DEAR EDITOR:
On behalf of the members of the Delphos community involved with efforts to keep the Delphos Municipal Swimming Pool in operation, I would like to take this time to personally say thank you to the Dienstberger Foundation. This month, the city received a generous donation from the Dienstberger Foundation that will be specifically used to help assist to keep the pool open.
This selfless act of kindness is appreciated and admired by all those who enjoy their summer with friends and family at the pool.
Bob Thitoff

DEAR EDITOR,
We will all have to wait at some point this holiday season. We might wait in line to purchase the perfect gift, wait with anticipation for Santa’s arrival on Christmas morning, wait excitedly for our favorite cookies to come out of the oven or anxiously await the chance to see family and friends.
When you find yourself waiting, I ask you to consider those who are waiting for something that may never come. Think about the 112,000 Americans who wait for the “Gift of Life” through an organ transplant. Most will wait months or years and  every  day 18  men,  women  and  children  will die waiting.
They wait for a donor’s generosity to let life go on.
You don’t have to wait to make a difference. All you have to do is register as an organ and tissue donor. It won’t cost you money, but it will give hope to those waiting for a second chance at life.
Don’t wait. Sign up as an organ and tissue donor today at www.lifelineofohio.org, at your local BMV or by calling 800-525-5667.
Kent Holloway,
CEO, Lifeline of Ohio

DEAR EDITOR,

It was so uplifting to me to see the giant American Flag at half staff at Wells Fargo Bank on Wednesday, Dec. 7. Just as most of us remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we first heard/saw the events of 9/11, so it is for some of us concerning the shooting of President John F. Kennedy, and so it is for a few of us who are old enough that we do not need a history book for us to remember Sunday, December 7, 1941. Seventy years ago on that day far more people were killed by the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor than on 9/11.

It  was  early  Sunday  morning  (mid-afternoon  here) when Sgt. Joseph Lockhard in Hawaii, saw signals on his radar panel  that  indicated  a  large  fleet  of  aircraft  approaching and  reported  to  his  superiors.  They  ignored  his  report  and said  it  could  not  be  correct.  Later,  when  a  civilian  foreman at  Kaneohe  Airport  telephoned  the  Air  Force  that  Japanese  planes  were  coming  in to attack, he was told, “You must be seeing things, go to bed and sleep it off.”

Within a few hours the US fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor had been all but wiped out. Now fast forward, it is now the 25th Anniversary Reunion of the Pearl Harbor Attack. Survivors and their families are returning for the celebration from all over the United States. But there is one man returning from Japan. Who is he? Captain Mitsuo Fuchida. And who was he? The lead plane commander of the attack on Pearl Harbor. And why was he returning? To lay a wreath at the Memorial at Pearl Harbor! You see, Captain Fuchida had a “heart operation” — that is, he had a new heart. He had become a Christian. So stay tuned, same time, same station for the “rest of the story.”

Warren L. Reed,

Convoy

As I rode into work on Friday evening, I was looking at the Christmas lights and listening to Andy Williams’ version of “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.”

There was snow here and there and a crispness to the air. One you really can’t appreciate until you have to walk a dog or stay outdoors for an extended period of time. I know; it gets way colder than this.

This column came a little slower than most. I was struggling with several options and couldn’t really embrace any of them and was avoiding another one like the plague.