The Republic from Columbus, Indiana • Page 8

Opinion A8 The Republic, Columbus, Thursday, December 1 2005 THEJ REPUBLIC HOI DON! I'M LOOKING iiP THOSE HEW, zoos- SIMPLER CPff 6WELMS. John Harmon Editor E-mail address: jharmon therepublic.corrr Harry McCawley Associate Editor E-mail address: harrytherepublic.com Howard Herron Publisher E-mail address: bherrontherepublic.c6nr Bob Gustln Managing Editor E-mail address: rlgustintherepublic.com "We shall endeavor to make our paper the champion of the people of Bartholomew County and we shall advocate, irrespective of political considera tions, all measures that have for their object the good -r .1.. i J. Smokers do not have right to pollute air Bob Freeman Columbus i Received: Nov. 15 This is in response to Ms.

Clark's letter in The Republic. A smoker's right to endanger their health doesn't entitle them to endangexjrnine. Smokers say I have a choice to eat elsewhere if I don't! like smoke. That's true. But, I don't know of any smoke-free restaurants in Columbus, so my boycotting the smoking restau- rants wouldn't change a thing.

But they're right, I do have a choice. It isn't only the customers to be concerned with. What about the employees? Not everyone has a wide choice of places to i work. Oh, I suppose it could be argued that they do, but the hungry kids at-home and the landlord might Restrict the abilk ty to exercise that choice. So, are we to force them to endanger their health for mini- mum wage because someone wants to be inconsiderate and oj ine commuriuy.

in snun, we nope iu mane iur paper such as no intelligent person in the county can do without. Isaac T. Brown, Founding Editor, 1875 Welcome home and thank you TUESDAY was a joyous day for the 160 members of Indiana National Guard's 1438th Transportation Company and" .500 family members' and friends who greeted them. It was homecoming for the unit; which Had spent nearly a year-in Iraq. Brown, Co.

mystery persists 25 years after strange deaths along? Who is buried in that 1970 grave and how was he killed? Who killed him? How did Clarence and Geneva meet, their end? For the next eight The event obviously was emo The Issue: Return of 1438th -v I Harry McCawley Our position: tional for those in the National Guard Armory in Indianapolis, the first time the sol Soldiers deserve recogni CLARENCE ROBERTS tion, as do their families, employers and co-workers. years, people in Brown County had to endure blow their smoke around for everyone else to breathe? Thetwner of the establish-. ment is wrong to allow the customer to create a hazardous workplace. Let's set aside the selfishness and the rudeness of it for a minute. If for no other reason than the fact that a smoker is creating a health hazard for others, he or she should want to keep it away from people in an enclosed room.

The health risks alone should keep everyone from smoking. I smoked 2-3 packs of cigarettes a day for years. And I was as rude about it as most smokers are. Then I decided my, health and my family's health was more important than a stupid habit. Now let's talk about a few "rights." Do I have the right to sit and blow pipe or cigar smoke in your face, after you've asked me hot No.

As an employer, do I have the right to fire you or pay you less because your smoking makes my insurance rates go higher? No. If pot were legal, should I have the right to get you, your kids, or any innocent bystander high? No. Do I have the right to stick my linger in my nose across the table from you while you eat? No. Do have the right to come up to you, while you're eating, and give you proof that I had beans for dinner last night? No. I don't have the right to do these things, even though there are no laws against them.

One of the biggest arguments is that -smoking is legal. That's true, except the new ordinance will make it illegal to smoke in most public buildings in Columbus. The restaurant owners have choices too. I believe picnic tables outside, more than 10 feet from the entrance, would allow their customers to smoke. I If their customers would i decide they didn't care for the type of food served and quit coming in, the restaurant would be forced to move or close down.

1 Columbus is getting healthier. If the restaurant owners refuse to change, then maybe they 1 need to move or close down. They say it's my choice to eat shotgun wound. Suspicions grew, and an autopsy conducted in Marion County revealed that the blood type of the victim did not match that of Roberts. For the next 10 years, Clarence Roberts was Brown County's version of Judge Crater and Jimmy Hoffa rolled into one.

Stories and rumors some true, most false, a few downright unbelievable circulated throughout the county and spread into the country. Clarence was reported to have been seen in a Morgan County tavern days before the first fire with a transient who bore a likeness to him. His family made repeated, efforts to claim his life insurance policy, but the companies were able to deny them based on the fact that the body buried under Clarence Roberts' headstone, still officially was listed as John Doe. The story just wouldn't die (pardon the expression), and even 10 years after the 1970 fire, state police were watching the movements of Clarence's wife Geneva, who was rumored to have been living with an unidentified mystery man. v.

Riddle upon riddle Then on Nov. 29,. 1980, the -mystery spawned another mys'f tery. The home in which Geneva Roberts was living supposedly with the unidentified mystery man burned to the ground. Two bodies were discovered in the ashes.

One quickly was identified as Geneva Roberts. Shocked investigators had a pretty good idea about the second body, but it wasn't until a thorough examination was conducted that an official verdict was announced. It was Clarence Roberts. That would seem to have set the stage for bringing down the curtain on the decade-old story, but it only spawned new rumors and questions. Where had Clarence been all that time? Could he really have been living with Geneva all TUESDAY was the 25th anniversary of Clarence Roberts' second death Nov! 18th was the 35th anniversary of the first one.

As far as I can tell, both anniversaries passed without much notice in Nashville. -In fact I had to explain Roberts to one resident who explained that she was a "newcomer." She did ask some of her co-workers, and although some knew quite a bit about Roberts all agreed that no one was talking about him. Back in the '70s and '80s, people in Nashville didn't talk about much else but Clarence. In November 1970, a few days after the body of a man initially believed to be Clarence Roberts was found in the ashes of what had been his house, Brown County became the home of a mystery. The body was burned beyond recognition, but a shotgun lying alongside it and stories about problems the Brown County businessman was dealing with led to some obvious conclusions.

Saddled with huge debts and carrying a six-figure life insurance policy, the betting around town was that he had shot himself with the shotgun and his body was consumed in the fire. A death certificate was prepared, confirming the identity of the body as that of Clarence Roberts, and the whole case could have gone away had Brown County coroner Jack Bond and his father Earl signed the paper. They refused, arguing that the body bore no evidence of a diers "had seen loved ones for almost a year. It also served as a recognition of the sacrifices they made in serving their country. But the 500 who came to the Indianapolis armory and scores of others who stayed behind in communities like Columbus also are deserving of recognition for their sacrifices.

The family members were called upon to shoulder additional responsibilities with the activation of their loved ones. They had to fill the positions their soldiers had occupied while still performing their own roles. Their greatest sacrifice was living with the absence of a loved one and coping with fear when that loved one stood in harm's way. Also deserving, of recognition are those employers and co-workers of the soldiers. They have contended with changes inherent in the departure of employees while holding open those positions until their returns.

It some situations, that is an extremely difficult process. It is important that all these sacrifices be kept in mind, but the main emotion of this event remains gratitude. Welcome home, and thank you. Article a plus THE article about Columbus inthis month's issue of SmithsoniaVMagjr-zine is an important boost for the city's tourism. Although Columbus has been featured in dozens of newspapers and magazines, some with far bigger circulations that Smithsonian's 2 million, the prestige of the magazine and its mostly upscale readership can bring some pretty big dollars in tourism revenues.

the questions and the rumors. It reached a pinnacle in 1988 when producers of a new television show called "Unsolved Mysteries" announced plans to develop a show around Clarence Roberts. They conducted a casting call in Indianapolis for people who would.be selected to portray the characters who weren't around to portray themselves. A large number of older women auditioned for the part of Geneva Roberts, and many came to the tests wearing wigs (one was orange; another was light blue) although no one in Nashville ever knew Geneva Roberts to wear a wig. The production crew descended on Brown County in June 1988 to begin filming.

They even recreated one of the fires, razing a house that had been donated by a Nashville family that had been planning to tear the building down anyway. The program aired in October 1988, and immediately the Clarence Roberts spottings resumed. None of them were credible, of course, and after a brief flurry of more fame, interest in the case simply disappeared. "People just stopped talking about Clarence Roberts after that show went on the air," said one Brown County woman. And for most of Brown Coun-ty, that's the way they want it.

Harry McCawley is the associate editor of The Republic. He can be reached by phone at 379-5620 or by e-mail at harrytherepublic.com. Brewmistresses crucial to Andes empires elsewhere if I don't like the I ismoke. Now it's their choice td book elsewhere if they don't like Chicago and part of a team that spent more than a decade excavat- Behind the Lnbn.the-headlines 2S the clean air. We have a moral obligation to provide a work environment for the employees as safe to work in as we'd want for ourselves.

The mayor and the city council i changed things to help make that obligation more achievable. For years, people have been i a fortified embassy. I "This is the only place where the two empires Iwere making face-to-face contact, and it's that contact that helps explain this site it's both defensible and very impressive," said Michael Moseley, a professor of anthropology at University of Florida who started the Baul project while he was curator at Field Museum. Part of sacrifices? While it's' possible that the shawl pins were lost while the allowed to smoke iust about anvt wbre and anytime they buu being around forever doesn't make it right, smart, or By Lee Bowman Scripps Howard News Service Archaeologists have found that a ceremonial brewery located in the Andes was operated by-women of high social class. Fhe' esearCHters recovered from the ruins of the brewery floor 10 jelegant metal shawl" pins, a luxury afforded only noblewomen of the Wari Empire, a militaristic people who conquered most of what is modern Peru starting about 1,400 years ago.

That suggests that the women who made a spicy brew using a combination of maize and berries from a pepper tree were part of an elite guild of brewmistresses. "The brewers were not only women, but elite women," said Donna Nash, an adjunct curator at Field Museum in the region today, although with perhaps a bit more kick. And the brewery was no bathtub operation, either. It utilized 28 ceramic vessels that could turn out about 475 gallons a week. "Our analyses indicate that this specialty brew was a high-class said Ryan Williams, curator of anthropology at the museum and leader of research at the site, known as Cerro Baul.

The beer "was drunk from elaborate beakers up to a half a gallon in volume." Women's roles detailed The researchers had described much of their findings about the brewery in a report last year. But the new report, published online by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to detail the role of the high-status women. According to accounts written by the Spanish conquerors of Peru, an elite class "of women also brewed chicha in the Inca culture that succeeded the Wari, Nash noted. Inca imperial "gatherings were highlighted by the exchange "of gifts, such as fine woven cloth and shirts, and the consumption of large amounts of beer. "Without cloth and beer these ancient empires could not have" functioned," Nash said.

"Therefore, women were crucial to the ancient empires of the south-central Andes." The Wari established Cerro Baul as an outpost inside territory controlled by the rival Tiwanaku empire in about A.D. 600, reportedly as sort of heMthy. This is a change that I we'll be thankful for down the road, i ment 8,000 feet up a mountain. It reportedly served as a sort of diplomatic-village that-marked the southern extreme of the empire. The shawl pins, which resemble straight pins with flattened heads, were found only inside the three-room brewery.

"They weren't slaves, and they weren't people of low status. So the fact that they made the beer probably made it even more special," Nash added. The brew, called chicha, was similar to beer made in Your Comments women worked inside the brewery, Moseley suggests the women included the valuable pins as part Of a sacrifice left Readers are invited to submit let- ters to the editor and comments on i editorials by: Mailing or hand delivering letters tq The Republic, 333 Second IN 47201. at the village when the wari abandoned it in about A.D. 1000, the period when the! empire fell into fairly sudden them to 379-571 1 1 Sending them by e-mail to decune.

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