How’s the Library Doing? Part1

I give the Starke County Library a "B+" in the category, Literature for High School Readers.

How’s the Starke County Public Library Doing? One test is how well they are meeting the reading requirements of ambitious high school students. To do this test I selected a high school literature summer reading list on the Internet, more or less at random. Then I searched our library’s collection to see what they have. The results were pleasing! There were 54 books on the list designed for the range of student talents. SCPLS did not have 6 of the books on the list. That is a 89% score. Also a plus, the Library did have critical texts for several of the books.

I will continue to do further testing of the Library’s Collection in other areas. I welcome your comments. How do you think the Library is doing? Do they have the books that you want? Web Site: http://www.scpl.lib.in.us/

Here is the list that I used for this test of High School Literature:



Grade 9
Parrot in the Oven - Victor Martinez
Walk Two Moons - Sharon Creech
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - Ann Brashares
Curtain - Agatha Christie
Lesson Before Dying - Ernest Gaines
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Stargirl - Jerry Spinelli
Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne

Grade 10
Prom - Laurie Halse Anderson
DID NOT HAVE: Zee's Way - Kristin Butcher
DID NOT HAVE: Once the Acacias Bloomed - Fred Spiegel
Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
Lords of Discipline - Pat Conroy
DID NOT HAVE: All But My Life - Gerta Weissman Klein October
Sky - Homer Hickam
Dune - Frank Herbert
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey (book, video and critical notes)
Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien

Grade 11
Bleachers - John Grisham
DID NOT HAVE: Death Wind - William Bell
The Car - Gary Paulsen
Beloved - Toni Morrison
Native Son - Richard Wright
The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
All the Kings Men - Robert Penn Warren
Light in August - William Faulkner
Anne Frank Remembered - Miep Gies
Moby Dick - Herman Melville
Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway
Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
The Jungle - Upton Sinclair
Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison
The Native Son - Richard Wright
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
Oldest Living Confederate Widow - Allan Gurganu
This Boy's Life : A Memoir - Tobias Wolff

Grade 12
Don't Look Behind You - Lois Duncan
Teen Idol - Meg Cabot
DID NOT HAVE: The Lottery - Beth Goobie
Crime and Punishment - F. Dostoyevsky
The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot
DID NOT HAVE: Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (also available Critical Text)
Doctor Zhivago - Pasternak
Le Morte d'Arthur - Sir Thomas Malory
The Great Train Robbery - Michael Crichton
Mists of Avalon - M. Z. Bradley
Hard Times - Charles Dickens (also available Critical Text)
Scarlet Pimpernel - Emmuska Orczy

Questions Harold Welter might answer

Questions Harold Welter might answer if he were an honorable man..

Question#1 ….. Is it true that you son was hired as a coach at Knox?
Question#2 ….. Is it true that his son had a prohibited romantic relationship with a student?
Question#3 ….. Is it true that his son resigned due to a romantic relationship with a student?
Question#4 ….. Is it true that if the answer to Question#2 were yes, then your son would be prohibited from ever being employed by Knox School System?
Question#4 ….. Are you insisting that there be an investigation into this matter?
Question#5 ….. Are you planning on having your son be a coach at Knox in the future?
Question#6 ….. Have you ever sold financial products to untenured teachers while on school property?
Question#7 ….. Is your wife an employee of Knox School System?
Question#8 ….. If “yes” to Question#7 then, were you on the Board when she was hired? Question#9 ….. Is your daughter an employee of Knox School System?
Question#10 ….. If “yes” to Question#9 then, were you on the Board when she was hired?
Question#11 ….. Is your son-in-law an employee of Knox School System?
Question#12 ….. If “yes” to Question#11 then, were you on the Board when he was hired?
Question#13 … Is your picture in the dictionary under the definition of nepotism?

Touchy, Touchy, Scary, Scary

I have heard that the Fire Chief and others have been enlisting the efforts of local computer nerds to track the identity of little ol’ me, blogger, Knox Indiana. Isn’t that awfully tacky? I find it a bit scary? What, pray tell, would those searchers do with that information? I suppose expressing an opinion in our little town of Knox can get you in deep do-do, especially if that opinion comes even close to the truth.

What’s a lady to expect? If my house is on fire and my children and my dogs and cats are about to roast, will the fire chief put some marshmallows on sticks for the volunteers to fight the blaze? (I have heard that is how the black folk were kept out of Knox in the not so distant past.)

I suggest that the Fire Chief respond with any complaints right here. I will print his comment unaltered. I may even agree with him and change my mind.

Miraculous Baby King

(details from Cimabue, Enthroned Madonna and Child, c 1285, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence) and Unknown, c appx 2000, Knox South Side Fire House)

Cenni di pepo, called Cimabue by art historians was also called Oxhead by his friends. Oxhead because if he detected any imperfection in his painting or received criticism of a painting, he would destroy it. So when I look at the detail of the baby Jesus from a great altarpiece for the church of Santa Trinta’ in Florence, Italy I wonder that the painting survived. There is something seriously wrong about the infant Jesus. For one his head is way too small. Babies have heads much bigger that that. Furthermore his wise stare, upright posture, hands, feet, and gesture all seems adult. He seems to have an adult intelligence. Note the scroll in his left hand. http://www.virtualuffizi.com/uffizi/img/8343.jpg

Oxhead didn’t destroy this painting because it looked exactly the way he intended. Art historians call this portrayal, “Christ, the miraculous baby king”. The artist represents the wondrous attributes of Christ in this expressive manner. The worshipers in the 13th century would look up at the altar and contemplate this huge painting (over 12 feet tall). The message was that this was no ordinary child, but a miraculous child king.

The fireman exhibits obvious distress. The artist shows the aftermath of a close encounter with death. The fireman’s eyes and gasping breathing and tight facial muscles show the rush of adrenalin and fear. The rescue must be at the point where the fireman has just escaped the burning building. We sense that in the next second his fear will turn to joy and he will be grinning ear to ear as he celebrates the rescue and his comrades cheer. There is a hint of that change as his hands have already begun to relax what must have been a desperate grasp.

But what is the nature of this child? As in Cimabue the proportions of the child are adult-like. The child’s response to the life-threatening situation is uncanny. He shows no fear. His hand does not grasp at the mask or garment of the firefighter, as we would expect. His facial expression is unimpassioned. He is not relaxed nor is he struggling. He searches not for his mother, but seems to be looking resolutely outwards towards his future destiny. He had no expectation or fear of death. This no ordinary child, but it is a new sort of miraculous child king. I take this sculptural group as a symbolic expression of the NYPD saving American Capitalism at 9/11. This child king is American business looking resolutely forward to the task at hand, saving our economic system. We are the firemen, scared and shaken. The child is Capitalism reborn; miraculously ready to lead the way to new prosperity. He is already pushing the fireman away and ready to stand, and proceed towards the goal so firmly etched in his facial expression.

Legally And Morally Questionable: Knox School Board Hires Starke County Commissioner

The Knox School Board has taken 2 concurrent actions:
1. They have decided to ask the Starke County Commissioners to appeal the Central Time decision and change back to Eastern Time.
2. They have hired Kevin Kroft, Starke County Commissioner, as transportation manager.

QUID PRO QUO (translation from Latin 'what for what' or 'something for something.')

It looks, feels and smells like quid pro quo. This is a big deal because a quid pro quo establishes bribery, in this case the Knox School Board bribing Commissioner Kevin Kroft. So again we meet Harold Welter (mentioned below in “Kudos, Knox Soccer…… Hiss, Knox School Board”). He supported the time zone question on the grounds that Central Time is a “nightmare” for sports scheduling. The real nightmare is a School Board completely morally oblivious. We need to talk about Harold Welter’s many family members that are employed by the school corporation. We need to talk about Harold Welter selling retirement financial products to the school’s teachers. Perhaps there is a nightmare.

Kudos, Knox Soccer…… Hiss, Knox School Board

For about 20 years volunteers have nurtured the Knox area youth soccer program. There are now nearly 500 players in the Knox program! The second generation of players is playing and the first generation is coaching, helping and cheering on their young. The difficulties keeping soccer going have been formidable. Just a few people have put in thousands of hours over the years, providing the consistent support needed to make a program like this work. Our community is so very much the better for it. We all need to salute all those involved over the years. I confess to have personally contributed very little to the success of Knox soccer. I only know a few of the many people involved in the program. I hate to mention names for fear of failing to mention someone that deserves recognition. Perhaps readers of this blog, (if there are any!) will comment here and fill in the personal details of this story.

Volunteer efforts in our community create social cohesion that simply would not exist otherwise. If these efforts ceased there would be a shocking and dangerous lack of social cohesion in our community. There are group efforts from service organizations. There are many solitary souls that quietly help out year after year. It sometimes seems that there is less volunteerism than in the past. It is refreshing to realize that organizations and individuals are quietly at work nurturing our community.

Volunteers that sit on governmental boards represent the citizens of Knox at the school, the library, the park and other boards. Because they spend the taxes we pay, they are much more open to our criticism than non-governmental volunteers. This is as it should be. It is a great privilege and responsibility to serve your fellow citizens in a democracy.

The members of the Knox School Board deserve our criticism for their destructive attitude towards soccer at Knox. They have refused all attempts and blocked all efforts to establish soccer in our schools. The supporters of soccer have offered to create a soccer program in the schools. They have offered pay all the expenses needed to support a so-called “club sport”. The school board has refused even this modest proposal. Hundreds of boys and girls are denied the opportunity to participate at the varsity level in a sport they love.

So what gives? It seems that the school board perceives a threat to the football program. And perhaps they are right! Plenty of children would rather play soccer than football. Shouldn’t a sport that has thrived for a generation be welcomed in the schools? Why is a sport preferred by both parents and children rejected by the school board? I think Harold Welter, long-time school board member, is behind the opposition to soccer. His love of high school football and basketball is evident. He has been the radio voice of those local high school sports for a generation. Supporting and encouraging his favorite sports is good and well. Blocking the legitimate and desirable community interest in a sports program that may compete with his beloved football is not proper, fair or justifiable. Harold Welter’s behavior in this regard is not in the best interest of the schools and its patrons. He deserves our disapprobation.

Memorial Boulders

RE: Knox, Indiana, Knox Volunteer Fire Department, Starke County Sheriff

We have memorials in Knox, just as does every other American city, town and village. There are always questions of taste and appropriateness. Governmental units that decide on memorials need to show restraint. Otherwise, memorials, lasting for eons, will end up being embarrassments. The 1st picture (above) shows an ordinary and appropriate memorial on the courthouse lawn.

In this picture the little boulder marks the location of the first Starke County courthouse. I was rather fond of this rock back in the days when it was overgrown and neglected. It was a good local trivia question: Do you know where the original Starke County Courthouse was located? Ha! And there's even a rock with a brass plaque. It was recently moved (?) and put on the concrete foundation. This ruined the appearance of the new stone retaining wall. Really. It used to be moderately charming.


Some memorials are instant embarrassments. These two boulders flank the flagpole at the County Jail / Prosecutor's Office / Sheriff's Department. The boulder on the right has a low relief portrait of a dead sheriff. He died of heart trouble, exacerbated by a very big drinking habit and a felonious family. The unadorned boulder presumably waits for another officer of the law of equal merit.


At the south-side firehouse 2 large memorializing boulders flank a statue of a fireman clutching a rescued infant. None of those mentioned on the memorials died in the line of duty. Although this is the most tasteless monument there is more to the story. A short time ago a plywood cutout on the roof augmented this display. It was a modified depiction of the Flag Raising at Iwo Jima. In this representation, firefighters had replaced the Marines. It is my understanding that this stuff was all donated to the fire department. I guess it all can be better understood as the fire department not wanting to seem mean spirited by refusing a gift. After a while, when the plywood Iwo Jima got a bit weathered, it was discreetly removed.

This brings me back to the point of this little essay. Those in charge must show restraint. At times they might appear mean spirited. They may have to say "No" to friends and politically powerful figures. This is particularly difficult in a small town where no one wants to make waves.

Bad memorializing is closely related to the problem of small town nepotism. At the Knox library a flag pole displays a brass plaque dedicated to the memory of the donor's wife. The donor was the President of the Library Board at that time. Of course the general public was not let in on this deal to buy flag poles and erect little brass monuments.

Knox Blues, Part 1: Nepotism 101

Knox Blues, Part 1: Nepotism 101
RE: Knox, Indiana, Starke Memorial Hospital, Starke County Prosecuting Attorney

A drunk and stoned babysitter drags children on a sled down an icy road tied to the bumper of her car. This is criminal. When a child gets killed, it is horrifying. The police take the babysitter to the hospital for a blood test and the test shows no sign of drugs or alcohol. Suspicion of tampering with the blood sample falls on a hospital employee and a warrant is issued.

I have been told by a very good source involved officially in this case that the father of the accused was called by the authorities and given a “heads up” about the arrest of his daughter. Of course the accused then cannot then be located in a timely manner. Presumably she has now been given time to work on her alibi. Certainly the police’s investigation has been hampered.

I certainly don’t know if the accused is guilty. It doesn’t matter. The issue is that her father is on the board of directors of the hospital. He was guilty of nepotism the moment his daughter was hired. Those involved in this nepotism always defend the practice with a comment to this effect, “Why should our small community, already suffering from a shortage of qualified employees, be deprived of the services of my child? My child, is the most qualified, and she is being punished simply for being my daughter.” So the influential official appeals that our poor little town would suffer if we didn’t hire his offspring.

news story link: http://wndu.com/news/042005/news_41432.php

This argument for nepotism is generally agreed upon by all our public board members and politicians. If we are to take this argument at face value, then there is a logical step that should follow when the child is exposed as a being incompetent or criminal. By allowing his child to be hired, the official implied a guarantee that his child was the most qualified available employee. Logically the official now needs to resign with an apology. That would be honorable.