Published: June 19, 2009 04:57 pm         

Readers' Forum: June 21, 2009

All railroad crossings should have lights for safety

We recently lost another dear friend, neighbor and relative to a train at another unmarked crossing with nothing more than an “X” on a sign mostly hidden by undergrowth. If this were an isolated incident, we could shrug it off and say “things happen,”

BUT — it is not an isolated incident and it is not going to stop until our representatives get their heads and wallets out of the dark warm place that they are in and stop this stupid carnage that can easily be prevented. Every year we lose local drivers, family members, farmers and strangers to these crossings and their deaths go un-noticed because it has now become commonplace.

Every railroad and street crossing is an accident waiting to happen, and recent history proves it surely will happen until we take sensible measures to prevent it.

“Sensible” is not a 50-year-old sign hanging in the brush to remind a driver that there is a rail crossing IMMEDIATELY ahead. And sensible is not requiring the trains to blow their un-nerving, peace-intruding, obnoxious horns 24 hours a day, which OBVIOUSLY do absolutely nothing to prevent accidents.

Any person driving with their windows up, radio on, passenger talking, kids crying or talking on a cell phone will not hear the noise from a train. In fact, one can be stone deaf and still drive with a valid license. If that were an issue, the BMV would require one to be able to hear these nonsensical whistles before receiving a license.

Sensible means that rail companies should be required to have a flashing strobe light at absolutely every rail/street crossing. They cry that the cost prevents such safety measures and wipe their teary eyes on our sleeves, but should one of their executive’s mothers, fathers, children or friends be killed, we would see such lights in effect.

We suffer enough inconvenience in our lives by waiting for rail traffic for hours in our daily commuting without the rail companies killing our folks with inadequate safety measures. Stand up on your hind legs and make some noise. Start by calling every local city and county representative and go up the ladder to state and federal lawmakers. Their numbers are toll-free and are available from the Chamber of Commerce.

— Robert E. Scamihorn

Terre Haute



War — and other tragedies of history

Human history is a history of wars, torture of the women and killing of the weak ones. And anybody who spoke about humanity and love was always punished, crucified or killed. One cannot be great like Alexander the Great without killing in the thousands and the honest, hard-working and kind people were just the ordinary and insignificant people. No historian ever wrote the stories of those people, their joy and sorrow, their thoughts and how they lived, which were the true human history, but wrote the stories of those inhuman murdering villains as the heroes of history.

We need a national army to defend our country, if attacked. But I always wondered why a man in history had to be a soldier, not to defend his country but to kill another man he did not know. We, the human beings, are the same Stone Age savages at heart, in spite of our culture and religions, otherwise how could we talk about Egyptian civilization where the Pharaohs built those useless pyramids to preserve their dead bodies, denying the people money and homes?

How can we call them civilized when some of them married their sisters? Did they ever stop killing others? How could we write about Roman civilization where most of the emperors were cruel incestuous sex maniacs? How civilized were the Romans who went out in the thousands to the arena for entertainment, where one gladiator had to kill another. People gathered with their families to watch a public hanging and enjoyed. So we, the same “civilized savages” have the heavyweight boxing matches when one had to hit the other so hard that he cannot get up. That is about our great culture.

During our time, kings were gone and then came the dictators after World War I. They used patriotism and national pride to rally the “foolish and unthinking” citizens behind them, but had a murdering gang to kill anyone who could expose their villainy. With parades, patriotic songs, propaganda and emotional speeches, they instigated the people to go to war to kill or get killed for them and certainly not for the country.

These leaders used the people to gain immortal fame, but the millions who died and the millions of the widows and orphans found nothing. Those who survived, went back to their towns and villages to build whatever was left, to build a new life until another war would come. Mussolini, Hitler, Tojo and Stalin were good examples of them.

Now the Military Industrial Complex took over our country, used our leaders, whom they create with money as their front covers, and never stopped creating wars to sell their weapons. The common people, too busy with wine and ball games, do not think from where all the terrorists, the Talibans and the Mafia, warlords of Africa or other places get the advanced lethal weapons to kill our soldiers and the innocent people?

Did any Afghan do us any harm or was there any Afghan terrorist? Fourteen of the 19 terrorists of 9/11 were Saudis, but we did not bomb Saudi Arabia. We went to Afghanistan to get our “one-man enemy,” Osama bin Laden, hiding there. Nobody asks why our brave soldiers should die in Afghanistan? What patriotic duties are they doing there except for killing a few of the Afghans and making money for the Military Industrial Complex?

But President Obama sent 21,000 more soldiers there to win, but against whom? Please think, we should stop all wars and work for our country that needs more help now. We have no business to bring democracy in far off Muslim countries. I call this a tragedy of history.

— Anil K. Sarkar, MD

Terre Haute



God is source of all life’s processes

The letters of George Bakken (June 7) and Dick Wood (June 14) have ignited a fresh controversy on science and religion in Terre Haute again.

While I agree with Dick Wood that observation of the phenomena is the key to this debate, does one just believe what one wants to believe or is there a process of cause and effect when something is observed?

Does one believe that the earth is flat or is it at the center of the universe?

The medieval view that the earth was the unmoving center of the universe, known as geocentrism, was inherited from the ancient Greeks and systematized in the second century AD by the pagan astronomer Ptolemy.

Although the Ptolemaic system was not actually taught in the Bible, it was easy for the medieval Christian world to read the idea into various biblical texts. The Scripture most commonly cited to prove the geocentric position was Joshua 10:13, which states that in answer to Joshua’s prayer “the sun stopped in the middle of the sky, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day.”

The belief that the earth stood at the center of the universe with all heavenly bodies moving around the earth was correlated with the Christian doctrine that human beings were uniquely related to God as his representatives in the material universe. It seemed so sensible, so obvious, that the most important creatures in the universe would live at its center.

This theological perspective, more typically assumed than stated, combined with the obvious fact that the earth feels stationary and the heavenly bodies look like they are revolving around the earth, made any suggestion to the contrary seem both irreverent and foolish.

All this does not negate the value of religion in human societies. Religion and science are two separate domains of the human experience. Religion performs important functions in human societies. Religion gives us a code of conduct. But God also created a process by which the universe functions.

The days and nights and the seasons are part of that process. Similarly, God also created a process of evolution. This takes place through natural selection, mutations, genetic drift and gene flow.

The mitochondrial DNA found in the cells of females has helped scientists to trace it back to a single woman. They named her “Eve”.

— Khwaja A. Hasan

Wadsworth, Ill.



Civilized America destined to lose

If history could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization. Destroy private property, destroy civilization. This is very blunt, but very true.

Also, from time immemorial, governments have been eager to interfere with the working of the market mechanism and sound money. Their endeavors have never attained the ends sought.

You also will not find anything in any ethical doctrine or teaching of the creeds based on the Ten Commandments that could justify the condemnation of capitalism. Capitalism has provided the masses with the highest standard of living attained in history — drop in infant mortality, successful fights against diseases and famines and plagues, many conveniences, a better life and more time for religion if so chosen. Also, America’s profit-seeking businesses created big business and mass production and are continuously providing goods and services for the satisfaction of the needs of the masses worldwide.

Sound money is an instrument for protection of civil liberties against despotic inroads on the part of governments, in this case the Obama government. Ideologically, sound money belongs in the same class with political constitutions and bills of rights. The postulate of sound money was first brought up as a response to government practice of debasing and deteriorating money. Past experiences of America’s continental currency, paper money of the French Revolution taught what damage government can do to a nation’s currency. What has Obama learned from history? Only how to destroy American currency and American businesses.

Obama government decrees and new printings of trillions of dollars, instead of achieving the particular ends they say they seek, only derange the workings of the market, the soundness of the American dollar, growth of business and employment, and imperils the satisfaction of the needs of consumers, employers, employees and the increasing unemployed.

Today’s multi-interventions by the Obama government with the apparent goal of eventual elimination of the market economy as Obama wants, will beget economic nationalism, but at America’s peril. Economic nationalism eventually begets the loss of private property. And the loss of private property results in the eventual destruction of civilization.

America will not need to look for Third World Countries to help; America will be a Third World Country and Americans will be Third World people. If Obama’s government destroys the market economy and sound money, it will eventually lead to the destruction of private property. Or, if Obama’s government chooses to destroy private property, it will eventually lead to the destruction of the market economy. In either case, civilized America loses.

— Charles Bean

Terre Haute



Dads important to child development

It’s so amazing to watch what happens between a father and his baby. If you slow down and really watch, you too can see amazing things. Dads really do know how to connect with their babies. The relationship that we dads establish with our babies from their very birth is very important, long lasting and crucial to healthy development.

Research confirms that babies are born ready to experience the world through relationships. The way we interact with our babies — through our looks with each other, what we say, how we hold them — helps their brains develop so they can begin to take care of their basic needs. Research also shows that children who have fathers in their lives have reduced contact with the juvenile justice system, lower rates of divorce, are better at solving conflicts (without aggression), have higher grade completion in school and higher incomes, are better problem solvers, and more empathetic and sensitive as adults.

On this Father’s Day, learn more about the importance of social and emotional development in early childhood with a visit to Web sites such as Zero to Three (zerotothree.org), National Association for the Education of Young Children (naeyc.org) and the Indiana Association for Infant & Toddler Mental Health (iaitmh.org).

— Stephan Viehweg

Founding Chair

Indiana Association for Infant

and Toddler Mental Health

Faculty, Riley Child

Development Center,

IU School of Medicine

Indianapolis



A closer look at Madison’s work

I enjoy reading Bruce’s History Lessons in your paper. His column in the June 10 paper was very enjoyable. His “Madison’s original sixteen amendments” was a pleasure to read because I believe they (the sixteen amendments) give students an original meaning to the Bill of Rights.

Mr. Kauffmann did not include the actual (and lengthy) amendments. By visiting noborg.blogspot.com and scrolling down a bit you will see “The People’s Article” which includes seventeen original amendments with my comments, followed by the Bill of Rights, with the preambles included. A liberal (liberal for today) and conservative (for today) reference is included. I hope this aids our understanding of the Bill of Rights.

— Ed Gluck

President of NOBORG

(Nationally Organized Bill

of Rights Group, Inc.)

Terre Haute



Cartoons should not be read by children

Yes! I wrote about the editorial cartoons, but for a very good reason. I try to help children learn to read, using the Tribune-Star.

The subject matter from nationally syndicated cartoonist Tom Toles and others is not suitable for children, any child.

— Van W. Cottom

Terre Haute