Published: July 03, 2009 06:39 pm         

Readers' Forum: July 5, 2009

Programs make college more affordable for all

One of the keys to turning our economy around is ensuring America continues to have a well-educated, highly skilled workforce. Over the course of a lifetime, a worker with a college degree will earn nearly $1 million more than one with only a high school diploma. But unfortunately, the rising cost of a college education is preventing many talented Hoosiers from reaching their full potential.

In 2007, Congress passed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, the largest investment in college financial aid since the GI Bill. The bill cut the interest rate for undergraduates with subsidized loans in half, as well as expanded and strengthened the Federal Pell Grant program. I want to ensure eligible Hoosiers take advantage of these new opportunities, so I wanted to let you know that a number of these provisions went into effect July 1.

• Cheaper interest rates on certain federal student loans: Interest rates on subsidized federal student loans will decrease from 6 percent to 5.6 percent. Congress approved cutting the interest rate on these loans in half over five years, which studies estimate will save Indiana student borrowers an average of $2,140 to $4,140 over the life of their loans.

• Higher Pell Grant scholarships that cover the average tuition at public universities: Thanks to funding provided by both the College Cost Reduction and Access Act and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the maximum Pell Grant scholarship for the 2009-2010 school year will be increased to $5,350. This is more than $600 above last year’s award and will assist bright students from modest means to access the dream of a college education.

These programs provide important tools to keep college affordable for Hoosier students and families. As we work to turn the economy around, I will continue to look for other common sense ways to ensure Indiana has the well-educated, highly-skilled workforce that is critical for long-term economic strength.

Rep. Brad Ellsworth

U.S. Congress

8th District, Indiana

Progress will require all sides working together

I read with interest Ann McCammon’s letter in the Sunday, June 28, Tribune-Star and have several comments.

Ann mentioned angry liberals and suggested if they but reconsidered, they would see their liberalism was wrong. I consider myself a liberal. However, I am not an angry liberal, but a sad liberal. I am sad that in this country of vast abundance, conservatives and liberals choose not to work together for the common good. Since when has the word “compromise” become such a dirty word? Until both extremes decide to meet somewhere in the middle (and yes, that means neither side getting their way) we will continue to wallow in this mess that both liberals and conservatives have gotten us into.

I am sad that we spend much too much time trying to label each other and blame each other instead of trying to find common ground and find real solutions to our problems.

Ann also seems to forget (along with lots of other conservatives) that the bailouts were begun under the former conservative Republican president and Republican-controlled Congress. You can’t blame everything on liberals and HIM (whoever HE is supposed to be)!

As for our “best health care system in the world”, she may be right. That is, if you do not have a chronic disease that makes you uninsurable. As one of those uninsurables, even basic health care is often more that I can bear financially. And while there may be state-run health insurance programs, many working citizens cannot afford them or don’t even qualify for them. If that’s the case, then this health care system is the worst system in the world.

As for my experience in Canada when I had an allergic reaction to a meal, I was seen by a doctor (not a nurse) within 15 minutes of arriving at the emergency room and paid only a minimal amount. No health care system is perfect, but again, in this country of vast abundance, when working Americans who pay taxes cannot afford basic health care or prescription drugs, there is a major problem. Health care costs in this county are way out of control.

If as Ann McCammon thinks, this is the best health care system in the world, why do we not have the healthiest, longest living people in the world? I hope that she never loses her health care benefits. If she did, she might be singing a different tune.

Instead of building bridges to nowhere, our government should be providing for the BASIC safety, health and education of its citizens, and that means ALL of its citizens.

— Ronda Parks

Terre Haute

Conference set on forgiveness

I hope to inform your readers of the upcoming second biennial Forgiveness Conference and Workshop. It will be held at CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center on Saturday, Aug. 1, from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. Breakfast and lunch will be served.

Are you troubled, tormented by past experiences — unloving parents and home, abusive parents, a former friend’s betrayal, escaping from a violent country fearing for your life, witnessing the murder of loved ones, the end of a painful marriage? It doesn’t matter how small or how big your victimization: If it bothers you and interferes with your ability to enjoy life, it is important.

I am not a professional therapist, but I do know that you don’t have to continue to suffer and live in pain. I want you to know that there is hope and healing of your pain through forgiveness. I know because I have done it. I forgave the Nazis, who used me as a guinea pig and murdered my family. I forgave the communists who took away my home and the thousands of acres of land that our family owned. I forgave the kids in Terre Haute who harassed me for 11 years because they didn’t understand me and my foreign customs, and the list goes on.

Only you can heal yourself in this way through forgiveness. It works and you can do it, and I hope to help together with other people who healed themselves through forgiveness.

Registration is $50 per person, including refreshments in the morning, lunch at noon, and a DVD about forgiveness valued at $30. To help some people who can’t afford it, we are offering 10 free admissions for people in need, decided after an interview. Registration is limited to the first 50 people.

Call today, register, come to the conference, repair your world and heal yourself.

Call (812) 234-7881 for more information, or register on the Web at www.candlesholocaustmuseum.org.

— Eva Kor

Founding Director of CANDLES

Survivor of Auschwitz, A-7063

Terre Haute

Why does crime seem to pay?

It makes me so mad and then sad when I go out in my yard and find something has been stolen from me — in the dead of night.

Thieves are always such big cowards.

Where do these immoral, uncaring, irresponsible, bad citizens come from?

Whether one is of a religious belief or not, the Ten Commandments still hold true as the basic human rules to live by.

Where are these people’s parents and elders that never teach their children that stealing from others is just plain wrong.

It’s very discouraging to think your home and yard aren’t safe from immoral, selfish thieves.

In the 25 years I have lived in the same house, I have had two brand new lawn mowers, a full gas can, a huge flower pot with freshly planted geraniums, two bird houses, and today two shiny aluminum garbage cans that were inside my yard and fence, stolen.

It seems to me crime does pay. The thief gets what they want for free, without working for it.

The law-abiding citizen who is very conscientious on being a friendly, non-confrontational neighbor, gets punished for being “good and honest.”

I still believe honesty and good will toward others is best, but I am still outraged at such bad behavior.

Just for my own venting, what good does it do to be a good citizen and good neighbor?

I awoke in the middle of a robbery two years and five months ago right across my alley. I did not even hesitate! I called the police immediately, without even thinking. I kept calling them, too. But because of not caring about what might happen to myself, I ID’d the two guys. They did get chased and caught. I have always been poor, a single mom and (knock on wood) none of my four kids have ever been in trouble with the law for stealing. Parents need to be vigilant. If they don’t teach their children, from the cradle, it is wrong to steal from others, who will?

I doubt any part of this will see the editorial page.

For the record, I am one of four children of the same Koester family who delivered the Terre Haute Tribune-Star, and afternoon papers. My three brothers and I have pounded and folded 15 million papers and delivered them, on our own, without parents’ help, through the years. I am almost certain I was one of Terre Haute’s first “papergirls”. I started delivering papers in 1968. A few years later the now deceased Janice Thomas, the late daughter of the late Kenny Thomas, who was in Terre Haute politics for years, and our straight across the street neighbor, was probably the second papergirl in town.

Yes, I know I write long run-on sentences. I love to write!

If any live person at all reads this, thank you for listening to one good, proud, honest and caring citizen in Terre Haute, if that is worth anything at all.

The bad guys always win.

— Paula Koester

Terre Haute

Sorting out vagaries of tax abatements

It’s not often that the Local and Bistate section has so many articles that are as interesting as last Wednesday’s paper (July 1). First, of course, was the article about the train at Deming Park. I thought it was very nice of them to ask people to donate the money, at least at first. It is always good when a part of government tries to ask for the money from citizens, instead of the usual method.

Then there was the Air Pollution folks who had their revenue cut off. They didn’t bother to ask for donations.

The real interesting story, though, was the one about abatements. If you didn’t get a chance to read it, you should. Howard Greninger’s story detailed that the Vigo County Council determined that the companies that received abatements were in compliance, even though they weren’t in compliance. I’ve always appreciated the exact and specific nature of tax abatement language, but I digress.

The story then went on to clearly state, at least for three companies cited in the article, that each of them was not at all in compliance with the “specific conditions of future numbers of jobs and salaries”, agreed to in their statements contained in their respective abatements.

How can those “specific conditions” be both true and false at the same time? Now there’s a question citizens of Vigo County deserve an answer to.

The answer is that those “specific conditions” aren’t specific at all. That’s the magic of economic development language. It sounds seriously meaningful when in reality it is completely and totally meaningless. When something can mean anything, it can, and does, usually mean nothing at all.

If you are a property taxpayer, you should think about that in the next few weeks when you get your property tax bill. You might want to give your council member a call when you do.

— Ryan Cummins

Terre Haute

Ah, the irony

In a hateful and angry letter published June 28, Ann McCammon rails against hateful and angry letters. Odd.

— Saul Rosenthal

Terre Haute