Letters: How to make Hoosiers better quitters
A few days ago, I took an Uber ride and my driver was a smoker. We had a very basic quit smoking conversation that went like this:
Me: Do you mind if I roll the windows down?
Driver: Sure go ahead — I have not been successful at quitting smoking.
Me: It’s OK. I quit smoking and took up an ice cream addiction.
Driver: How did you quit?
Me: It took a lot of effort and trying and I used the government’s quit smoking app, a doctor, therapist and patches several times. I called all my failed attempts practicing till I succeeded.
Driver: Yeah, I appreciate your honesty. Most people tell me they quit cold turkey.
Me: They are not being totally honest about all of their experience.
My point in sharing this is that Indiana has a culture that makes it hard for individuals to communicate beyond appearing to be self reliant and independent.
Indiana natives might benefit from sharing failure experiences and just calling the failures practicing. In my experience with smoking being social and personal, I had to break a lot of habits and make some new friends. Quitting smoking took a lot of effort. I failed/practiced and eventually succeeded.
Jeanne Casper
South Bend
Just asking
A philosophical question: Which will come first, the Apocalypse or a functioning police review board in South Bend?
David R. Hoffman
Mishawaka
Picture this
I am unable to set aside a picture on a TV newscast of Hamas activity in which a young girl is dragged by her hair out of the back of a truck. Her slacks are soaked in blood. It is hard to believe that anyone could excuse or support, in any way whatsoever, the men who did this to this girl. And, yet, the three letters in last Sunday's Letters to the Editor have done exactly that.
John Connaughton
South Bend
Enough
The Hamas attack was barbaric. The Israeli response is equally barbaric. Those are the facts.
The one certainty from all of this is that yet another generation of Palestinians and Israeli children is being taught to brutally hate one another. And so the cycle will continue.
The irony is that Israelis and Palestinians are both Semitic people. They literally are brothers and sisters. Their leaders have no vision, no sense of common good.
Instead of war, what would happen if each side pledged to care for the health and welfare of the other side’s children? Was held responsible for that? What would happen?
The way to stop violence is to stop violence. I am sick and tired of old men sending young men and women to their early deaths, creating misery and destruction for all. Enough.
John Monczunski
South Bend
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Letter writers on smoking Hoosiers, police oversight and Hamas.
