build tool boxes, build a block wall, and much more. It was a most exciting and successful day for everyone involved and we have many people to thank.
Thank you Biomet Foundation for making it possible for Lyn St. James, seven-time Indy racecar driver, to be our keynote speaker. She impressed the girls as she talked about her Indianapolis 500 experience, and her road to Indy and beyond. We greatly appreciate the generosity of Biomet in their support of this event.
Thank you to all the women speakers (and their employers) who gave up their normal work activities to be with us.
Thank you Alan Limerick, Carpenter and Millwright Training Center, staff and advisory board for graciously letting us take over their facility for the day. We are very appreciative of the space and opportunities their location provided us. Thank you Warsaw Education Foundation Inc. and Carl Perkins Grants for the financial support for the workshop. Also appreciated were the food donations.
Thank you to all the students for your attentiveness and interest in the activities. Each school and community can be proud of these young ladies and how they represented their schools. We also appreciate the support of each school in allowing their students to attend and for the resources they made available to us.
Last but not least, thank you to the committee and helpers that planned and hosted the workshop. The workshop was planned as a joint effort of the Warsaw Area Career Center and the Wawasee Area Career and Technical Cooperative. The school corporations represented: Fairfield, Tippecanoe Valley, Triton, Warsaw, Wawasee, West Noble and Whitko.
Linda Croop, Donna Daniel, Ted Bahney, Diana Yarian,
Phil Metcalf , Ellen Stayer, Anthony Etienne
N.E.W. Workshop Committee
Soup Kitchen
Editor, Times-Union:I wanted to take a moment to congratulate Roz Morgan & Our Father's House on the opening of their new soup kitchen and to thank your paper for your excellent front page article about it in Saturday's paper. I had the opportunity to visit the new "restaurant" at Our Father's House this past week myself and was genuinely impressed by the pleasant and cozy atmosphere, not to mention the good food. Roz and all the volunteers at Our Father's House are one more example of the many Christians in our community devoting themselves to serving others. The Bible teaches us that the poor will always be among us, but how a community treats those less fortunate tells more about those that "have" than those that "have not." Our Father's House is just one example in our community of people working together to treat those in need with dignity and respect. Thanks, Roz, for setting the bar so high for the rest of us!
Laura Kaufman
Executive Director
Combined Community Services
Bush Good
Editor, Times-Union:It's like the story of the emperor's new clothes - he was naked but no one could quite say the truth so they said many other things to describe his new clothes. The election newsbroadcasters and analyzers have great difficulty seeing the truth about why so many people went to vote and Bush was re-elected. The light went on and I knew for sure he would be re-elected when I became personally aware in the last couple days of two local people who traveled back down to Florida, where they also live, just to vote. I'm no politician but I am an American and it is pretty easy to understand the turnout and the re-election of Bush ... even with the economy problems, jobs and the embarrassment of entering Iraq without weapons of mass destruction being found.
First, most Americans are not emotionally ready to reject Bush after the strength and support he offered each and every one of us after 9/11. Terrorism is a frightening reality to all of us now and I think that when each person was actually ready to vote, the need to continue with the person who scares bin Laden would be expressed.
Secondly, however, the moral issues are the drive that made the older men drive to Florida to make their vote count more. A few analysts this morning are able to state that but it appears very difficult for newsbroadcasters on the various stations to digest this fact. They want to explain Bush's victory with his personality, message and campaign. Forget it. The win came from the Christians, Catholic and Protestants alike, across the country, who do not want to face God someday and try to explain why they voted for Kerry who believes partial birth abortions are OK. Same-sex marriages don't make moral sense and that is what the majority of Americans believe and Democrats are going to have to switch and support civil unions or some other legal agreements for same-sex couples or doom their party. Moral issues are what brought the vote out and they cannot be tucked under the carpet and ignored.
This third point is still really moral issues and it is very specifically related to Kerry's personal moral standards. When I heard it, I trusted that if America is as honorable as I have always felt, Kerry's particular 30 seconds of rudeness would affect other people's votes, both Republicans and Democrats. I felt distaste for Edwards when he tried to make a point in the vice-presidential debate with Cheney by being sure America was aware Cheney's daughter was lesbian. But when Kerry felt the need to bring it up again in his final debate with Bush, the word "trash" jumped in my mind and stayed there till I voted for Bush.
Now, I've had my say and I can go back in and watch everybody else's theories. Thank you, editor, for the opportunity of free expression you offer our community.
Jan Nelson
Winona Lake
via e-mail
One-Party System
Editor, Times-Union:I did my civic duty and voted Nov. 2. There were no surprises on the national or state ballots, but I was surprised by the county ballots. I have heard it said that God himself could run on the Democratic ticket and lose. Now I know why. The Republicans were all unopposed! The last time I heard of an election that was this one-sided was the last time Fidel Castro ran for president of Cuba.
Dissent has been so stifled by extremist views in this county that one loyal Leesburg citizen made a comment in the letters to the editor about a year ago that anyone that voted Democratic was a Communist!
Maybe it was time we opened our eyes and threw away the terms Republican and Democrat in this county and used some other terms to determine our political leanings. Maybe then we could have a real election and not a farce like this last election for county offices.
James Townsend
Warsaw
via e-mail
Leaf Removal
Editor, Times-Union:I would to thank the city employees for a great job of picking up the leaves. Three times this fall they have come by. Each time they did a good job. Thanks for your diligence.
Leroy Konkle
Warsaw
via e-mail
Flower Baskets
Editor, Times-Union:Before the snow flies and the baskets are put away, I would like to thank the Warsaw Merchants for the beautiful hanging and window baskets of flowers that decorated the downtown area this summer. I truly enjoyed the bright spots of color they provided. PLEASE do it again next year!
Leslie Piazza
Warsaw
via e-mail
Gray Areas
Editor, Times-Union:I wanted to make a needed response to John Burtoft's letter on 11/4/04. Although I don't believe Brandy Webb needs me to come to her defense, I wanted to comment on some criticisms Mr. Burtoft had about it.
First, he seems to think that Ms. Webb's personal position against abortion is in conflict with her not wanting to thrust her morals and judgments on the rest of the country. I wanted to let him know that many people, myself included, would personally never choose nor counsel someone to only consider abortion; but we believe that each individual woman has a right to choose that for herself. Let me remind you that the law also allows this.
Second, Mr. Burtoft is under the impression that the government is supposed to tell us what to do and what not to do. He might never have heard of a thing called The Constitution, where the people are given the right to tell the government what is right and wrong by electing officials that will represent their views. So far, over and over again our government has done what the majority of people want ... guarantee that under specific circumstances and guidelines every woman, rich or poor, has a right to choose.
Finally, it is unfortunate that with the current administration and direction of this government, that "rich or poor" part I mentioned above is becoming less and less true. Abortion opponents are increasingly ensuring that only those who are in the economic circumstances to have access to good information, good counseling, good health care and good prevention are also the only ones who will have access to safe and legal abortions in this country.
It is easy to see the world in the black and white terms that Mr. Burtoft sees it, but the many areas of gray are the reality most of us live in.
Lisa Rector
Warsaw
Deeply Divided
Editor, Times-Union:As I sit here waiting for John Kerry to make his concession speech; I keep hearing that this nation is deeply divided. Why is that?
The liberals of this nation have promoted homosexuality, abortion, taking God out of schools, the Ten Commandments out of public places - just to mention a few things.
One survey showed that morals was the leading concern of voters. I hope Bush doesn't give in on his beliefs. I know I will not give one inch in what I believe - wrong is wrong. Some of these things are not only wrong but outright sinful.
Buck up the world hasn't come to an end yet!
Dale Beery
Claypool
Gospel Concert
Editor Times-Union:The Southern Gospel Concert for American Diabetes at Ramanda Wagon Wheel Theatre in Warsaw was Nov. 6.
We would like to thank all our sponsors for their help in this endeavor. Without them it would not be as successful as it has been. We have had four previous concerts that have made it possible to give more than $34,000 to the diabetes association for research. There's nothing more I would like to see than a cure of this devastating disease.
God bless all of you.
Pastor Ralph Dotson
Silver Lake
via e-mail
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