Readers' Forum: May 17, 2007

May 17, 2007 10:47 am

— Neighbors subjected to noise and fears
Ever since my husband and I purchased our residence on Main Street south of the traffic light in Seelyville our ears have been assailed daily by a barrage of gunshot sounds coming from the Lost Creek Conservation Club.
There are times when it sounds like AK-47s that I hear on news reports of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. It sounds like a war zone!
The noise goes on from 8 a.m. (sometimes earlier) until sundown (sometimes later). With daylight-saving time, sundown is getting later and later, so shooting times are getting longer and longer. On Wednesday nights shooting goes on until 10:30 p.m. The noise is sometimes almost unbearable.
One Sunday morning about 7:30 my husband went over to remind a shooter that shooting is not allowed on Sunday mornings. He said he didn’t know what the rules are. One night my husband went over to remind a shooter that it was half an hour after sundown. His response? “I wish there were lights so we could see better.” He had a young boy with him. It didn’t seem like a place for young children.
Some of my neighbors who used to exercise regularly by walking on Main Street, have given up walking there for fear of being clipped by stray bullets. We have been told zoning regulations are being broken, but local officials seem reluctant to enforce them because they are members of the club themselves. I can’t imagine that the club members would like that noise in their own neighborhoods.
If cars driving on Main Street made as much noise as the guns, they would likely be banned. I wonder why citizens of Seelyville have to fear for life and limb and be subjected to this daily cacophony.
— Janet Schlunt
Terre Haute

Citizens have paid for improvements
While I feel there has been progress made in Terre Haute during Mayor Burke’s administration, I disagree with the philosophies he has for the progress that has been made and for it to continue.
When Mayor Burke was MIX-FM’s Big Morning Show, he said more taxes had to be levied because Terre Haute’s population had dwindled. The problem I have with that philosophy to raise money is it usually is the more affluent people who leave a city, and the less affluent are left behind. Then the less affluent lose even more of their money to taxes. Therefore, it is hard to get happy about newly paved streets when it gets harder and harder to make ends meet. It got even harder for me to appreciate newly paved streets when the enterprise zone was eliminated. Because I lived and worked in the enterprise zone, I got $350 back on my state income taxes. This year I had to pay $20.
Mayor Burke also said in the MIX-FM interview that getting the sewer system was of utmost importance in getting new business in Terre Haute. This makes me wonder if city government is looking at only getting manufacturing jobs. Perhaps city officials should also try to see if we can locate a company’s corporate headquarters in Terre Haute. Specifically, Indiana State has been building its insurance program over the past few years, and having an insurance company locate its headquarters here would be of mutual benefit to both an insurance company and Indiana State.
Also, I am dismayed about how the new hotel construction in the downtown came about. However, I feel what’s done is done, and that we should try to see the positives that could come about. Just having new buildings in the downtown area will improve the appearance of the area. Hotel space near the Indiana State campus would an ideal location for ISU job candidates, alumni attending homecoming, and parents attending graduation to stay for those events. If the Hilton Garden Inn and ISU could work together to provide internships to ISU students, that partnership could attract even more students to come to ISU.
Additionally, Mayor Burke doesn’t seem to think that crime is an issue that is keeping Terre Haute from growing. Every day when I’m driving around town, I see new graffiti. After I made a police report concerning graffiti on my garage, I was told that more than 100 graffiti incidents had been reported to the police. Two months have passed since then, so I expect that total is now higher.
If I were thinking about locating a business in Terre Haute, the graffiti rather than nicely paved streets would catch my attention, and I would immediately turn around and go elsewhere.
In conclusion, when Mayor Burke and his supporters point to accomplishments during the Burke administration, it would nice if the citizens were thanked for the additional taxes that they have paid to make these accomplishments possible.
— Debbie Considine
Terre Haute

ICLU’s position wastes court time
The Indiana Civil Liberties Union has now filed suit in federal district court against Indiana’s usage of “In God We Trust” on this state’s automobile license plates. Their position is posited on the basis that this form of speech by governmental authority is an endorsement of religion. That the First Amendment’s “establishment clause” restricts the use of such a phrase as a form of expression and speech which is proscribed by the amendment under the doctrine of separation of church and state.
For those who may have forgotten, take 10 seconds to look at your one-, five-, or 20-dollar bills, and on the back, you will see: “In God We Trust.”
This case will go from Indianapolis’ federal district court to Chicago’s Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and eventually to the United States Supreme Court. Hopefully, these learned nine jurists in Washington will then determine the frivolousness and foolishness of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union’s action given the fact should Indiana’s position be struck down, this will mean all United States currency will have to be retrieved and reprinted to eliminate this phrase from its money supply to accommodate the Union’s position.
This will mean that all American currency held in international banks, by foreign governments in their central banks, international institutional investors, and international currency traders likewise will have to be retrieved from and resubmitted to these institutions by the United States Treasury. The cost associated with such an exercise would be aghastly Herculean. The buck must stop here — in Indiana; leave unfettered this phrase on both license plates and currency, and let the ICLU and its Indiana unit find something else inane to take issue with.
— Earl Beal
Terre Haute

Putting the pieces together on Iraq
Why is the Bush administration so insistent on keeping the Iraq war going until he is out of office? “It’s the economy, stupid!” (Wars always promote a booming economy, more so than without the war.)
Here is another one:
Quit arguing about the two-month vacation the Iraq government says they are going to take. Just tell them we will simultaneously furlough all our armed service personnel in Iraq for the same period.
— Walt Sanders
Terre Haute