‘All we need to do is start climbing’

I was parked in the Forest Park Shopping Center lot the other day. Across from me was a courtyard, between The Quarry restaurant and Anytime Fitness, where Weaver’s Hobby Shop used to be.

In the courtyard were a couple of sculptures, plants, flowers, tables and chairs. At the back was a stage with a wall that closed off the west end.

This wall was built of all kinds of rocks, stones, bricks, ledges; odds and ends placed every which direction that seemingly had no cohesiveness.

The elements didn’t look like they were designed to go together. The arrangement suggested chaos. It would take much extra time and effort to build a wall with such diverse, seemingly incompatible materials.

But in the middle of it all, a series of steps had been built that led right up through the wall to the top. And then I saw it – some people build their lives like that wall, with unfitting incomprehensible elements that produce chaos. It takes them much extra effort to put such a life together, one that looks like a mess because it is a mess.

While that’s all right for a wall, a life cannot function efficiently or properly that way, when it’s hard to make any sense out of it with the hopelessness it suggests. The results will reflect the construction.

But there is a way out. There are those steps someone in their providence built into the wall. A person can climb them – up and out of any kind of situation he builds, no matter how ugly it gets. Jesus is the steps in every life, the means of escape, the one surety we possess and never lose, even when we think everything is gone.

All we need to do is start climbing.

Jeff Hatton

Greentown

True love is found in God’s handiwork

It is in woman that God brings life into the world. And it is from man that God creates life.

From this truth God reveals himself to the world. Through the womb God’s light shines bright. No, it is not dark and unknown; it is radiant with new life.

An unmistakable and unique creation never before seen or heard by mankind. The gift of life, co-created by man and woman and touched by the hand of God.

To understand this is to understand life itself. It will give you guidance during dark times and true joy at all times. To truly appreciate God’s handiwork is to experience real love.

Let us also remember in this upcoming election year to pray for our elected leaders and those who are opposing them. And by doing this, may we truly do God’s will in our lives.

Bruce LeClerc

Kokomo

Campaign against unions continues

I rarely write simply because I disagree with someone, and this letter is no exception.

Two columns appeared on Friday with a purported assessment of labor – one from a learned professor at Ball State and another from a right-wing “think tank.”

The “thinker” says that laws need to be changed so people can change or reject a union and, also, allow employees to individually choose from a menu of differing unions. The first suggestion is possible and does not need a change of law, only a vote. As to the second suggestion, can you imagine a company negotiating with half a dozen different unions with differing priorities?

He also says that unions do not offer job training, retirement advice and career planning. Where has he been?

The learned professor states that he holds no animus for unions and then disses them.

He criticizes them for supporting the party which supports them. He criticizes ISTA salaries, and then sort of withdraws the criticism, ignoring management and private sector comps. He states that unions are no longer about dealing with corporations, but stealing from taxpayers.

For all these reasons the learned one says that unions are failing. He states all of his opinions as if they were facts and that they are the reasons for the demise of unions.

Could it be that the unions’ success has led workers to believe the unions are not needed and a long-term corporate PR campaign against unions are the more likely reasons, along with a string of negative NLRB rulings.

Ronald K. Riggs

Kokomo