Editor, Times-Union: I am writing to remind the people of Warsaw that the topic of "passenger train stops" at Warsaw is still on the legislative table. Amtrak could be coming back to give us direct rail access to Chicago, Fort Wayne and beyond. This information came from a Rail Operations Specialist and also from recent newspaper articles. Sending a message to our federal and/or state legislators can only help them decide how they should move on this subject. They need our imput. Thank you.
Nancy Lee Warsaw via e-mail
South Whitley
Editor, Times-Union: If possible, I would like to use your medium to address the citizens of South Whitley. Fellow citizens, I agree with you 110 percent in regard to the total disregard of the community's feelings concerning Nurse Lee by the school board ... but who put these people in the position where they could totally disregard the majority of the community's feelings?
Seems to me that the general opinion of the Whitley community was disregarded a few years ago when it came to keeping or losing a very successful basketball coach, and who amongst us in the community voted to have our sidewalks torn up, business uptown disrupted, entrances and exits changed or eliminated to many businesses? Well, apparently enough of us did, by either voting for the people on the school board and town council .. or by not voting!
So now what? Well, either we learn from such distasteful decisions and pay more attention at election time, or if that is too much of an effort on all of our parts, then once the elections are over and those who did not vote or simply showed up to vote without really studying the candidates ... you reap just what you sow.
Personally, I have and will continue to support those businesses who have been adversely affected by the desires of a few, and will continue to avoid any businesses that have a connection to those elected officials who seem to have their own agenda with total disregard to what the majority of the citizens of South Whitley desire.
David Bouse South Whitley via e-mail
Globalization
Editor, Times-Union: Diplomats like to play. They get a kick out of creating new words, and then they tack whatever interchangeable definition on it they choose. This ability allows them to hide what they say so they can push what they try to sell.
What kind of a sales tactic is that? Why wouldn't I want to know what you wanted me to buy?
I guess you could call it a lofty, linguistic, intentionally uninterpretable, "Tower of Babble," sort of a taxpayer subsidized Scrabble game.
Their latest contrivance, globalization, was defined as that which will narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. Will it? Well, has it?
Let's get to the bottom of globalization by taking a simple approach.
In a Third World country, they live in mud huts, ride a donkey to work and shop in open-air markets. After buying a week's groceries, they don't have enough spare cash to buy their dog a milkbone.
In our country we live in nice homes, drive a car to work and shop in grocery stores. After buying a week's groceries, many of us don't have enough spare cash to buy our dog a milkbone either, so where's the gap?
That makes the actual task of globalization appear rather simple, in fact, there doesn't appear to be much left to do.
This new word, globalization, is a substitute for the old word, imperialism. Either way, it amounts to the same thing. Imperialism holds some historically harsh connotations, so globalization is nothing more than imperialism with a plastic smiley face like the kind you might find on a campaigning politician or Mr. Potatohead.
Does that mean there isn't a gap? That's not the question. The question is which one is wider, the one between the rich and the poor or the one between the ears of Mr. Potatohead?
Many years ago, when all men spoke the same language, they tried to build a tower then, too. Oh well, Scrabble anyone? I'll let you create and use you own dictionary. With that kind of an advantage, would anyone care to place a bet as to whether we win or loose? There's really no choice as to whether or not you want to play the game. It appears to be the only game in town.
Globalization, man's only hope. You may not want to pay for it, but you want to buy it. Don't you?
