June 21, 2008 08:37 pm
—
I came down from Indianapolis to help my parents and my aunt and uncle to clean their homes on South 12th Street. While the flood was a tragedy, and people lost their homes and many precious belongings, it does give me hope for the human race when I see family, neighbors, and complete strangers coming together to help each other out in times of need.
Combat-crawling through a slime-infested crawlspace is no fun, but the time I spent in Terre Haute with my family was fun in its own way. Everyone we knew was coming together to help friends and family, we had old memories literally washed up to the surface, and we all learned that material possessions are really not what is important — it’s the people in your life that you have to lean on.
I saw real solidarity among the community during my five days in Terre Haute. Let’s remember that it doesn’t have to take a disaster to bring that out. The people that I grew up living next to on South 12th Street are wonderful neighbors who have never hesitated to lend a helping hand to my parents or me.
In the time of disaster, those neighbors went above and beyond neighborly and were like angels to a great many people. I thank them, and all the many people who I know and who I don’t know, who helped out my family. I thank the Latter Day Saints, who slogged through three inches of water in my aunt and uncle’s basement, dragging out appliances and waterlogged Elvis collectibles.
I thank the Red Cross, whose volunteers brought much-appreciated hot meals and cold drinks.
I thank the members of St. Mark Church, who have helped my family immensely.
Terre Haute really does have a strong sense of community, and at least on South 12th Street, people know the true definition of “neighbor.”
— Anna Rees
Indianapolis
The ‘village’ must rally to help children
Our children need your help. We’ve all heard the African proverb that states “It takes a village to raise a child”. We’ve heard presidents quote it, presidents’ wives quote it, congressmen, legislators and school board members quote it. Usually it’s quoted when the intent is to get us pumped up about some new effort at educational transformation being made.
Many of us have said it ourselves as we discussed our frustrations with education. But do we really believe this proverb? If we believed, and based our decisions on this truism, what would our community look like?
Come dream with me for a moment. In this village you are comfortable patronizing your favorite fast-food restaurant, because you know that at least during school hours employers are adhering to state requirements for employing our young people. Because our community’s employers are concerned for the educational well-being and physical needs (i.e., rest) of our children, you would not see hotels, restaurants, retailers, factories, etc., having our students work late hours.
Although the data shows that the fastest-growing segment of our workforce is that of the hourly worker, at least here, in our community, or village if you will, there would be a commitment to the total development of our children. Imagine it … businesses would join with schools to mentor, offer internships, share their knowledge and join in the effort. There would be no need to complain about the lack of qualified employees, because our joint efforts would ensure the development of the “total student” and reduce our community’s “brain drain”. Rather than discussing the legitimacy of ISTEP, the time and resources committed to it; ISTEP would be a blip on the screen because our schools would have the resources needed to provide support for those of our children needing alternatives.
Enough of the dream, now for the reality. Many of our young people are forced to choose between education and working to bring money into the home. It’s a tough choice. What would you choose?
Fortunately, many of us haven’t had to make that choice. But this is reality for many of our young people. Why should they focus on math and English when there’s no electricity or food in the house? How can they earn credits towards a diploma if they are too tired — after getting off work at 12:30 in the morning?
How can schools make AYP (Annual Yearly Progress) if these students aren’t passing ISTEP? Each time one of our students is forced to choose employment over education, we as a village lose. The data shows us that dropping out increases the likelihood of low-level employment and poverty. It’s a vicious cycle, and our children and ultimately our village are the victims.
We are in a battle for the lives of our children and for this community — we cannot afford to lose. If we accept that, “It takes a village to raise a child” it means that each child is priceless. It means that each child is worth the fight. It also means that it takes each of us to be in the battle. We need our committed educators, on the frontline, teaching in the trenches and challenging each child to become all they were intended to be.
It’s going to take businesses, our village merchants, willingly working within state laws for employment and offering your time and talent to expand our resources and broaden the employment picture.
Retirees, our village elders, keepers of our heritage, we so need you to share your wealth of knowledge and experience with our young people.
Law enforcement, our village warriors, we need you to continue to guard and protect our youth from the plague of gangs and addiction.
University’s, churches, community agencies, we also need you to report for duty. Legislators, our village council, we need funding to provide services for those of our children that are at the greatest risk of dropping out. Yet this army won’t be ready for battle without you.
Parents/guardians, the chiefs of this village. You are so important to our victory. Your commitment to your pivotal role determines our success. You have the enormous responsibility of raising a whole, healthy, well-adjusted, educated, contributing member of society.
But you are not in this alone. You have a whole village of supporters!
— Scotia Brown, counselor
McLean Education Center
Learn more about Muhammad
In her June 8 column in the Tribune-Star, Washington Times columnist Diana West discusses what the Koran really says. Incidentally, June 8 was the death anniversary of Prophet Muhammad (he died on June 8, 632).
The Koran is but one component of the Islamic Trilogy that consists of the Koran, The Hadiths (sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad) and The Sira (the biography of Prophet Muhammad).
It is important, for understanding Islam, to study the life of Prophet Muhammad, perhaps even more than the Koran itself; for Prophet Muhammad is regarded in Islam as the Ideal Man (Insaan-e-Kameel) to be emulated by all Muslims. Besides, the biographies of Prophet Muhammad
make more interesting reading than
the Koran!
The following is a selection of biographies of Prophet Muhammad that are affordable and are easy to find today:
• “Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources” by Martin Lings.
• “Twenty Three Years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad” by Ali Dashti and F.R.C. Bagley.
• “In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad” by Tariq Ramadan.
• “The Truth About Muhammad” by Robert Spencer.
• “Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet” by Karen Armstrong.
• “Understanding Muhammad: A Psychobiograhy” by Ali Sina.
— Ramachandra B. Abhyankar
Terre Haute
With theaters, good ones are gone now
On May 18, and 21, Stephanie Salter wrote about ethnic backgrounds on people living on the north side in Terre Haute, and about how much money they make and how much their homes cost etc.
What’s all that got to do with businesses locating in the Plaza North Shopping Center is what I would like to know?
What is she, a real estate agent or a reporter?
The old Plaza Theater she mentioned was once probably one of the best movie theaters in Terre Haute, along with the Village, the Grand, The East Side and North Drive-ins. All the good theaters are gone.
Oh yeah, don’t want to forget about Towne South and the original Honey Creek Cinemas.
The Meadows may still be going, but it’s not like it was when it was owned by General Cinemas. The Indiana was once a pretty good theater back in the days when it was a real movie theater.
Now it’s like a circus side show. You can’t tell if it’s a movie theater or a vaudeville act.
It’s about like that old relic of a theater here in Brazil.
Some Chambers of Commerce may be worth something, but I haven’t seen anything the one in Clay County is doing toward progress in Brazil. Fact is, I don’t think they’ve done anything to try and persuade Family Dollar or a local independent newspaper to stay in Brazil.
They acted like they didn’t care one way or the other.
It’s about as useless as that Hoosier State Press Association. I can’t figure out what it’s good for either?
On politics, they need to get this guy Daniels out and this fall I hope the right candidate goes up against him and wins.
I got two more letters to write in the upcoming months, one about Rockville and a real true story about cell phones.
It may take awhile before the readers get to read this since this is by regular mail. Most of us know that e-mail or fax gets published quicker, which is the reason I’m only sending two more letters because it takes too long for them to get published, one in July, one in August.
Until next time, take care and be fair.
— John J. Weddle
Brazil
Right action could lower gas prices
According to a recent article by Kevin G. Hall (www.mcclatchydc.com
/227/story/40360.html) the price of oil and gasoline could easily be brought back to reasonable levels If the president and Congress would act in three critical areas:
Here are some excerpts from the article worth noting (with minor editing on my part).
“1. Perhaps the quickest action, the experts say, would be ordering curbs on financial speculation. Financial industry heavyweights have acknowledged in recent testimony before Congress that such speculation is driving oil prices higher.
“Pension funds, endowments and other big institutional investors are pumping big money into index funds linked to commodities, including oil, driving up demand — and prices. The popular Goldman Sachs Commodities Index attracted $260 billion in investment last year, compared to $13 billion five years earlier.
“Complicating any effort to harness that, about 30 percent of the trading in crude oil is done in “dark areas” — markets in London and Dubai — that aren’t regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
“President Bush could order the CFTC to regulate U.S. investments in those markets with a snap of his fingers, said Michael Greenberger, a law professor at the University of Maryland and a former director of trading for the CFTC.
“‘Essentially this could be ended this afternoon if the Bush administration had the stomach to do it,’ he said. ‘Those abdications of responsibility and allowing these exchanges to trade in “dark” markets … provides an environment for speculators to thrive.’
“2. A second partial solution would be to boost the supply of oil available on the market by releasing as much as 1 million barrels a day of oil now held in the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Do that for 90 days — through the summer driving season when consumer demand for gasoline is highest — and the reserve would lose less than 15 percent of the oil held in case of national emergency.
“‘Put that on the market, and the price of oil will fall,’ said Daniel J. Weiss, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
“Finally, the Federal Reserve could act to boost the weak dollar, which has led oil producers to demand higher prices for oil, because oil generally is traded in dollars. Oil producers want higher prices to offset the cost of converting dollars into euros and other currencies that have grown stronger against the dollar.
“The best way to bolster a currency is to boost interest rates, but the Federal Reserve has been reluctant to do that with America teetering on the brink of recession. The central bank in Europe, where growth is more robust, is poised to raise rates, however. That could weaken the dollar further, and drive oil prices even higher.”
And for my own part, those folks who are screaming to open ANWR for drilling forget that when Alaska was first opened for exploration and drilling, much of that oil was sent overseas.
The precise same thing would happen again as American oil companies are far more interested in high profits over the security and lifestyles of American citizens.
IF ANWR and coastal drilling were to be opened, it should be with the clear caveat that the oil MUST remain for use by Americans in America.
— Don Arney
Terre Haute
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.