Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Tme to tax bullets

The NRA has proposed that armed officers be placed in every school as a solution to the gun problem. This is a wonderful sound bite but not a real solution nor did the NRA come forward with the funds to achieve this process. This solution places a burden on the taxpayer and even has resulted in proposals in the current session of the legislation. Yet at the same time the Governor want to lower taxes. The police protection of schools is just a transfer of cost to the local level and in essence a tax against all of us to the benefit of gun owners. I believe the State of Indiana should at once impose a bullet tax. Apply a tax for each bullet sold in the state or shipped into the state by a mail order vendor. The citizens of this state should not have to raise school taxes to pay for this protection the gun users should. We tax other direct usages or apply fees in this same manor. So it is time to tax the gun owners with a usage tax on bullets. This in no way violates the 2nd amendment or limits their rights to own guns.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Time Passes Histories Lost

As time passes on much is lost and history becomes more and more condensed. How many times have you wanted to ask a loved one what happened? Or someone who live hundreds or thousands of years ago what happened? But even in a short spam of time much can be lost. Sometimes we can get lucky and find an old document that sheds light on a question. Recently I found out when and where my maternal grandparents were murdered by the Nazi’s. It took 70 years to find out and a slip of paper in an archive in Switzerland provided the hint to start a trail that led to a forest where they were machine-gunned down. My father’s family was much luckier. A great uncle came to this land in 1905 and prospered and so in 1935 he returned to Europe to start the process to save the Weingarten Family and bring them the United States. But even mush of this has been lost to time. My father would never speak of what happened or how they managed to survive, I have been able to get some of the relatives to speak and put their accounts in a book, but the book is more than just about the survival of family. My father wrote 100 hundreds of poems and always hoped they would be published. I have taken all the poems, added pictures of family, some from long ago and placed them in a book. Today the book was published by Amazon. The following is the description from the book and should you wish a copy the ordering information. The title of the book is one letter, it is the nickname of my father, very simple and a name he was called by all who worked for him and all his friends: H Herman H. Weingarten A Collection of Poems And A Family Holocaust History "Herman Weingarten was born in Vienna during WWI, the oldest of three brothers. The family did well in Vienna until the dark cloud of Hitler came and the hardships for many Jews and almost certain death. With the help of an uncle who came to America in 1905 much of the family was brought to the land of liberty. “H” as he was known worked as the chief chemist in a pharmaceutical factory, was drafted seven times and sent back each time to continue war production. He worked in that same factory until he retired. His middle brother was unable to go to medical school because of quotas against Jews so he became an engineer and invented the color picture tube and his youngest brother went into service to his nation moving up the ranks to a high position in the Census Bureau. But it was in retirement that “H” found a new love, poetry. This book is a collection of his poems along with family pictures not in any order but a cross section of both European and American snapshots. He always hoped some day his poems would be published but unfortunately he will never see his words in actual print. Many of the relatives and friends shown in photographs in this collection will never be able to see themselves. But a new generation can and they will be able to read, see and keep alive the words. The poems capture the twinkle in his deep blue eyes and happiness in family and living in a free nation. The Holocaust and World War II killed 50 million people, yet many names will not be remembered, many stories of survival will not be known and much of what happened will be forgotten. Presented here some of the stories from just one family. How many other family’s histories will vanish in the next few years. It is time to record as much as we can. It is time to never forget." List Price: $10.00 6" x 9" Black & White on Cream paper 290 pages ISBN-13: 978-1481866569 ISBN-10: 1481866567

Sunday, January 13, 2013

The cart before the horse or how not to plan a downtown.

The Fishers Town Council is once again placing the cart before the horse. They are moving full speed ahead with a downtown redevelopment plan but forgot to do a town wide plan first. Plus the plan sets up districts within the downtown instead of one district called “downtown” so if we view these small districts as the criteria for the rest of the town we should have at least 100 districts by the time they are finished. Then they are giving away green space in front of he Town hall and Post Office for an apartment building. Just what we need more cars and congestion on 116th street and the loss of green space. Once again it shows a total lack of vision and planning by this council.