VIEWPOINTS
SUNDAY, JANUARY 12, 2014
kpcnews.com
B7
She was strong enough to survive, forgive Gisela Warstler of Ashley passed away Jan. 4, too early at the age of 66. Her obituary gave no hint that her remarkable life story had made her famous. She appeared several times on NBC’s “Dateline” from 1995 through the early 2000s. In a show reviewing his 15-year career at “Dateline,” reporter Stone Phillips rated an episode about Warstler’s family second on his list of favorites, behind only an interview with his own father. It ranks as one of the most fascinating stories in my career, too, and I’m grateful that Gisela Warstler shared it with me. On March 31, 1995, I began my story this way: ASHLEY — It takes a strong woman to forgive a husband who allowed her to think he was dead for 25 years. But Gisela Warstler of Ashley is strong enough to pardon the man who couldn’t cope with coming home from Vietnam. “I think he was a casualty of war, in just a different way,” she said Thursday, a day after she and her long-lost husband, George, burst into the national spotlight. … “Dateline” producers told
Gisela the 45-minute segment was the longest their show has ever devoted to a single story. George Warstler left Gisela and their two young children in Ashley in 1967 when he went to the Vietnam War. His combat duty DAVE ended in 1969, but while on leave KURTZ in Australia, he changed his identity and dropped out of sight. The Army declared him dead in 1981. Then in February 1994, the government stunned Gisela with the news that her husband was alive after all. Their son, Gary, used the telephone to track down his father in New Zealand and flew to meet him … in a reunion filmed by “Dateline.” There’s not enough space to tell the whole story here, but this time the focus should be on Gisela Warstler’s compassion. At first, she reacted the way
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you’d expect to her husband’s abandonment of his family. Then, she told me, “The anger quickly turned into an unbelievable sadness … the sadness that I felt was for him, not for me … I have my children, and he missed out on all of it.” She told her story to “Dateline” because Phillips agreed to travel to New Zealand to tell George Warstler’s side of the tale. She met her husband in her hometown, Augsburg, Germany, where he was serving in 1964. They married in 1965, and in 1967 they came to his hometown of Ashley with their children. Soon, the Army sent him to Vietnam. “Dateline” focused on the reasons George Warstler disappeared after his combat experience. The show also spotlighted Gary Warstler’s determination to track down his father, starting with few clues. But Gisela Warstler’s courage deserves attention, too. Six months after arriving in a foreign country, she found herself an apparent widow with no income. “She struggled so hard. She had two kids and she couldn’t speak English,” her daughter, Judy
Middleton of Auburn, said Friday. “She was in a terrible position, and that’s what made her stronger.” “I remember her getting that first job in Hamilton. It was $2 an hour, and she had to buy a car to get there,” said Gary Warstler, who recently moved to Texas. Gisela Warstler Gisela came from a Warstler close-knit family in Germany, but chose not to take her children back to her homeland, her daughter said. In the early 1980s, she became a U.S. citizen. “She was very, very proud of that. She studied very hard,” Middleton said. “They gave her a little flag, and she set it on her table for a very long time.” Middleton added, “I think what kept her here was the fact that she was actually waiting for my dad.” Her wait lasted until 2001, when he came home in a trip documented by “Dateline.” After clearing up his record with the Army, George Warstler returned to Ashley to visit his mother, who lived only two
blocks from the wife he left behind. Eventually, he had to travel the final few steps of his long journey home. “We walked it, and he was a nervous wreck seeing my mom again,” Middleton said. “I told him everything was going to be OK. She didn’t have any hard feelings against him.” Gisela greeted George with a big hug, Middleton said, adding, “They had a cup of coffee together, and everything was OK.” After all the publicity, the Warstler family went back to living normal lives, Gary said. A reminder of his mother’s time in the spotlight came Wednesday evening. “We were sitting at the funeral, and flowers showed up from … Stone Phillips and Steve Cheng,” the latter a “Dateline” producer who worked on the stories, Gary Warstler said. They hadn’t forgotten what Gary Warstler knows about his mother: “She was an amazing woman. We’re very, very lucky.” DAVE KURTZ is the executive editor of KPC Media Group newspapers. He may be reached at dkurtz@kpc media. com.
Diminishing the innovation deficit
KPC website, social media provide information through storm When the lights went out at The Star at 6:35 p.m. Jan. 6 — with the outside temperature at 13 below zero — reporter Octavia Lehman noticed that the power was out throughout downtown Auburn. She posted about the outage on her Twitter account (@ octavialehman). That information was quickly posted on the KPC Media Facebook (KPC Media Group Inc) ONLINE and Twitter (@kpcnews) On Facebook, COMMENTS accounts. fans of KPC Media responded that power was out in other areas of James Tew also Auburn. Reporter Aaron Organ (@AaronOrganKPC) was able to reach Mayor Norman Yoder, who confirmed the entire city was without power, and Aaron tweeted that information — which was again shared on KPC’s Facebook and Twitter, and shared and retweeted from there, presumably by many who had access to the internet on smartphones. A story was posted at kpcnews.com, with links on social media, wrapping up all the information gleaned from officials and utility companies. As the night progressed, updates were posted on locations of warming shelters and the efforts to restore power, which finally came back online at 12:45 a.m. Jan. 7. It was part of a busy week for KPC’s website and social media as one of the most severe winter storms in decades blew through northeast Indiana. Anticipating disruptions in newspaper delivery, KPC opened kpcnews.com up so that stories and e-editions were free to all readers beginning Jan. 5. Weather stories were posted and updated as counties and cities made changes to travel advisories and warnings. Regular updates and links to information from authorites also were posted on KPC’s Facebook and Twitter.
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After one note about the Kendallville Public Library system being closed was posted on KPC’s Facebook page, the library responded, “Thanks! You shared faster than we could get over here to post it ourselves. You rock!”
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
Denny Gall of Garrett sent in this photo of his granddaughter Kaelynn, 4, for KPC’s month photo contest. To vote for your favorite photo in the contest, go to kpcnews.com and select More > Photo Contest from the navigation menu.
Storm reactions on Facebook, kpcnews.com A photo posted on Facebook of Penny Burlaw of Angola trudging her way to work Jan. 6 generated mixed reactions from KPC fans. Nancy Workman DeLucenay commented, “That is commitment! Give her a raise for that.” However, Jill Jollief responded, “All businesses should be closed so employees don’t have to get out and customers are not tempted.” On kpcnews.com, FreeWorldOrder posted this reaction to a storm story: “Pretty amazing, this snow, drifting, and bitter cold temps! It’s been years since I’ve seen these conditions in northeast Indiana. Much thanks to all of state and city workers for the aroundthe-clock work they have been putting in to keep the streets open.”
New on video Monday’s Neighbors feature profiled Viola Brodbeck, a client at the Arc of LaGrange County. You can find out more about Viola in a related video at kpcnews. com. JAMES TEW (“james_t” on The Fence Post) is online editor for KPC Media Group. He can be reached by email at jtew@kpcmedia.com.
Much has been written about the national budget deficit, and for good reason. But America is facing another shortfall that’s just as serious: an innovation deficit. As Congress returns to work and negotiates spending levels for the next two years, one priority should be at the top of their list: increased funding for biomedical research. This is something Washington does really well. Ninety percent of the money supporting basic research in this country funnels through the National Institutes of Health, and many Americans live longer and stronger lives because of its work. The impact is practical as well as moral. Federal grants boost the economy, create new jobs and products and reduce time lost to debilitating illness. “The argument that biomedical research pays a generous return on investment is well-grounded,” says the Washington Post. “The research (that) NIH funds is precisely what we should demand from government.” As conservative columnist George Will wrote recently, NIH is “the federal government at its best.” And yet in a profoundly misguided policy, NIH funding has stayed flat for a decade; factor in inflation, and purchasing power has actually declined. Moreover, the automatic spending cuts known as a “sequester” sliced another 5 percent from the budget last year. As a result, only about 15 percent of all grant applications are now being approved, which is half the rate of a decade ago. Labs are closing, layoffs are mounting, graduate stipends and equipment purchases are declining. NIH director Francis Collins tells us that he lives in fear of turning away a scientist who might win the Nobel Prize someday. Meanwhile, foreign competitors like China and Japan are boosting their outlays. According to a recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine, America’s share of global spending for biomedical research and development dropped to 45 percent in 2012, down from 51 percent in 2007. The research community got good news in December when Congress shelved the sequester and increased annual federal spending by $45 billion. But as lawmakers divide that slightly larger pie, competition for every dollar will still be fierce, and biomedical research needs all the friends it can get. Hunter Rawlings, the president of the Association of American Universities, says it well: “As we cut, and then cut some more, and as our competitors overseas increase their investments in research and education, we create an innovation deficit that threatens America’s global leadership. This foolish policy must end.” Yes it must. For one thing, scientific
experiments take a long time and require a high tolerance for failure. There are not many tasks that government does better than private enterprise, but funding basic research is one of them. Even Will, an apostle of free markets, agrees that “in the private sector, where investors expect a quick turnaround, it is difficult to find dollars for a 10-year program.” COKIE ROBERTS The widening “innovation deficit” STEVEN ROBERTS also discourages young scientists who wonder whether they will have the resources in the future to build a career. We admit to a bias — we have relatives whose research depends heavily on NIH funding — but that also gives us a personal insight into the crisis. We know Collins is correct when he says, “Many young scientists are on the verge of giving up, taking with them the talent needed to make tomorrow’s medical breakthroughs”. He cites a poll showing one of five American researchers is now considering a move to another country and adds, “That’s frightening.” The problem is compounded by another incredibly stupid government policy: strict limits on visas for foreign-born researchers who studied at American universities but cannot get permission to stay and work here. Countries like Canada and Germany are wooing them ardently, deepening our “innovation deficit.” “The biomedical community is living a paradox,” Collins asserts. Just as funding is drying up, medical breakthroughs are more promising than ever. New vaccines to treat AIDS and influenza are “poised for rapid progress,” he wrote recently in the Post. Brain research “could mean enormous advances” in therapies for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurological disorders. All this progress could be endangered by the fiscal shortsightedness that seems to have infected much of Congress. Not all government spending is equal. Yes, a sizeable chunk of it is wasteful and careless. But some of it is absolutely essential to America’s national interest. Good investments turn profits and pay dividends. Funding biomedical research and closing the innovation deficit is just such an investment: the highest, best use of hard-earned taxpayer dollars.
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COKIE ROBERTS AND STEVEN V. ROBERTS are columnists for Newspaper Enterprise Assn.
High 5s & Hisses • High fives A reader writes: “Big thank yous to city workers including those in the public safety departments who working together clear streets and keep our communities safe during weather emergencies. These folks work sometimes in terrible conditions and are sometimes maligned. Yet, they bravely battle snow and cold doing the job while also trying to balance the costs of government’s limited resources.” Vickey Hochstetler and “the crew at Pak A Sak” of Ligonier wrote: “I would like to thank all the employees from the Ligonier street department, Ligonier water department and the Ligonier police and fire departments for the outstanding jobs they did dealing with this winter storm. We at Pak A Sak are grateful for all they did for the city. The streets were cleared and the people went above and beyond to keep the city safe and sound We all owe you a big debt of gratitude. Thank you so much. This is one of the reasons I love working in this town.” Barb Radebaugh of Auburn writes: “Many thanks to all who were involved in restoring power to Auburn residents during the recent power loss. God bless you for working during the night in the bitter cold weather.” Pam Middleton says: “I would like to give a big thank you to the nice man who took
time out of his commute to pull beside my car and get my attention to let me know my tail pipe was full of snow and I needed to get it cleaned out. A full tail pipe can affect many things on a car, and it was very nice of him to let me know.” Reader Ray Hestrom sends a high five to Mrs. VanWagner’s second-grade class at Wolcott Mills Elementary. The students donated pencils and crayons for students in Nicaragua. “It meant a great deal to the Nicaraguan students to get them, since they cannot afford school supplies like that,” he wrote. “This class was my class for Junior Achievement, and they are a great group of kids, which is a reflection of their teacher and the whole Wolcott Mills family.” A reader writes: “In addition to the high five regarding people who serve us during inclement weather … people should not forget the many street and highway department workers who spend hours snowplowing the streets to keep them safe as possible so that police and fire can get through. It isn’t an easy task. Thanks to all of them who are out during the least desirable conditions. HIGH FIVES AND HISSES is a Sunday feature compiled by this newspaper’s editorial board. To nominate, call or email the editor of this newspaper.