A big thanks for flood help



A final story about the 2009 flood, or rather flash flood. I was caught in it on my way to work. I came to downtown Jeffersonville, saw water and tried to drive away from it. But no matter which street I turned on to, the water rose quickly around my vehicle.

I ended up in hip-high water, dead engine, on Eighth Street near Spring, close to Bales used car lot. I saw some other cars and then two young men in yellow rain suits wading through the choppy water. One of them came and told me to stay put and I would be safe. He said they had to get the street closed and then would return.

The water rose and the storm crashed and boomed. Next thing I knew, water started coming up through the floorboard and my car started to be pushed by the water. One of the young men came back and one hour after my car drowned, he helped me from my car and we waded though the hip-deep water to the car lot. I am grateful for his help.

Once there in the building, I joined others, adults and children alike. We were not there too long before the building started to flood. Eventually Mike Kruger, Bales sales manager, came to turn off the electricity so we would be safe. Then he got a large van started and told us to climb on board. He wound his way around the streets until we arrived at their new car lot. We were soaked and cold. Mike had Trent, his salesman, took us all to our homes. Of course, that took quite some time, as we constantly had to change course to get past the flooded streets.

You know, some of my colleagues who were stranded at another parking lot of a business told me they were chased off the lot when the business closed because of the flood. Bales did not have to take us in nor did they have any responsibility for getting us anywhere.

But you know, they are true neighbors and have a reputation for helping out with local causes such as the Red Cross. I have heard that Bales lost cars to the flood on their lot that day, but not thinking of that, they held out a helping hand to a group of water-soaked survivors. Thanks, neighbor.

— Delight Voignier, Jeffersonville



Old nickname appropriate today



Loco Foco was a nickname give to Democrats by Whigs after Oct. 29, 1835. It’s appropriate today, because of all loco goings on in Washington at this time. The president is playing partisan politics and militantly liberal on nearly every front. What’s the president hoping to accomplish by continually discrediting the previous administration or the Republican Party much of the time when current events don’t always go his way?

Our 32nd President, Harry S. Truman, had this to say: “The most dangerous course a president can follow in a time of crisis is to defer making decisions until they are forced on him, and thereupon become inevitable decisions. Events then get out of hand and take control of the president, and he is compelled to overcome situations which he should have prevented. When a president finds himself in that position, he is no longer a leader but an improviser who is driven to action out of expediency or weakness.

If you take a man from a minor position and put him into a job of responsibility like the presidency, sometimes he will turn out to be a success and sometimes he’ll turn out to be an utter fool.

— Leroy Heil, Jeffersonville





It’s not wrong to ask questions on health care



I don’t know where your guest columnist lives, but I have never seen any of those people raging and bombarding against government takeover of health care. Nor have I heard about mobs fighting at town hall meetings.

I have heard some very concerned citizens with legitimate concerns asking questions that those proposing these radical changes cannot or will not answer.

There is very little, if any, difference between government involvement in health care and government-controlled health care. As many of us know, the federal government has a less-than-stellar record at managing anything on a large scale.

I do agree on one point, health care reform should not be political.

People should read the proposed bill on the congressional web site, as I have, instead of listening to one-sided commentaries by those who feel it is now unpatriotic to disagree.

In a democracy, we not only have the right, but an obligation to question our government and its officials.

— Betty Rinker, Clarksville