Letters to the Editor 12-03-1998
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
- Gun Hassles - Our Father's House - First Steps
Gun Hassles
Editor, Times-Union:So, all of a sudden it's a hassle just trying to buy a little single shot 22 or shotgun. Well surprise-surprise! I have no sympathy for anyone caught by surprise by all this. We have been trying to tell people for the past five years.
There are an estimated 80 million law abiding gun owners in this country and at best there have been some 250,000 or 1/4 of 1 percent trying to fight this. The NRA has become a joke. Their entire philosophy today is to get the best compromise they can. In fact they have supported this nightmare from day one. Now all of a sudden they have discovered that Janet Reno wants the FBI to keep these records for 18 months and their all upset. In other words, slam the barn door when the horse is clear down the road!
If you think this is the last of it you're living in a fools paradise. This system will never run smoothly. In fact it has been designed to create a bottle-neck. That is precisely the object of the whole thing. The anti-gunners and politicians know this will have absolutely no affect on crime. All they are trying to do is discourage law abiding citizens from buying firearms. They are attempting to destroy piecemeal what they refer to as the gun culture in this country. The fewer gun owners, the easier it will be in the future to pass anti-gun laws and eventually repeal the Second Amendment and make firearms possession illegal.
We got it stopped this time but very shortly they will begin to charge a user fee for doing the background check. The argument will be that they just can't get the system smoothed out with the limited resources provided by state and/or federal government. Next will be registration and then required training and then licensing and on and on.
After saying all this, I think this past election has proven that the American people no longer give a damn! One of our founding Fathers once said "He who would trade liberty for security deserves neither." Well, I fear the American people are about to get just what they deserve.
Harold Kitson, Warsaw
Our Father's House
Editor, Times-Union:Last week, I went to Our Father's House to see if I could be of any help. No sooner did I get into the door, when I was given a big hug and asked what I was doing there. I said I was there to help anyway I could.
I was asked to help two of the other helpers to go and deliver a house full of supplies. A mother with 3 children has just come in for help. She said she had just gotten out of a bad relationship and had only the shirt on her back. We loaded on the truck the old couch (now a bed), 2 single beds (one had a headboard and frame), one double mattress, some old wooden kitchen chairs, a table, some old pots and pans, old silverware, some chipped plates and cups. Off we went to deliver it.
I followed the mother to the dwelling where they would be staying. As I walked in, I could smell how long it had been empty. Windows had been broken out and repaired, but the broken glass still covered the floor. As we carried in the supplies, the mother asked me if I knew how to light the furnace. I said I would take a look at it for her and try to light it for them.
As I was lying on the dirty floor trying to light the furnace, one of the little girls came over to talk. She told me her name was Mary and that she was 7 years old. Her little brother and sister were busy running around investigating their new home. Mary asked me if I had any children of my own. I told her that I did and that they were grown up. She then asked me if I hit my children, and I instantly told her that little children were not to be hit, but to be loved. She then asked me if I would be her Daddy and not hit her like her old one did.
I thank God that there are places like Our Father's House for people to go to for help, and not be told to go away and come back after they fill out papers.
As for Mary, please keep her in your prayers.
Donald E. Laughlin, Warsaw
First Steps
Editor, Times-Union:Recently, I received a letter from Cardinal Center, where my son is enrolled in "First Steps" classes, that Indiana's Family, Social Service Administration-Bureau of Child Development is changing things, not for the better, to comply with Federal Law. Cardinal Center plus 66 other agencies in Indiana will be adversely affected.
First Steps is an early intervention program benefitting children under age three. The staff includes physical, speech and developmental therapists. They also hold center-based classes. My son is enrolled in a class two mornings a week, which includes speech and occupational therapy. His delay was basically speech; he's nearly two and not talking much, due to a hearing loss. To make a long-winded story shorter, six months ago my son was a very frustrated, "in his own world" kind of child, and after my daughter was born recently, I felt I would never have enough time to give him the constant one-on-one attention he needed to get a jump start in communication. My doctor recommended First Steps, and he was quickly evaluated and enrolled. In no time, he was almost a completely different child. He now communicates without crying, he's starting to talk, he smiles all the time and is much more social. He loves going to "school," but Indiana wants to take that away from him and countless other children, who need the jump start more than us. First Steps is state funded - I haven't shelled out a penny for this extraordinary help! Indiana, complying with "Federal Law," is killing reimbursement for developmental therapy, killing classes at the center and drastically reducing therapy availability. Few know how important early intervention programs such as First Steps are unless involved. By enrolling my son into class, his personality brightened immensely. Could that change what kind of adult he'll grow up to be? Possibly. Frustration and confusion in childhood may lead to greater problems as an adult. I see my son being a doctor instead of knocking off a few liquor stores. Sure, it's my job to raise him correctly, but Indiana owes our future generations some help before the delays become permanent problems. I am urging Governor Frank O'Bannon, Senator Kent Adams and Representatives Ruppel, Smith and Wolkins to please fight on our behalf. Don't let First Steps dwindle away. Indiana will be hurting a lot of kids by making these unnecessary changes. Let things be, please.
Carrie Brissette, Warsaw
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- Gun Hassles - Our Father's House - First Steps
Gun Hassles
Editor, Times-Union:So, all of a sudden it's a hassle just trying to buy a little single shot 22 or shotgun. Well surprise-surprise! I have no sympathy for anyone caught by surprise by all this. We have been trying to tell people for the past five years.
There are an estimated 80 million law abiding gun owners in this country and at best there have been some 250,000 or 1/4 of 1 percent trying to fight this. The NRA has become a joke. Their entire philosophy today is to get the best compromise they can. In fact they have supported this nightmare from day one. Now all of a sudden they have discovered that Janet Reno wants the FBI to keep these records for 18 months and their all upset. In other words, slam the barn door when the horse is clear down the road!
If you think this is the last of it you're living in a fools paradise. This system will never run smoothly. In fact it has been designed to create a bottle-neck. That is precisely the object of the whole thing. The anti-gunners and politicians know this will have absolutely no affect on crime. All they are trying to do is discourage law abiding citizens from buying firearms. They are attempting to destroy piecemeal what they refer to as the gun culture in this country. The fewer gun owners, the easier it will be in the future to pass anti-gun laws and eventually repeal the Second Amendment and make firearms possession illegal.
We got it stopped this time but very shortly they will begin to charge a user fee for doing the background check. The argument will be that they just can't get the system smoothed out with the limited resources provided by state and/or federal government. Next will be registration and then required training and then licensing and on and on.
After saying all this, I think this past election has proven that the American people no longer give a damn! One of our founding Fathers once said "He who would trade liberty for security deserves neither." Well, I fear the American people are about to get just what they deserve.
Harold Kitson, Warsaw
Our Father's House
Editor, Times-Union:Last week, I went to Our Father's House to see if I could be of any help. No sooner did I get into the door, when I was given a big hug and asked what I was doing there. I said I was there to help anyway I could.
I was asked to help two of the other helpers to go and deliver a house full of supplies. A mother with 3 children has just come in for help. She said she had just gotten out of a bad relationship and had only the shirt on her back. We loaded on the truck the old couch (now a bed), 2 single beds (one had a headboard and frame), one double mattress, some old wooden kitchen chairs, a table, some old pots and pans, old silverware, some chipped plates and cups. Off we went to deliver it.
I followed the mother to the dwelling where they would be staying. As I walked in, I could smell how long it had been empty. Windows had been broken out and repaired, but the broken glass still covered the floor. As we carried in the supplies, the mother asked me if I knew how to light the furnace. I said I would take a look at it for her and try to light it for them.
As I was lying on the dirty floor trying to light the furnace, one of the little girls came over to talk. She told me her name was Mary and that she was 7 years old. Her little brother and sister were busy running around investigating their new home. Mary asked me if I had any children of my own. I told her that I did and that they were grown up. She then asked me if I hit my children, and I instantly told her that little children were not to be hit, but to be loved. She then asked me if I would be her Daddy and not hit her like her old one did.
I thank God that there are places like Our Father's House for people to go to for help, and not be told to go away and come back after they fill out papers.
As for Mary, please keep her in your prayers.
Donald E. Laughlin, Warsaw
First Steps
Editor, Times-Union:Recently, I received a letter from Cardinal Center, where my son is enrolled in "First Steps" classes, that Indiana's Family, Social Service Administration-Bureau of Child Development is changing things, not for the better, to comply with Federal Law. Cardinal Center plus 66 other agencies in Indiana will be adversely affected.
First Steps is an early intervention program benefitting children under age three. The staff includes physical, speech and developmental therapists. They also hold center-based classes. My son is enrolled in a class two mornings a week, which includes speech and occupational therapy. His delay was basically speech; he's nearly two and not talking much, due to a hearing loss. To make a long-winded story shorter, six months ago my son was a very frustrated, "in his own world" kind of child, and after my daughter was born recently, I felt I would never have enough time to give him the constant one-on-one attention he needed to get a jump start in communication. My doctor recommended First Steps, and he was quickly evaluated and enrolled. In no time, he was almost a completely different child. He now communicates without crying, he's starting to talk, he smiles all the time and is much more social. He loves going to "school," but Indiana wants to take that away from him and countless other children, who need the jump start more than us. First Steps is state funded - I haven't shelled out a penny for this extraordinary help! Indiana, complying with "Federal Law," is killing reimbursement for developmental therapy, killing classes at the center and drastically reducing therapy availability. Few know how important early intervention programs such as First Steps are unless involved. By enrolling my son into class, his personality brightened immensely. Could that change what kind of adult he'll grow up to be? Possibly. Frustration and confusion in childhood may lead to greater problems as an adult. I see my son being a doctor instead of knocking off a few liquor stores. Sure, it's my job to raise him correctly, but Indiana owes our future generations some help before the delays become permanent problems. I am urging Governor Frank O'Bannon, Senator Kent Adams and Representatives Ruppel, Smith and Wolkins to please fight on our behalf. Don't let First Steps dwindle away. Indiana will be hurting a lot of kids by making these unnecessary changes. Let things be, please.
Carrie Brissette, Warsaw
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