Letters To The Editor

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Published: August 30 2024

I am Reta Williams. I am currently working on a School Song Project. I am trying to find and preserve the school fight songs of Indiana high schools that were closed due to consolidation.

Last November Dana Hunsinger Benbow of the Indy Star interviewed me and wrote an article about the project that was in the Star, both in print and online, last December. That was just the jumpstart the project needed, although I
have used many other ways to advertise the project. In some ways it has been a daunting project, but in other ways it has been really fun.

I have a list of 719 schools and have found 535 songs. My goal is to get at least 600.

My husband and I visited Salem and Washington County about three weeks ago. We went to the museum, the library and talked to the county historian. Out of six schools, I have two – Pekin and Campbellsburg.

My best resources have been people. When I can find the right contact, I usually get some really positive results.

Thanks so much.

Reta Williams

Editor's Note:  To respond to Reta's request for help, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 812-883-3281.

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Published: June 06 2024

Americans do not mind a “left” or a “right” viewpoint. What they object to are the elites who carry on as if they know more, have better qualifications, or have more vision for the future of the nation than the average constituent. One major difference between a politician in power today and the average American is in their sense of timing. The average head of household can see the beginnings of a crisis. 

 The average American actually acts to head a crisis off at the pass. A politician will wait until an event becomes a crisis. Joe Biden is typical. Eight months and 35,000 lives later Joe finally gives the speech he believes necessary to justify the slaughter. He is like most politicians in that he waits for events to develop before he offers a moral perspective on the solutions necessary. By that time the proper analysis has become superfluous and a murderous war now requires an escalation of power or rhetoric. 

 Tell us how you really feel Joe, just do it a little bit sooner? So mad at Hamas for months, huh?

 When millions of innocent civilians were not provided any means of escape and our bombs started dropping, the average American would have decried the slaughter and halted arms shipments immediately. The average American would have sent a full team of social, political, and military experts to the region the day after the October attack…not just because they are an “ally”, but because they have the same military capability from our supply that the Nazis had prior to WW2. 

 The average American would have performed a better analysis and exhibited more common sense. 

 All of us hate politicians because they make the entire nation look bad. We hate them because they demonstrate the duplicity of policy between our social welfare and our economic welfare. We hate them because they see history repeating itself, and doing so because our power elites actually want it that way. We hate them because politicians also like to rewrite our history without leading all of us to define it for ourselves. We hate politicians because of the hypocrisy between the sources of their income and ours, the lack of vision and ours, and the self-serving nature of their alliances. 

 We hate politicians because they cast the Holocaust in terms of a slaughter of Jews instead of an atrocity against innocents. They use anti-semitsm as a reason to always remember the Holocaust instead of educating the world regarding the primary evil in the hearts of many cultures, that of genocide. They wait on the improper use of our weapons to decide that the Jewish people have a right to do with them. They finally declare (from the State Department) that arms violations might have happened, but still excuse them by stating that “things get confusing in wartime.”

 Politicians like to see how events unfold before they actually do anything to make a difference. For eight months Joe Biden sat in the Oval Office day after day. Even after the missile attack on the food convoy he remained silent. His lack of action was no different than Donald Trump’s silence during the January 7th capital riots. 

 Give any honest American just one day in the Oval Office for every day a president failed to act as a moral leader and (s)he would be able to serve 3 terms with days left over to hand to another citizen. 

 Mark Ahearn, may 13, 2024

Carson City, NV. 89706

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Published: June 05 2024

Nov. 22, 1963…We in this country, in this generation, are - by destiny rather than choice - the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of “peace on earth, good will toward men.” John F. Kennedy

 These words, never given after his death, are still alive. However, in the last 60 years our nation has failed to maintain the legacy that he intended.It has failed to continue with the merits he spoke of when he addressed the state of Texas before that open limousine ride. It has failed to keep the party system healthy and viable for all Americans. It has yet to fix a failing electoral system, a failing criminal justice system, a greedy financial system, and a myriad of untrustworthy information systems.  

 In the 60 years of history since his death, most of our decision makers have illustrated their ability to substitute weapons for moral policy making, their lack of respect for the honest people who place them in these positions with the party/voting systems they control, and worst of all their greed for power. JFK was taken from us early because our nation was not worthy then and it was demonstrated that it is not worthy now. Landing a man on the moon was not his only intention and all of us know it. 

 Let all of us review our common national history, the politicians we have elected, and the casual result of each and every electoral and policy decision made since. Let us understand the scandals in the light of human foibles and incompetent rationalizations. Let us see ourselves as only 5 percent of the global population that flaunts 60% of its military power and consumes as many resources…”that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility…” Certainly not a prayer that we have answered as a nation.

 The nations of the world see us as a failed democracy in much the same way they saw us as a failed democracy during the depression of 1930. They saw how capitalism and democracy would never be able to coexist because a greed for power and money would always subvert our best intentions. In the case of money we get depressed. In the case of power we get a failing government. Democrats and Republicans both may as well be single parties because both are two aspects of the same government. 

 It has been said that the beginning of the next world war will start with a conflagration in the Middle East. JFK knew, as much or more than anyone, that peace among nations is delicate and tenuous; and that it requires wisdom and restraint. These may be the two most important words in our history at this moment for the decision makers we have placed in charge of our government. We have only to look at the lack of corrective results from Vietnam or Iraq-2 to understand the beginnings of WW-3. 

 During Vietnam the people of the nation had no control over the destructive actions of the government any more than they have control over Joe Biden now. He seems to be able to do what he wants regarding Iran without a declaration of war from  the US Congress, which is even more dishonorable now than during Iraq-2…Iran and the world sees us as a failed democracy and why shouldn’t they?

 I entrusted the attached essay to the vagaries of the nation’s information systems. 

 Mark Ahearn, 

Carson City, NV.

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Published: June 04 2024

The nation and the world should fear less from terrorism and more from those who occupy the oval office, as well as other governments who have their fingers on the triggers of the planet’s weapons. If George Bush taught us nothing, it was how a nation plays into the hands of those with more strategic military intelligence than ever to demonstrate foreign policy leadership before it is too late. 

Let me refer the nation to the Cuban Missile Crisis a few short decades ago. After being burned by military advisors, similar to the ones in the Bush Whitehouse, JFK understood the motivations of hawks. Not just our hawks, but all of those intent on the exercise of power in the form of weapons used to conquer territories and resources at the expense of civilian lives. The Bay of Pigs taught JFK how military powers operate, what their motivations are, and how they do end-runs around our best interests. 

Ever since Vietnam, we have had career politicians performing leapfrogs over sound and wise policy making to their own place on the world stage. The Rumfelds of the world started in Vietnam and (re)appeared in history in Iraq-2. The Iran-Contra policies of Regan are also now front and center as Israel has become nothing but an international weapons broker, supplier, and now full on user. 

The state of Israel has been a foreign policy issue for the United States for decades. Joe Biden has stated (during his time in the Senate) that “if Israel did not exist after WW-2, we would have created it.” His devotion to the state belies a serious lack of policy acumen. His private talks with Natanhayhu have done nothing to educate the world on the issues, the most constructive reactions, or to dictate a policy of peace making for the planet at large. His warnings to Iran have only added fuel to the fire and his lack of understanding regarding how situations must be deescalated are wanting. 

Joe Biden must act more like a statesman and less like an Oval Office Politician. He must go on national television, outline all of the issues, decry the destruction of property and loss of life on the part of an “ally” using our weapons, and offer direct and transparent policy the way JFK has demonstrated. He must disavow the way our weapons are being used. He must demand that Neranyahu stand down and begin humanitarian aid immediately. Lastly, he must tell Israel that they must take responsibility for the consequences of their policies and they will not be getting any more weapons in the future.

This is Joe Biden’s last chance to redeem any semblance of foreign policy leadership. He must begin to move away from the decades of weapons centric policies and begin equitable strides towards peace. 

Mark Ahearn

Carson City, NV. 89706