Editor, Times-Union: Your letter from Al Smith struck me not so much as a tale of tragedy and woe, but rather as a sad-sack litany of self-pitying bitterness and resentment.
Mr. Smith evidently didn't learn much from the military - or has forgotten what he'd learned - about being a man and rolling with the punches that life has a habit of landing in painful places at times.
I know about pain, and loss, having lost siblings, other family members and friends with disturbing and unexpected frequency throughout my life. And I know about physical pain, having nearly broken my own neck in an auto accident years ago, resulting in chronic glitches, hitches and pains that haunt me to this day and will be with me for life, no doubt. I don't let that slow me down, though, or blame anyone for it except me, because that one was my own doing and no other vehicle was involved.
Mr. Smith apparently wasn't taught much about the Bible, either, by the church he used to attend and where he now drops off his wife without going inside himself. Maybe it's best that he doesn't bother, because even if they did teach him that God helps those who help themselves, he apparently wasn't listening. He chose to place his faith in lawyers and insurance agents instead of in God and in himself, and to sit, waiting, letting them make things happen for him. God bestows his blessings on those who do His work, who stand up and go on their own two feet, who are "can-do" people who don't waste their time on self-pity.
So I can see why he's bitter and disappointed now, because he hasn't taken the most important lessons in life and in the Bible to heart. That God and he are the ones who motivate changes and events, not lawyers and preachers and insurance agents.
I suppose it was inevitable that Mr. Smith has "lost his faith" in all these people and in forces outside of himself, because he obviously never put his faith where it would have really done some good, which is in himself and in God, who would have repaid his faith in ways that would have been real blessings indeed.
The fact that Mr. Smith was wounded in WWII means that he's had a long life already. I can only hope that he will give God the opportunity to show him what can be done with his remaining time here, and that he will remember, and rejoice in, all of the beauties that his life here has allowed him to witness and to share. That he will allow God to make a place for him in His kingdom, where any of Mr. Smith's works in God's name and where all of his suffering here will be answered in an eternity of beauty and joy, the likes of which his mere glimpses in this life were but a faint echo.
So come on, Al, buck up and remember who you really are, because the whiner and the quitter I met through reading your letter doesn't seem to fit the mold of a WWII fighter and of a devoted husband of many a long and trying year who still feels that it's important enough to take his wife to church on Sundays.
With sincere respect and gratitude for a wounded soldier of our nation, and as a Christian who can't abide whining,
Howard Shoemaker South Whitley via e-mail
Where Were The Refs?
Editor, Times-Union: RE: DeKalb IHSAA 4A Section
I knew I had seen that game somewhere before, egads! I discovered it, developed it, refined it. Middle to late 1950s, someone in the area gave me a couple dozen old worn-out boxing gloves (12-16 ounces) that their boxing club was going to discard. They knew we boxed at Baker Boys Club. Dr. Whitney, Ardel Hanna (may their souls rest in peace) helped with the program.
"MAD Basketball" was a good name for it in my physical education classes (I hate the term "fiz-ed"). You split the class size-wise, tall here, down to the shortest. Each kid got one glove, skins-shirts (couldn't do that with today's required co-ed classes). Object: score as many baskets as you could during your five-minute alternating time period. Toss the ball up at mid-court to start, and score. One rule, you could not choke, that got you thrown out for your remaining time that period. Little kids could play with the taller ones, but not the reverse. I usually found my football guards in those shorter kids.
Egads, the IHSAA ruined it by making the kids dribble and pass the ball, but there it was at the DeKalb Sectional 4A. The ball players were great and we got by without referees. I think they had them Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
From 1949 on, my classes were 36-44, even had Friday classes of 100-119 high (educational experiment). The 7, 8, 9 grades had physical education Monday-Tuesday; Wednesday-Thursday; everybody Friday (could not use the term today) and we played "Kill the Jap." Today's politically correct term dodger ball and some people have gone to court over that.
Anyway, "Go Tigers." I have always felt if they beat you in the tourneys, root for 'em (even Plymouth) - "Go DeKalb."
Robert Lichtenwalter Warsaw
Baseballers Say Thanks
Editor, Times-Union: The Tippecanoe Valley Viking baseball team would like to thank the baseball parents, the coaches' wives and the lifeguards for their help with the Kids Night Out. We would also like to thank East of Chicago Pizza for helping us feed the kids. Most of all, we would like to thank the 154 elementary and middle school students who participated! The baseball team had a blast and we hope all of the kids did too!
Yours in baseball, Coach Backus and the TVHS Baseball Team
