Letter of the month: December

Letters

Powerball winner should buy locallyFirst of all let me congratulate Robert Kincaid on winning $1 million in the Powerball drawing with a ticket boughtat the Lassus station on Lima Road.Today 3:00 am

Web letter: Stutzman’s abortion story touching; gun regulations are pro-life too

I was very touched to read the news story about Marlin Stutzman’s mother, who had considered aborting Marlin because he was an unplanned child and she was not married.Monday

Web letter: Lawmakers, Pence deserve bad grades for touting Daniels’ misguided ideas

Karen Francisco was overly generous with the grades she gave to the members of the Statehouse. Many of the issues they are dealing with today are a result of Mitch Daniels “bold and outrageous” ideas that many of them supported.Monday

About the writer

Jeanette DeVore, whose letter appeared Dec. 23, has been selected as last month’s Golden Pen Award winner. In the judgment of the editors, she had the most effective letter to the editor during December.
DeVore, 62, is the executive director of the Fort Wayne Foster Grandparents program, a federal program that matches older volunteers with children in need. DeVore, whose background is in social work, has led the program for 25 years. The Fort Wayne native fills her time with work, reading and spending time with her eight grandchildren.
She wrote her letter in response to the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
“I wanted to feel the good guys win,” DeVore said. “I wanted to have something to do in reaction to the evil, some way to balance it out because otherwise I think you end up feeling powerless. And we do have power.”
DeVore received a gold-plated inscribed pen for her efforts. The Golden Pen Award was established to express our appreciation for the contributions our letter writers make to the editorial page.

Purposeful kindness rebalances world

I’ve read about people doing 26 acts of kindness in honor of the victims at Sandy Hook. What a positive and useful idea.

That tragedy has left many of us feeling helpless in the face of such evil. We can make an effort to rebalance the world by countering acts of violence with acts of kindness – an act of generosity and love in remembrance of each victim.

Donate to a food bank, shovel a neighbor’s sidewalk, reconnect with someone you’re estranged from. Give blood at Red Cross, thank the janitor who cleans your office, call your mother. Pick up trash on the sidewalk, listen to an older person’s story for the tenth time. Send a written thank you to the teacher who encouraged you. Put money in the Salvation Army’s holiday bucket. Take a meal to someone who’s having a rough time. Ask your co-worker how her sick husband is doing.

Fill the world with purposeful warmth and kindness to combat the senseless evil that ended the lives of those 26. It will help each of us, and it will help make our part of the world a kinder, gentler place.