Letters to the Editor 12-02-2005
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
- WW III Is Now - Doctors - The Time Zone Joke - Torture - Only One Holiday - Cheaper Gas - Stolen Snowman
WW III Is Now
Editor, Times-Union:We finally heard it on national TV last night. Like it or not, we are in World War III. About 10 or 15 years ago the Muslim world declared war on all the non-Muslim world on planet earth. Remember? I do. I didn't write it down when I heard it for the same reason you didn't. We thought: "We've heard that before. We know a little history. We remember the young Mohammed and the bloody start he got in southern Arabia at Mecca and Medina."
Yes, we have heard the saber-rattling so many times we pay little attention to it. It took the opening salvos of 9/11 to awaken us (temporarily) and then most of us went back to sleep as if it never happened - as if WW III had not started. But they plainly declared a "jihad" or Holy War, and I have never heard or read where they have officially retracted or changed their minds.
Does the name Marco Polo ring a bell with any of you? Remember when he returned from the East with the massage from the Ghengis Khan to the Catholic Church?
"Please send us a hundred teachers, well learned in the seven arts and we'll be able to prove that the way of Christ is best."
Two years later, the Vatican sent two teachers with the message, "Become politically and ecclestically attached to Rome." Ghengis Khan turned down the request, accepted Islam, and spread blood, fire and a violent faith across Asia and the Middle East. What a missed opportunity ... and what disastrous consequences.
Yes, we are in World War III. And it can not be won with armies and guns alone. We must "get back to the basics" like truth. St. John 8:32 says " ... the truth will set you free." The truth is, W W III is a war of ideas, ideals, life philosophy and ...
"But that gets into religion!" I hear some screaming. It does? So be it. Remember Marco Polo! There are religions of hate and there are religions of love. I have never been a "pacifist" as such, but I must say that if the motif of the symphony of your life and mine is not love, we are not followers of Jesus Christ. When asked what the most important commandment was, he said: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself." See Matthew 22:27-40, Mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27. Take your choice. The whole world is now choosing.
How well I remember hearing Franklin D. Roosevelt say to the nation: "I do not like war. My wife Eleanor does not like war. Our nation does not want war. But ..." But he went on to put our nation for England and against the evils of Hitler and Nazis and all their allies and slaves.
Does it surprise you to be told we are now in a hot war called WW III? It shocked me. But did it really surprise me? No. I knew it a long time, and tried not to admit it or deal with it.
How do we deal with it? I have some articles dealing with our alternatives and choices if anyone cares to know what an 83-year-old has to say. I was only 7 when about 30 of America's wealthiest men committed suicide as the 1929 "Great Depression" began to do its thing. War is a "fact of life" for the foreseeable future. We must choose the way we deal with it.
J.R. Boggs
Winona Lake, via e-mail
Doctors
Editor, Times-Union:I, too, have had bad dealings with doctors in Kosciusko County. I want to say how sorry I am for the loss your brother had to endure at the hand of another. I, in this county, too, had a surgery I did not need and my sister had a knee surgery gone bad, too. But she went to Indy and had a better outcome than your brother did.
I have noticed over the years that some doctors don't care. "OK, I can do this just to collect the old mighty dollar." But the doctors and hospitals have to realize that the dollars do not outweigh the lives of their patients.
I know this by fact my 13-year-old would not be here if they had me in the hospital to do a procedure because they said I had miscarried her. Well, I told them no and went home and to make a long story short, she is a 13-year-old straight-A student today. Mommy's little miracle I call her. This was in another state.
But the bottom line is we all make mistakes, doctors are no exception, but we have to question them and use our voices about our care - we do have a choice. However, I do feel when wrong doing is involved, there should be more accountability if the doctors have clearly done wrong.
Tammi Mead
Syracuse, via e-mail
The Time Zone Joke
Editor, Times-Union:For the last 40 years I always knew what time it was in Indiana. The governor may finally fulfill his campaign promise. He stated that the rest of the country wasn't sure "what time it was in Indiana." Well, with the setup that we have now with the changes going by county choice it will finally put Indiana in with the rest of the country. Even the people in Indiana won't know what time it is without a multi-page program.
Indiana should be in the Central time zone as we are in the Midwest, not the East. This is just a personal feeling but we didn't have a problem the way we were and I feel that there many more Issues that should have been addressed than the time zone (it wasn't an issue until the election).
Greg Taylor
Pierceton, via e-mail
Torture
Editor, Times-Union:The United States of America is not a country of barbarians. It is essential we not allow ourselves to stoop to the barbaric tactics used by cowardly terrorists. The indiscriminate killing of civilians, beheadings and other atrocities must never be a part of our arsenal.
In September, we watched as Pvt. Lynndie England, accused of torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib, was found guilty of "maltreating detainees." Military prosecutor Chuck Neill accused England of "humiliating prisoners." I saw the pictures from Abu Ghraib. Most looked like they could have been taken during the hazing of freshmen on the campus of an American college. Were the prisoners at Abu Ghraib mistreated? Most likely. Were they humiliated? Most certainly. But were they tortured?
Perhaps we should ask our own countrymen who were prisoners of war in WWII, or Korea or Vietnam. Were they treated better, the same, or worse than the prisoners of Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo? Do they believe these prisoners are being tortured?
Lest I be misunderstood, allow me to clarify: I am opposed to the indiscriminate and unbridled use of torture. However, I am not convinced a ban on torture instituted by the U.S. Congress is in the best interest of our national security. The decision as to what constitutes torture and under what conditions it may be used should not be placed in the hands of those who are more concerned with public perception and world opinion than they are the security and safety of the American people. It needs to be placed in the hands of those who are willing to do what is necessary rather than what is expedient.
In the editorial, "Torture: Ban Should Be A Priority," the author concedes there is at least one situation when torture may be appropriate: the so called "ticking time bomb" scenario. Then the author implies such scenarios rarely apply to the United States. The problem with this reasoning is this: The American public knows when the intelligence and security communities have failed to prevent a terrorist attack but we are hardly ever aware when their efforts are successful. When those agencies fail - people die. But when they succeed, life goes on uninterrupted. Sure, we hear about the major terrorist attacks which have been foiled. But how many attacks have been short circuited due primarily to the intelligence retrieved through less than pleasurable questioning of captured terrorists?
If we are ever to win the war on terror, we must cease hampering the efforts of our military and intelligence communities by making them fight "with one hand tied behind their backs." If a ban on torture is to be instituted, let it be formulated by those on the frontline of this battle and intimately acquainted with the costs and risks involved. Then, in the interest of checks and balances, have the U.S. Congress review and approve the policy. To do it the other way around is to allow the tail to wag the dog.
Michael C. Mahan
Warsaw, via e-mail
Only One Holiday
Editor, Times-Union:In reviewing the multitude of advertisements from local businesses, I noted, as did many others, the word Christmas was artfully omitted. There are holiday candles, holiday toys, holiday sales. Everything is simply holiday. What holiday are we celebrating anyway? The need to celebrate the birth of Christ.
In an area where we practice doing good to others, as Christ commands us, why do we no longer refer to it as Christmas?
Are we worried we might offend someone? I am not offended when the Jews speak of Hanukkah, or the Muslims speak of the Koran.
Or is it perhaps the threat of being sued by the ACLU?
I would like a response to this from the local businesses. Of the mountains of advertisements I've received in my mailbox recently, there was only one mention of Christmas. I guess they couldn't figure any other word to use for Christmas tree.
Vivian Frantz
Warsaw
Cheaper Gas
Editor, Times-Union:I just wanted to let you know that the gas prices in Mentone compared to Silver Lake are different. Mentone is always higher. Even though they have the same owner, there is still between a 5- to 10-cent difference. In my opinion, this is because Silver Lake Mini Mart has to compete with McClure's and Mentone has no other gas station around to compete with.
It is not just SIlver Lake, it is surrounding areas also. I know people around my community will drive to Etna Green or Rochester to get gas because it is cheaper. Why can't all gas stations just be the same price?
Allison Thacker
Mentone, via e-mail
Stolen Snowman
Editor, Times-Union:Merry Christmas to whomever it was that stole the lighted wooden snowman from our home in the Windmill West Addition. The monetary value was not that high but you stole many memories. This snowman was built by my father more than 45 years ago, when my parents could not afford Christmas decorations. It took all that my parents made to feed and keep us six boys in clothes.
I do remember when I was very young, these two snowmen being in the house by the tree at every Christmas. This year the snowmen meant so much more with my mother passing away two months ago. I am thankful that you only took one of the two snowmen and only unplugged the other one. I will be moving the remaining snowman. Hopefully, this will keep you from taking this one also. I would like to say that I hope you sleep well at night, but to steal Christmas decorations tells me you have no conscience to start with.
Rich Kennedy
Warsaw, via e-mail
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- WW III Is Now - Doctors - The Time Zone Joke - Torture - Only One Holiday - Cheaper Gas - Stolen Snowman
WW III Is Now
Editor, Times-Union:We finally heard it on national TV last night. Like it or not, we are in World War III. About 10 or 15 years ago the Muslim world declared war on all the non-Muslim world on planet earth. Remember? I do. I didn't write it down when I heard it for the same reason you didn't. We thought: "We've heard that before. We know a little history. We remember the young Mohammed and the bloody start he got in southern Arabia at Mecca and Medina."
Yes, we have heard the saber-rattling so many times we pay little attention to it. It took the opening salvos of 9/11 to awaken us (temporarily) and then most of us went back to sleep as if it never happened - as if WW III had not started. But they plainly declared a "jihad" or Holy War, and I have never heard or read where they have officially retracted or changed their minds.
Does the name Marco Polo ring a bell with any of you? Remember when he returned from the East with the massage from the Ghengis Khan to the Catholic Church?
"Please send us a hundred teachers, well learned in the seven arts and we'll be able to prove that the way of Christ is best."
Two years later, the Vatican sent two teachers with the message, "Become politically and ecclestically attached to Rome." Ghengis Khan turned down the request, accepted Islam, and spread blood, fire and a violent faith across Asia and the Middle East. What a missed opportunity ... and what disastrous consequences.
Yes, we are in World War III. And it can not be won with armies and guns alone. We must "get back to the basics" like truth. St. John 8:32 says " ... the truth will set you free." The truth is, W W III is a war of ideas, ideals, life philosophy and ...
"But that gets into religion!" I hear some screaming. It does? So be it. Remember Marco Polo! There are religions of hate and there are religions of love. I have never been a "pacifist" as such, but I must say that if the motif of the symphony of your life and mine is not love, we are not followers of Jesus Christ. When asked what the most important commandment was, he said: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself." See Matthew 22:27-40, Mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27. Take your choice. The whole world is now choosing.
How well I remember hearing Franklin D. Roosevelt say to the nation: "I do not like war. My wife Eleanor does not like war. Our nation does not want war. But ..." But he went on to put our nation for England and against the evils of Hitler and Nazis and all their allies and slaves.
Does it surprise you to be told we are now in a hot war called WW III? It shocked me. But did it really surprise me? No. I knew it a long time, and tried not to admit it or deal with it.
How do we deal with it? I have some articles dealing with our alternatives and choices if anyone cares to know what an 83-year-old has to say. I was only 7 when about 30 of America's wealthiest men committed suicide as the 1929 "Great Depression" began to do its thing. War is a "fact of life" for the foreseeable future. We must choose the way we deal with it.
J.R. Boggs
Winona Lake, via e-mail
Doctors
Editor, Times-Union:I, too, have had bad dealings with doctors in Kosciusko County. I want to say how sorry I am for the loss your brother had to endure at the hand of another. I, in this county, too, had a surgery I did not need and my sister had a knee surgery gone bad, too. But she went to Indy and had a better outcome than your brother did.
I have noticed over the years that some doctors don't care. "OK, I can do this just to collect the old mighty dollar." But the doctors and hospitals have to realize that the dollars do not outweigh the lives of their patients.
I know this by fact my 13-year-old would not be here if they had me in the hospital to do a procedure because they said I had miscarried her. Well, I told them no and went home and to make a long story short, she is a 13-year-old straight-A student today. Mommy's little miracle I call her. This was in another state.
But the bottom line is we all make mistakes, doctors are no exception, but we have to question them and use our voices about our care - we do have a choice. However, I do feel when wrong doing is involved, there should be more accountability if the doctors have clearly done wrong.
Tammi Mead
Syracuse, via e-mail
The Time Zone Joke
Editor, Times-Union:For the last 40 years I always knew what time it was in Indiana. The governor may finally fulfill his campaign promise. He stated that the rest of the country wasn't sure "what time it was in Indiana." Well, with the setup that we have now with the changes going by county choice it will finally put Indiana in with the rest of the country. Even the people in Indiana won't know what time it is without a multi-page program.
Indiana should be in the Central time zone as we are in the Midwest, not the East. This is just a personal feeling but we didn't have a problem the way we were and I feel that there many more Issues that should have been addressed than the time zone (it wasn't an issue until the election).
Greg Taylor
Pierceton, via e-mail
Torture
Editor, Times-Union:The United States of America is not a country of barbarians. It is essential we not allow ourselves to stoop to the barbaric tactics used by cowardly terrorists. The indiscriminate killing of civilians, beheadings and other atrocities must never be a part of our arsenal.
In September, we watched as Pvt. Lynndie England, accused of torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib, was found guilty of "maltreating detainees." Military prosecutor Chuck Neill accused England of "humiliating prisoners." I saw the pictures from Abu Ghraib. Most looked like they could have been taken during the hazing of freshmen on the campus of an American college. Were the prisoners at Abu Ghraib mistreated? Most likely. Were they humiliated? Most certainly. But were they tortured?
Perhaps we should ask our own countrymen who were prisoners of war in WWII, or Korea or Vietnam. Were they treated better, the same, or worse than the prisoners of Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo? Do they believe these prisoners are being tortured?
Lest I be misunderstood, allow me to clarify: I am opposed to the indiscriminate and unbridled use of torture. However, I am not convinced a ban on torture instituted by the U.S. Congress is in the best interest of our national security. The decision as to what constitutes torture and under what conditions it may be used should not be placed in the hands of those who are more concerned with public perception and world opinion than they are the security and safety of the American people. It needs to be placed in the hands of those who are willing to do what is necessary rather than what is expedient.
In the editorial, "Torture: Ban Should Be A Priority," the author concedes there is at least one situation when torture may be appropriate: the so called "ticking time bomb" scenario. Then the author implies such scenarios rarely apply to the United States. The problem with this reasoning is this: The American public knows when the intelligence and security communities have failed to prevent a terrorist attack but we are hardly ever aware when their efforts are successful. When those agencies fail - people die. But when they succeed, life goes on uninterrupted. Sure, we hear about the major terrorist attacks which have been foiled. But how many attacks have been short circuited due primarily to the intelligence retrieved through less than pleasurable questioning of captured terrorists?
If we are ever to win the war on terror, we must cease hampering the efforts of our military and intelligence communities by making them fight "with one hand tied behind their backs." If a ban on torture is to be instituted, let it be formulated by those on the frontline of this battle and intimately acquainted with the costs and risks involved. Then, in the interest of checks and balances, have the U.S. Congress review and approve the policy. To do it the other way around is to allow the tail to wag the dog.
Michael C. Mahan
Warsaw, via e-mail
Only One Holiday
Editor, Times-Union:In reviewing the multitude of advertisements from local businesses, I noted, as did many others, the word Christmas was artfully omitted. There are holiday candles, holiday toys, holiday sales. Everything is simply holiday. What holiday are we celebrating anyway? The need to celebrate the birth of Christ.
In an area where we practice doing good to others, as Christ commands us, why do we no longer refer to it as Christmas?
Are we worried we might offend someone? I am not offended when the Jews speak of Hanukkah, or the Muslims speak of the Koran.
Or is it perhaps the threat of being sued by the ACLU?
I would like a response to this from the local businesses. Of the mountains of advertisements I've received in my mailbox recently, there was only one mention of Christmas. I guess they couldn't figure any other word to use for Christmas tree.
Vivian Frantz
Warsaw
Cheaper Gas
Editor, Times-Union:I just wanted to let you know that the gas prices in Mentone compared to Silver Lake are different. Mentone is always higher. Even though they have the same owner, there is still between a 5- to 10-cent difference. In my opinion, this is because Silver Lake Mini Mart has to compete with McClure's and Mentone has no other gas station around to compete with.
It is not just SIlver Lake, it is surrounding areas also. I know people around my community will drive to Etna Green or Rochester to get gas because it is cheaper. Why can't all gas stations just be the same price?
Allison Thacker
Mentone, via e-mail
Stolen Snowman
Editor, Times-Union:Merry Christmas to whomever it was that stole the lighted wooden snowman from our home in the Windmill West Addition. The monetary value was not that high but you stole many memories. This snowman was built by my father more than 45 years ago, when my parents could not afford Christmas decorations. It took all that my parents made to feed and keep us six boys in clothes.
I do remember when I was very young, these two snowmen being in the house by the tree at every Christmas. This year the snowmen meant so much more with my mother passing away two months ago. I am thankful that you only took one of the two snowmen and only unplugged the other one. I will be moving the remaining snowman. Hopefully, this will keep you from taking this one also. I would like to say that I hope you sleep well at night, but to steal Christmas decorations tells me you have no conscience to start with.
Rich Kennedy
Warsaw, via e-mail
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