Letters: Remembering Bob Knight, rural well water safety, gateway monolith, about Israel

Bob Knight goodness

Bob Knight and I were close friends through his years in Bloomington. He occasionally sought advice or opinion about a myriad matters.

People know what they saw of him publicly, but as many have stated, there was a private side of helping others. In mid-March 1982, I asked Bob if he would come to Indianapolis to visit IUPUI athletic director Mel Garland, who was battling leukemia at University Hospital. A half-season earlier, Mel had stepped down as head coach because of his health. Bob and Mel knew one another only by reputation.

Responding quickly to my inquiry, Bob had assistant coach Jim Crews drive him to my office at IUPUI and we went to Mel's room. What ensued was touching.

Immediately, Mel perked up and the two engaged in coaching banter, with Bob remarking about the excellent playing career Mel had at Arsenal Technical High School and Purdue. Bob said he had a tall player who wanted to transfer and, if Mel would be interested, he would direct the player his way.

Mel's face brightened, eyes twinkled as he responded, "Yes!"

After a 30-minute visit, we departed, leaving a man uplifted by the time spent with a caring, special coach. Mel lost his fight with the disease one year later at age 40. I don't know whether the player ever talked with IUPUI athletics, but he transferred to another university.

Ken Beckley, Bloomington

Remembering Coach Bob Knight

It was a very sad day when we Hoosiers living far away from Bloomington heard the news that Coach Bobby Knight had passed away. I’m sure when Coach met Saint Peter at the pearly gates, Saint Peter said to him, “Good job, well done. Come on in.”

I remember when Coach Knight made this statement during a time when he was dealing with his critics. Our son, Matthew Babrick, had the privilege of being one of Coach Knight’s last managers from 1996-2000.

In February 2000, Senior Night, Matthew escorted Coach Knight from the players' dressing room to the playing floor of Assembly Hall for the last time to welcome Purdue’s Coach Keady. Indiana defeated Purdue 79-65.

Coach Knight and his wife, Karen, were neighbors of ours on Tanglewood Drive when we lived in Bloomington. The four years that our son spent under the tutelage of Bob Knight has opened many doors for him in his adult life. As parents, we appreciate the discipline and the many life experiences Matthew had with this special coach.

Donald Babrick, La Quinta, California

Bob Knight was an excellent fisherman, too

I followed Coach Bob Knight in the news for 40 years and was very impressed by his rapid rise to international fame. It wasn’t just winning games, it was his personality, too. .

When an opportunity presented itself, I joyfully accepted three invitations to go fishing with his group to special places. I expected adventure and entertainment. There was plenty.

Bob Knight fished in the best holes in the world. He was an excellent fisherman and loved to share his expertise. His behavior was nothing like what the media described him to be. He was well informed, intelligent, imaginative and extremely focused on the task at hand.

He absolutely abhorred distractions that interfered with what he was trying to accomplish, even when it was meant well. I thought that maybe that was the secret of his success: his relentless intensity and dedication. That was enough for me to like him. I miss him.

Tony Lubarsky, Bloomington

Well water in rural America isn't safe

No one in rural America can say with confidence, "My well's water wells well in my well," because all's not well with water.

Even with testing, no one knows for sure what taints are there, and these invisible taints may harm health in trace amounts below the ken of analytic instruments to find them. Safe levels of a contaminant can be unsafe, because of the way the U.S. EPA approves their use.

One, the EPA does not regulate mixtures, and in the mixing bowl of the environment, mixture science is the reality. For example, two safe levels of the herbicides Simazine and Atrazine may add up to an unsafe level.

Two, a single substance may have multiple mechanisms of toxicity. Mixtures can work independently of each other, but the EPA is looking at addition, synergism, and antagonism among components of a mixture. The new insecticide sulfluamid is a PFAS, and it will have a safe level of presence in drinking water — even while the EPA studies how dozens of PFAS chemicals can interact in combination to impact health.

Public water supplies test for toxaphene, the pesticide banned in the 1970s, but do not test for sulfluamid or dozens of other PFASs that may be in the water.

The bright ray of hope is computational toxicology — within a decade, we may be able to take a high-resolution "mass spec" image of a water sample, send it to the EPA's mainframe and have the EPA report back 60 or 600 contaminants in the sample, pure as it may seem, and the Comptox Chemical Dashboard at EPA will tell us the health hazards of each chemical, however fleeting the data.

Bud Hoekstra, Bloomington

Governments need to negotiate

The vast sums our government extracts in taxes can make it difficult to picture what specific projects cost us individually.

Let’s do the math.

There are 144 million taxpayers. Biden has proposed $100 million to rebuild Palestine. Sounds good, and 69 cents is pocket change.

The Afghan war cost $1 trillion … about $7,000/taxpayer … the price of a good used car. Iraq and Vietnam both cost around a trillion bucks as well. Some prospered from those wars. To paraphrase George Carlin, “It’s a small club and you ain’t in it.”

Experts say the “Green New Deal” will cost at minimum $5 trillion. That, while admitting it will only forestall climate catastrophe.

Fusion energy would be clean, cheap and virtually limitless. Experts who once told us computers could never beat an average chess player now tell us fusion as an energy source is 10 years in the future and always will be. Maybe so, but gambling those experts are too pessimistic would cost a Big Mac/year.

We’re now being asked to shell out another hundred billion dollars (a typical monthly mortgage payment) for more arms, including $60 billion for the stalled Ukrainian meat grinder. Are cluster bombs green? NEGOTIATE!

John Linnemeier, Bloomington

'Go figure' for actions about monolith

Regarding the proposed monolith for Bloomington, a pertinent question is: What benefits can actually be shown to the local citizens if this action is realized?

Based on past experience with issues such as expansion of the convention center, annexation, Juan Sells and others, one should not expect clarity, foresight or honesty to be forthcoming. In my experience, people who must define themselves via contrivances such as obelisks are insecure at best.

We saw a similar attempt at self-aggrandizement when Fred Glass convinced someone in the Indiana University administration to spend $125,000 on a flagpole. Glass touted this achievement in The Herald-Times as the tallest flagpole in the Big Ten.

Sadly, he did not realize that football results depend more on player and coaching talent than how tall one's flagpole is. Garfield would say, "Go figure!" A word to the wise Bloomingtonians should be sufficient.

Charles Justice, Bloomington

Responding to letter about Israel and Gaza

I write in response to the letter titled “There has got to be another way,” which states that despite being Jewish, and heartbroken over Hamas’ brutal attacks, the author finds it hard to "stand with Israel” because of its “bombing of hospitals, schools and civilian residences.” It does not address what Israel should do when Hamas habitually hides its fighters and armament inside or beneath such facilities and then prevents people from finding safer ground.

The author also urges the U.S. to support Israel “only to the extent they can rein in Israel's vengeance against helpless Palestinian civilians.” I’m sure many Israelis want vengeance for the unmentionable atrocities, but Israel’s military action is aimed not at vengeance but at ridding Gaza of Hamas. Israel must choose between that goal and accepting the likelihood of another and then another devastating and utterly savage assault.

As for the side-by-side states the author hopes for, Hamas has no interest in them. Its goal is the elimination of Israel and the rest of world Jewry. It should also be kept in mind that Israel goes to unprecedent lengths to reduce civilian casualties. Tragically, there will still be many.

Karen Wyle, Bloomington

Thoughts about gateway monument

I commuted to Indianapolis for many years. On the drive home, there is a water tower on the west side of the highway as you come into town. It used to have a single word painted on it. That word was “IMAGINE.” I always felt welcomed and warmed by that simple word.

Karl Sturbaum, Bloomington

Help house homeless instead

The mayor has spent much money on the traffic calming devices and wants to spend more money on the monolith where most of the people coming to Bloomington never see it. Why doesn't he spend some money on barracks where the homeless can be housed?

Bob Rimstidt, Bloomington

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Letters: Bob Knight, rural water safety, gateway monolith, Israel