Editor, Times-Union: Plant A Row, or PAR, was formed when a garden writer challenged his readers to plant an extra row for the hungry. My 4-H club, the Milford Successful 4-Hers, decided to participate in this program to help out our community.
Combined Community Services and Our Father's House have helped our community greatly; they still need help filling their shelves. PAR can help. Both CCS and Our Father's House have expressed interest in obtaining fresh produce.
If you keep a garden, all you have to do is plant an extra row of vegetables (root vegetables stay fresh longer), and donate the harvest to your local food bank. It's that easy.
The Milford Successful 4-Hers have been given almost 2 acres of ground on which to plant sweet corn. John Zimmerman of Milford, Pioneer Seed of Milford and Clunette Elevator are all helping with this endeavor.
You to can help others in our community, just by planting an extra row. In a generous and prosperous county like ours, no one should have to go hungry.
Ian Donahoe Vice President
No Recognition
Editor, Times-Union: I am a graduating high school senior at Tippecanoe Valley High School, and have committed much of my life to my education. I have worked hard and due to this I have become a member of the top 10 in my graduating class. One would think that this would be something that would be rewarded and acknowledged by my school. However, this was not the case at Tippecanoe Valley's Awards Program Monday night. Myself and nine of my fellow classmates were robbed of the recognition that we deserved for our hard work and dedication. Due to the incompetence of our school administration, the top 10 academic students were not recognized because no one took the time to finalize and announce who they were. The fact that no one took the time to do this is ridiculous. My friends and I have spent the past 13 years of our lives putting in the time and effort to receive this honor. I would think that someone employed by the school, whether it be a principal, superintendent, or janitor would be able to donate three to four hours of their time calculating who our top students were, but that was not the case. Tippecanoe Valley showed lack of respect, courtesy, and regard for its top students on this night. I for one am furious and ashamed at Tippecanoe Valley High School for allowing this travesty to occur.
Aaron Foster Mentone
Immigration
Editor, Times-Union: As we debate the issues of illegal immigration we should recognize that there are two levels of response. We tend to emphasize one view over another and in doing so fail recognize the truth of both. Some emphasize the human rights and religious implications of how we address immigrants but avoid the effect of the immigrants on our culture. Of course we must value all persons and recognize their implicit and eternal worth. But not in a vacuum.
Others emphasize purely the legal and justice aspects to the problem and correctly point out that laws are being broken. Their concerns are equally valid. Laws exist for good reasons and should be enforced or repealed, not simply ignored. Otherwise we become a society overrun, helter skelter, by vast numbers of uncontrolled immigrants. But an abrupt and overly harsh application of the law is often simply a smokescreen for racial and ethnic bigotry.
There is yet another level we ought to look at as well. It comes in the form of a question. Why are all these people coming here? The most obvious answer is that it is based on economics. What are some factors driving the economics? One has to do with United States policy on food.
I used to wonder why so many people gathered and protested at the economic summits in various parts of the world. These summits are attended usually by the eight richest and most powerful nations. Thus, they are called G-8 summits. A lot of the protesters are the poor or itinerant farmers. What are they so upset about? Here is part of the answer.
The global food supply is controlled by several international corporations like Altria (the new name for the tobacco giant Phillip Morris), General Mills, Conagra, and several others. These companies have control over the total food production chain - land, finances, seeds, milling, and on and on it goes.
From here things get worse for the world's poor, small farmers, and have-nots. U.S. corporate farms get subsidies from our government. These subsidies come in price supports, tax incentives, and actual cash payments. U.S. corn sells in Mexico for 25percent of the cost of production. But in Mexico 60 to 70 percent of the people make their living in agriculture. Our cheap corn can run them out of business. They are then forced to sell their land and go to work for - you guessed it - the agribusinesses. This dynamic brings to mind the words of songwriter Bruce Cockburn: "modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom." There should be little wonder that we have an influx of people coming from Mexico and other Latin American countries under these circumstances.
It is a fair point that justice demands we enforce our laws on immigration. It is just as fair to insist that our nation reconsider its policies of favoring huge corporations at the expense of human beings and whole cultures. If we fail to do so we will continue to experience more immigrants coming here and, worse, our words about justice, democracy, and inalienable rights will ring just as hollow as our current immigration policy.
