Editor, Times-Union: Those that know me know I am an animal lover. I feed strays and have bottle-fed kittens whose mother had been killed on my road in the country. I was going through boxes looking for old records when I came upon an old e-mail:
"I cannot speak. I can't tell you how I feel. It is up to you to understand my simple needs. But one thing is for sure, I am the same today, tomorrow and yesterday.
"Although I am gentle, I have many enemies. Some are men, women and children. My other enemies are hunger, cold and disease.
"If I could speak to you for just one minute, I would tell you of the pain and misery that me and millions just like me suffer. We are beaten, shot, kicked and ignored. We die by the millions each year. My last address was a dark country road, left there to make it on my own.
"If I am not adopted in the future, I could die. Painlessly I'll go to sleep with some kind of drug. But at least, for my last days, I won't be cold or hungry. Please, is there someone that could take me home? I am a nice dog . Some of my best friends are kittens and cats and they need a home, too."
The Kosciusko Animal Shelter is at 3489 E. CR 100S. The phone number is 267-3008.
Pete Gatke Warsaw
Leave The Lights On
Editor, Times-Union: One of my favorite Christmas traditions of the past few years has been to drive through Central Park after our church's 11 p.m. Christmas Eve service. Picture it in your mind ... it's just after midnight ... Christmas Day ... it is so silent ... hardly any cars out at that time of night. A light snow is falling. As I slowly drive through the park, the beautiful lights and decorations seem to speak to me of an earlier time, when our lives and world seemed less harried, simpler somehow.
Imagine then, if you will, my disappointment last year when I got to the park, only to find it dark and cold ... no lights shining anywhere. So here is my grown-up Christmas wish this year: Could the Warsaw Parks Department PLEASE leave the lights on all night - if only on Christmas Eve? I would be so thankful, and I'm sure there are others out there like me who would enjoy it as well. Thanks!
Deb Piper Warsaw via e-mail
Plight Of Saddam
Editor, Times-Union: I see our TV media is polling "yes" or "no" on executing Saddam. Isn't that up to his people? Let's look at this. We didn't find the WMD that we started the war about. We changed the war reason to "Iraqi Freedom" due to Saddam's mistreatment of his people. Now it appears we (the U.S. government) will be the country placing Saddam on trial. Is our media pushing our government into a position it has no right to be in? It is our "place" because Saddam's army fought us, when we invaded his country? That is a novel way we could justify killing any leader. I'm sure some "expert military retiree" will tell me how wrong I am, but I think Saddam's future should lie in the hands of those that he once ruled. In other words, the people he did the wrong to. And that was not us.
