Editor, Times-Union: Last Tuesday between the hours of 3:30 and 6 p.m., someone stole three of my blankets from the Lakeview laundromat in Winona Lake. I normally don't have to use the laundromat, but the dryer in my apartment complex was being repaired. The evening before I had dropped off a white goose down comforter and it was still there when I went to retrieve it.
I dropped them off at about 3:30 and went to pick my daughter up from school. When I got back, they were gone! One was a butterfly quilt with baby blue trim that my grandmother hand-stitched for me 12 years ago for my graduation. The others were my two daughters' blankets: a red, white and black Dalmatian throw and a brown and tan fuzzy throw with a cheetah on it. Apparently you thought you needed these blankets more than my children and I. That quilt had great sentimental value to me.
I have a busy schedule between working full-time, going to school two nights a week and raising children on my own. That's why I didn't wait there on them. The police have been notified, there is a witness. All I want is my blankets back, no questions asked. It's because of people like you that ruin things for the rest of us. I will no longer feel comfortable using any laundry facility for fear of someone stealing my things. You stole from my children and you have to live with that. Just think, next time it may happen to you.
Tammy Dishman, Winona Lake
Re-Emphasize God
Editor, Times-Union: Two very interesting items in a report that came to us from the main office of the International Bible Society in Colorado Springs stated the following about two former Communist countries of Eastern Bloc Europe:
"Last fall the Bulgarian Ministry of Education approved the IBS-published 'My First Bible' for use in every first- and second-grade class in the country. We immediately published twenty thousand copies and will print thousands of additional copies for further distribution."
"Czech Senate hears IBS Leader - because IBS has had a very positive impact in the Czech Republic, Jiri Drejnar, IBS-Czech National Director, was invited to address the Czech Senate last October. After speaking about ways in which God's Word can be integrated into modern society, Jiri gave each Senate member a copy of Scripture. As a result, some legislators have offered IBS further opportunities to teach and distribute Scriptures in public schools and other institutions."
When we recognize the loss of these basic freedoms in our country during the last few decades of this century, we need to re-emphasize the place of God in the thinking of our Founding Fathers, when they emphasized "Freedom of Religion" and not "Freedom from Religion."
Arne Cedervall, Winona Lake
Beef Problem
Editor, Times-Union: Several years ago the question was, "Where's the beef?"
Today my question is, "What Happened to the Beef?"
In July, I entered an ICS chili cook-off in Fort Wayne, so I purchased 10 pounds of ground chuck (course grind) from a local supermarket. That beef was great, very little fat and also tasted good.
I placed 2nd and also won "People's Choice Award" with this beef. So I purchased 10 more pounds at a later date. Where I work, we have a carry-in at the end of the month for all those who had a birthday that month. Chili sounded good, so I fried the beef and noticed something very different. There were large chunks of gristle in the beef. Those were large chunks, I want you to know.
The meat became landfill and nobody ate any "Hot LZ Chili." At the carry-in, I did eat some B-B-Q - the person must have purchased their beef at the same store.
Is anyone else having the same problem? When a company purchases another, why would the quality go down? Maybe to get back some of the expense it took to purchase the business.
If you wonder what "Hot LZ" means: If you've been there you won't ask, if you haven't you wouldn't understand.
Rob Reed, Warsaw
Tax Dollars
Editor, Times-Union: Somebody said that if the taxpayer knew everything their money was spent for, there would be a revolution.
I doubt this. Most don't care. Many seem to think that for every 10 cents they give, the government should spend a dollar on their behalf.
Our national debt is over 5.5 trillion dollars. It is mostly owed to the private Federal Reserve Banks (a totally 100 percent private owned banking system). There are many books in the public libraries to back this statement.
This past week, both the President and Congress said that there is a 1.77 billion dollar surplus. If you look at their pie charts, you do not see anything applied to the debt, just to the interest. Most bankers would love this.
Do you care? The collector for the Federal Reserve is the IRS (Internal Revenue Service), allegedly another private corporation. The IRS was incorporated in the state of Delaware on July 12, 1933, as the Capital Trust Corporation. Its purpose was to collect taxes for the U.S. Government. It is allegedly still privately owned, but now an off-shore corporation. The government doesn't get anywhere near its fair share of taxes collected. If you don't believe this, look on the internet.
Yet, the public is still so lame, most don't care about the roughshod practices of the IRS over the last 30 years unless they were directly involved.
Tax Reform of the IRS - yeah, when elephants fly.
In both cases it looks like the Congress doesn't know, doesn't care or has been paid off.
We need some taxes to run the government. But, it looks like it could be collected by a legal entity, not an outfit with SS and Gestapo tactics.
I spent a great deal of time in the service of my country. I was under the impression that our responsibilities were to uphold the Constitution. Who is looking after it in the halls of Congress? I do not advocate not paying taxes. This country is going financially and morally bankrupt.
C.L. Alfred, Peru
No New Taxes
Editor, Times-Union: When are the eggheads (yes, a Creighton pun is intended) on the County Council going to understand that NO means NO, when it comes to EDIT. Where do they get the God-like ability to decide that we must pay higher taxes just because they want us to?
EDIT was not voted down because "the people didn't realize" as Avis Gunter would have us believe. It was voted down because people do realize that a new tax cannot and will not result in lowered costs or competent budgeting by any government agency. It will benefit the egos of its proponents and the purse string of commissioned salespeople. The rest of us just get to pay the bill.
The pros and cons were all aired before and EDIT lost. I know you understand that. Now try accepting it. Residents of Kosciusko County please start writing letters, making phone calls and speak out. Maybe we should confront the council members when we see them in restaurants, department stores, buying groceries or at church. They need to know that the subject of EDIT has been decided and the decision was NO.
Jack Hyden, Winona Lake
Medicare
Editor, Times-Union: I have been disturbed about Medicare and the way doctors and hospitals are being treated in payments by Medicare.
We are covered by Medicare and also by a supplemental policy. They are receiving less than 50 percent of what they bill the patient, and sometimes less than that. I recently had an X-ray of my back. The bill for this was $142.30. The amount Medicare approved for this was $49.81, and they only paid $21.35. Our supplemental policy paid the balance of $28.46, which made the total $49.81. The hospital (KCH) had to write off $92.49, and they have been writing off untold thousands every year.
The supplemental policies only pay the balance of what Medicare approves but does not pay. It is against the law for us to pay the unpaid balance, we would be fined and so would the hospital or doctor which received it. This means the doctors and hospitals have to charge more for those who are not yet 65, to pay for the shortfall for those of us who are on Medicare. It might cause some of them to not accept any Medicare patients because of the reduced income, and I hope that never happens. They also have to hire extra employees to handle the paperwork for us, which I like, then we don't have to fill out the complicated forms. Doctors and hospitals have a lot of overhead to pay for.
I don't like big doctor and hospital bills, but a doctor should get good pay, and I want one around when I need one. They have a long road to get where they are, years of schooling and training. We need a promising future for doctors so our young people will go into the fields of medicine, surgery, etc. Hopefully, the government will free us so we can pay, out of our pocket, for procedures which Medicare won't approve, but we feel we need.
KCH has been sold, a not-for-profit hospital, if they couldn't make it, how can a for-profit corporation be successful in running our local hospital?
Wallace W. Huffman, Warsaw
Hospital Sale
Editor, Times-Union: I don't understand how the Board of Directors of the Kosciusko Community Hospital had the right to sell the hospital when it was built by the county taxpayers and local donations.
The new K 21 Foundation includes some of those who were on the Board of Directors that sold the hospital. They weren't truthful when they said 3 members of the Health Net Board asked to be removed. They did not resign or ask to be removed, they simply refused to sign over the assets of Health Net without complete information on the sale. Also, why did they sell to Quorum when they are in deep trouble with Medicare and Medicaid? Should these people be responsible for overseeing $63 million dollars?
The county needs a new sewer system and the jail needs expanding. The sewer system will cost $10 million. I don't know what the cost of the jail will be, but why can't this money come out of the $63 million instead of the pockets of the good old taxpayer.
Now they want the EDIT tax passed so the good old taxpayer can pay a little more. Come on give us a break, use some of the $63 million for the sewer and jail, the money should belong to the county anyway.
Ruth Hammond, Warsaw
All-Day Kindergarten
Editor, Times-Union: An issue is being discussed statewide and locally that concerns me: all-day kindergarten. In the state of Indiana, kindergarten is not mandatory, yet our lawmakers and politicians are forcefully addressing all-day kindergarten. Proponents tell us that all-day kindergarten better prepares our children academically for upper grades and that the current two-and-a-half hours per day does not give teachers enough time to cover required curriculum. The curriculum for kindergarten today is what was being taught to first-graders 10 years ago. Are we pushing our kids too hard too fast? Yes, kindergarten is a starting point for a child's school career. They need to learn their ABC's and 123's. But this is kindergarten and it's not mandatory.
I question whether five- and six-year-old children are mentally, emotionally and socially ready for six hours of school. We are pushing our children too hard too fast for our benefit, not theirs. I suspect that the current push for all-day kindergarten is more of a societal and political issue than an academic one, in the best interest of some adults, not children.
The cost to implement all-day kindergarten is estimated to be $1,500 per child per year, which, at this time, would be state funded. Will our state fund this proposal in five, seven, 10 years down the road or will they stop the money, leaving the cost up to each district? Taxpayers will pay for the additional expense of teachers, staff, buildings, etc., which estimates to be millions of taxpayers' dollars. And kindergarten isn't even mandatory. That's an expensive tax increase for less expensive, tax-funded daycare.
As of now, it will not be made law for all schools to have all-day kindergarten, but left up to each corporation to decide. If there isn't overwhelming evidence that this is beneficial, why is it so discretionary? We are also hearing the debate over moving the cut-off date to begin kindergarten from June 1 to September 1. Indiana is the only state with the June 1 date. If, as a state, we are having a situation with the cut-off date not being in sync with other states, what's going to happen if/when each corporation will be able to decide about all-day kindergarten? Once one school corporation institutes all-day kindergarten, others will be pressured to do so also, competing for the same clients, new residents. We are pushing our children too hard too fast for our benefit, not theirs.
A favorite song of mine is titled, "Let the Children be Children" with the chorus singing, "Let the children be children. It's OK to be a kid for a while. Let the children be children. It all goes by in just a flash of a smile. Let the children be children. Please let it last."
