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July 13, 2012

READERS’ FORUM: July 13, 2012

The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — Watching nature brings great joy

How much do we miss what is around us as we go through our lives addressing jobs, home, family, sports and numerous other activities and responsibilities that compress our time?

I am now retired and find that the demands on my time are lessened and that in ways I have more control over how it is applied. Recently, I was sitting in the yard in the shade watching wildlife utilizing the bird bath. Squirrels, chipmunks and birds of many varieties. I had noted the heeding in the media that our wild creatures would also be in search of cooling and hydration in these oppressive 90-100 degree days. What I found out to my surprise was how much pressure would be put on the bird bath. What I observed was life on another level.

The birds hovered around, on the clothes line, on the cable line, in the grape arbor and on the ground at the base of the bath. It was like watching the planes take off and land at a busy airport. At times there were up to three birds sharing the water at the same time. All were waiting their turn.

In some instances there seemed to be a pecking order with one bird chasing others away until the bathing was done.

Some of these little creatures were so soaked they looked like someone who had just walked for several blocks in pouring rain. This abundant use of the bath required me to change the water several times in the day. And surely as weeds grow, as soon as I did so, the activity resumed.

Then something else happened. Simultaneous to observing the drinking and bathing, I had been watering my garden. Like ants on sugar, the birds again began to come in numbers. Now they were feeding. I had lost sight of the fact that the watering contributes to the renewed presence of worms and other life.

The birds worked and worked. It was such a joy to be a part of the dynamics of this other level of life. It caused me to wonder, what have I missed over the years, chasing a career, accolades, recognitions, achievements. These seem so inconsequential now.

Sitting here being a part of this God given gift was so inspiring. You know how we sometimes see something and wish we could put it into words?

That is how I feel. I wish you such joy.

— John Kuchinskas

Terre Haute



Health-care law anti-life mandate

When the Obama administration’s health-care financing plan was signed into law, President Obama and Congress promised that funds under the new law would not cover abortions.

This has now been proven to be empty rhetoric.

Why? Because the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has mandated that under the health-care law, private health insurance plans must cover the “full range of FDA approved contraception” — in which category HHS explicitly included the abortion-inducing drug ella.

This mandate includes a so-called “religious employer exemption.” Yet the exemption is so narrowly defined that most religious schools, colleges, hospitals and charitable organizations serving the public do not qua!ify. Even an expanded definition of “religious employer” would fail to protect non-religiously affiliated organizations, individuals and even religiously affiliated health insurers whose pro-life consciences are nonetheless violated.

This is an unprecedented attack on the freedom of conscience of millions of Americans, eviscerating their freedom of choice to purchase private insurance that does not violate their ethical, moral or religious objections.

I hope all readers will contact their elected representatives in Washington, D.C., and voice outrage over this anti-life mandate.

— Jean L. Manbeck

Terre Haute

 

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