The Mail-Journal, Volume 19, Number 48, Milford, Kosciusko County, 15 December 1982 — Page 4
THE MAIL-JOURN AL — Wed., December 15,1982
4
Editorials
'Tis the season The Christmas season is upon us, a season of fellowship and good cheer. ‘Tis the season to help fellowman — and that is what a majority of the people in the Lakeland area are doing this year. Christmas ’tis the season to show love for our neighbors and our communities through acts of kindness and thoughtfulness. With the economy being what it is, without the help of others many families will have a bleak Christmas. However, organizations and individuals are joining together to make sure that the holidays are happy for everyone. One good example of community service was the dinner the Syracuse Veterans of Foreign Wars held for senior citizens last Saturday. Another is the penny pitch held annually by the Wawasee High School student council. The students are working hard to collect funds to spend on others during the holiday season. This was evident at the Warsaw-Wawasee basketball game last Friday night as the students passed a blanket and fans from both towns tossed in coins and dollars alike. We could go on and on — the citizens of North Webster have a community Christmas fund, the Kiwanis clubs are collecting canned goods to use at Christmas, churches are making fruit .baskets and food baskets, the Lions are helping where they can, the 'Jaycees are collecting toys for Christmas giving, the list is endless. People have the desire to make life better and happier for others at Christmas time as those who have share with those who have not. - Christmas customs The custom of sending cards and exchanging Christmas gifts is ancient and widespread. No editor is capable Os affecting the trend much. But a few observations on Christmas customs may be in order. Exchanging cards can bcome a time-consuming, costly and worrisome task, if carried to local extremes. Sending cards to those far away, or who are rarely visited, to special friends and people, etc., is a logical custom. But sending cards to everyone one knows socially, in a “must” atmosphere, afraid of missing someone, is an ordeal. As to gifts, this custom also imposes some hardship on millions of Americans. Society today puts pressure on many to get in the commercial giftexchange scramble. Less emphasis on commercial exchange and more on homemade things, and remembrances, would be appropriate. Keeping up with social “demands” can leave little time for remembering what Christmas is really about. It can make the year s major holiday season an exhausting experience, rather than a time of rest and reflection. Too Many? Every time one turns the comer today a hookworm specimen draped in illfitting Santa attire is confronted. Often this commercial Santa has little of the jolly “ha-ha-ha,“ and is out of place. In every major department store, dropping from almost every airplane in December, on so many television shows, on the street and in every parade, there’s a commercial Santa. For the tot trying to believe the magic story, and look forward to the magic night, it must be confusing. Pride and work Today many recently-arrived Americans are unfamiliar with the traditional work ethic of this nation — one of the character traits which made it the strongest and richest in the world. Newly arrived Americans, or those who have lived in factory towns for generations or in great metropolitan centers where aid programs have been the pathway of politicians to election, might not realize that there are still many in this country too proud to apply for unemployment pay, or welfare. Without arguing the point whether this is good or bad, some still have that pioneering spirit and industry that they must take care of themselves, their families. If they lose a job, they go find another — whatever it is they must do. That might be sweeping the floor, for a time. Not all Americans can exhibit this early American spirit. Some are too old. Some are enfeebled. Some are in other circumstances that make moving, making-do and other temporary adjustments impossible. But many who prefer to draw welfare or unemployment checks (to hustling about to find any work available) can and should do just that. It’s not old-fashioned to be ashamed of applying for unemployment money (from other taxpayers). It’s not old-fashioned to feel that, whatever comes, one can always make a living and iind employment. Many can. They are the ones who still reflect the spirit that made this country what it is, or was.
What others say — He who would play God Imagine that everything you are is protected within a treasure chest and you have the only key. Within the chest, you keep your personality, your sense of humor, the color of your eyes and hair, your temper, the ability to love, that big nose, your height and weight — all the things that make you can individual ; all the things you will pass on to your daughter or your son. The human equivalent of that treasure chests are the cells and genes that make up your body. And you no longer have the only key. Within the last decade, science has discovered how to open the cells of plant and animal life, and through something called genetic engineering, can alter the living cell by changing its chemical code of life. Some call it playing God. Scientists already are using altered cells to produce insulin to treat diabetics. Within 20 years they may be able to correct genetic defects which account for 4,000 human diseases, ranging from sickle cell anemia to cystic fibrosis. But excitement about the medical advances is tempered by the sobering realization that scientists also will be able to produce new life forms. It might be possible to create a real Frankenstein’s monster, and that has raised troubling moral and ethical issues. Should genes be altered? If so, for what purpose? Who protects the individual? The public?... The potential good of genetic engineering is so overwhelming that research restraints should be as minimal as necessary. But because the research also could involve genetic tampering and experimentation repugnant to the ethical and moral values of this country, it should be closely monitored and controlled... These precautions may be the only way to keep the human treasure chest safe from those who would play God with the genetic key. — USA TODAY
EJS Members of the Syracuse Veterans of Foreign Wars post served a Christmas dinner to the senior citizens of the area last Saturday, showing ‘tis the season for sharing and giving. Shown cooking the dinner are Jim Himmeger, senior vice commander; and Fenton Summerlot, house committee membership representative. 8A • WEDNESDAY. DECEMBER 8. 1982 • USA TODAY
t USA TODAY
OPINION
EDGAR BERMAN Guest columnist Memo to the girls: Go wash the (fishes
LE, Md. — Memo to the strudng housewives of Smithfield. R.1., from a friend: Let well enough alone. Ladies of Smithfield, don’t tamper with evolution. The male animal, the fittest since Genesis, is a creature of habit at the will of his DNA. He does what comes naturally, and it will take a mass lobotomy to nudge him toward the dishwasher or dust mop. You can’t make a doberman pinscher into a french poodle. Don’t press your luck. Remember the salinization of Lot’s wife, when she defied that great Chauvinist-in-the-Sky. And that Greek feminist Lysistrata. and her claque, who tried to change never-on-Sun-day into a week-in. week-out affair. Did their warrior spouses ever cease and desist from their favorite blood sport? Take heed also from the Soviet women and where they wound up by complaining. Now. instead of comfortably watching Donohueskovitch over a hot glass of tea on a frozen Siberian mom. they’re out in the cold greasing Dnieper’ dynamos. But that’s only for starters. Natasha is due another four hours of queuing up for a limp head of cabbage, getting dinner on the table, polishing
Unsung heroes —
"More people should get involved/ soys Mike Miller
It’s been a fast two years for Milford fireman Mike Miller It doesn't seem than long ago since be first volunteered for the fire department, but he's still glad he decided to go through with it. it is a necessary thing that more pcoplA should get involved in.” says Miller, i d prefer to run the hose, you get more out of fighting a fire that way.” he said That sense of being active on the scene of a fire has caused him some grief He remembers one fire in particular a year ago at a house. He and another member of the department were going upstairs in the burning house, when be came across a bed In that bed were lumps “1 didn't really want to look. I came upon the bed. pulled back the sheets and it was pillows." “I could really feel the beat and .MIKE .MILLER
Edgar Berman's most recent book is The Compleat Chauvinist. A Guide for the Bedeviled Male. the samovar and rinsing out his sweaty soccer socks without benefit of appliances. Think twice about that nagging strike. His patience is limited. and there are worse things than being occasionally taken for granted. How about not being taken for granted at all?„ Divorced women are subject to extra hazards such as the privilege of dying sooner with coronary artery disease. Who needs to undergo the mental ravages of a stressful commercial life and. if I’m lucky, win out in the lung cancer derby? Take it from me girls, he has his problems too. The boss is always at his heels; that new 18-year-old in the typing pool won’t give him a tumble. So ladies, don’t battle the male windmill. As that preeminent feminist pornographer, Erica Jong put it “Male evolution has not yet reached the point where men are going to share our tasks. They’ll just liberate us into doing two jobs. I think my mother’s generation, which said ’l’ll raise the kids, and a male will support me,’ was more realistic.”
1 thought my time was coming then.'' he said The men left the house fearing the roof could cavein at any second The recent Plymouth tragedy has evoked some extra concern for Miller. “The day you think you got the truck mastered, you're in trouble,” says Miller. “.More firemen have to respect the equipment more. You need to have yourself under control. ” he said Sometimes the excitement of getting to the scene clouds the really important issue, which is to get there m good shape. “I’ve enjoyed every moment I’ve had with the department.” the Brock Bins employee says. “All in all, 1 think it is a great department." Miller is a lifetime resident of Milford and list his hobbies as woodworking and auto repair. He and his wife, Vickie, have one five year-old boy. Jeremy.
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"CRUZIN AROUND 'CUSE"
' JWWI THE SUBJECT of unique Christmas trees seems to taking over. Following our report last week of the unusual coathanger tree at OOPS, an uptown factory outlet, we had several phone calls of other, similarly unusual trees. At the high school, for instances, are three trees worthy of mention. One is in the faculty lounge and done up by PE instructor Cindy Peterson, Cindy has been doing the faculty lounge decoratieesfor the past six years. This year’s tree was donated by Verland Bockman of Bockman Nursery and Greenhouse, located on the Armstrong Road southwest of North Webster. Two other trees at the school deserve note. The smaller tree in the principal’s outer office is green of course, decorated with gold balls and gold tinsel, giving a play on school colors. Just outside the office is a sign stating, “Have a Gold and Green Spirited Christmas.” All this is the handiwork of secretaries Janet Hamman and Nancy Glon. A larger, nine-foot tree, the work of teacher Ron Corson and the student council, is situated between the busts of George Washington and Chief Wawasee. 4t is beautifully decorated and served as an ° appropriate piece as fans entered the school’s east door during the Wawasee-Warsaw basketball game Friday night. AN EQUALLY nice Christmas tree is the one that graces the lobby of the State Bank of Syracuse, put up and decorated by the bank’s employees. Each year the bank does a highly creditable job of decorating its lobby in the Yuletide spirit, and it’s always worth looking at. AND SPEAKING of school events. Eve Payne of North Webster, president of the girls’ track Booster's Club, wants it known they are still selling Wawasee license plates (for $3.50 each), and she’s touting them as an appropriate Christmas present. The Boosters began with 88 plates and still have a number of them left, on sale at Pat Speicher's Insurance at Milford, Metcalf & Payne Plbg. and Htg. at North Webster and at boys’ and girls’ basketball games. The money will go towards the purchase of sweat suits for the track team, so says ambitious Eve. And she let’s all who will listen know that the girls' basketball team is 9-0 now, while the boys have a 3-2 record. And she notes that the girls’ track team won the Northern Lakes Conference championship last year. • She adds. “We have a very successful track program at Wawasee.” ■k <fliS MOST ALL local basketball games have their high points and their low points. A low point occurred in the Friday night game against the Warsaw Tigers when the Warriors went into a slump following an early lead. It was at this time the above photo was taken.
The Mail-Journal Employee Phil Price Phil Price is a junior at Wawasee High School and works as a maintenance engineer at the Milford plant of The Papers Incorporated. He was born in Elkhart and worked for Apple Valley Orchard before beginning work here this fall. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Mike Price of Syracuse and enjoys hunting, skiing, snowmobiling and boating.
Shown are regular Warrior followers whose spirits wax and wane with the fortunes of their favorite team. Easily identified are Jay and Susie Brouwer, Jon Sroufe, Charlie Brouwer, Bill and Barbara Beemer, Ric Schackel and Tom Prickett, all long-time local sports enthusiasts. Brouwer is Kosciusko County surveyor and Schaekel is a former basketball coach at West Noble High School. Prickett’s interest in local basketball goes back to the days of the Syracuse Yellow Jackets. A HIGH point in the above-mentioned ball game came when tall Ron Spuner intercepted a pass and went down to do a doublehanded slamdunk. Right at that time it was something Warrior fans needed, and they came to their feet as one. The applause was deafening. Spuner is a senior and measures 6 feet, 11 inches, easily the tallest player seen on local floors for some time. One only wishes he had a year or two remaining to play. Then on Saturday night at Triton Big Ron played the entire game in front of scouts and turned in 30 points. It should be said, however, that Triton went into the game with only seven players, none of them very tall. ONE OF the local issues discussed at the Syracuse-Wawasee Chamber of Commerce board of directors last Wednesday morning was the need for a new Syracuse town hall. President Henry Smith, who chaired the meeting, said the following statement was adopted: “The chamber of commerce supports the need for the construction of a new town hall, but is concerned about the cost involved under the current economic conditions locally, state-wide and nationally.'* Smith said the chamber feels the need to unify all forms of city government and to put it under one roof. “We need it (the proposed town hall),” Smith said. SUPERINTENDENT OF the Indiana state police John Shettle was in Syracuse Saturday morning to speak before the local Kiwanis Club and a host of visiting Kiwanians. He concerned himself with the operation of the state police, their problems, most of them being financial. It reminded the superintendent of another time he visited Syracuse. It was in February 1978 when he issued a commendation to citizen Edward D. Napier, r 2 Syracuse, for his part in apprehending two young men who had just broken into the Village branch of the State Bank of Syracuse. Napier was practically an eye-witness to the robbery, saw one of the youths run to a waiting car, which quickly sped off. Napier pursued the car, got on his citizen band car radio and alerted local police and state police from the barracks at Ligonier. As a result the two men Were apprehended some 15 minutes after the robbery occurred. “This is the kind of citizen participation we need to assist in our law enforcement efforts,” said superintendent Shettle at the time. The superintendent was introduced by Edward T. (“Ted”) Cockram. 159 North Shore Drive, a club member formerly of Indianapolis. (Note: Photo and account of the Saturday meeting appears on page 2.) THE SYRACUSE Public Library board is advertising for a part time custodian to take the place of Carroll Koble, who has held the job for a good many years and has been surprised at the response to its advertisement. To date no replacement has been engaged. SPORTS ENTHUSIASTS always seem to know more than the rest of .us when it comes to predicting results, and last week’s Mail-Journal Basketball Contest winner is no exception. Charles Frushour said he was a little worried when he picked Wawasee over Warsaw (Warsaw won 59-55) but despite that miscue he still ended up getting the most correct picks. Eight more high school and college games are on tab this week and each weekly winner is awarded $5 and an opportunity for the Grand Prize of SIOO in cash to be awarded during the boys’ basketball state tournament. Although Mail-Journal employees can’t be in the contest, this week Crazin’ will go on the record with these picks just for fun: Goshen over Lakeland. Wawasee over Northridge. Wawasee boys over Columbia City. Indiana over Kansas State. Tippe Valley over Warsaw. Concord over North Wood. Marion over Goshen College, and lowa will down the Brains. We ll things went with these picks next week.
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