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The Lenten Season is near

Local Columns

It is hard to believe that the Lenten season is only a couple of weeks away. In the Catholic Liturgical Calendar, there are four Liturgical seasons: Advent, Christmas, Ordinary Time, and Lent. Currently, the Church is in Ordinary Time, but we are quickly approaching Lent. Ash Wednesday, which is February 18, is the start of this especially important season. The Lenten season lasts from Ash Wednesday to the start of what is known as the Easter Triduum, which begins on the evening of Holy Thursday. Lent is more than just a season that leads to Easter; it is an invitation to break ...

Concerned about funding public schools

Letters to Editor

To the editor, Now is the time to urge Iowa Senators and Representatives to end or cap the budget for Educational School Aid (ESA) as the Iowa Legislature begins its 91st session. ESAs, if you don’t recall, are coupons provided by Iowa taxpayers to parents of K-12 school students in private schools. ESAs were unpopular across the political spectrum when the law was enacted in 2022-2023 but the program was enacted anyway. After three years of ESA implementation, a growing grassroots movement of individuals and school boards are taking action. Iowa Concerned Citizens for ...

It’s time to get re-wired

Local Columns

I have a confession to make. I don’t trust computers any more. Don’t get me wrong: I’m typing on one right now and I really appreciate many of the functions for writing and storing information. But I think we’ve gone too far. When I first started writing, I used a typewriter. An old fashioned, black, typewriter, probably an Underwood. It was the one my dad used for typing competitions in high school, back in the 1930s. You had to push hard, and change the ribbon. If you made a mistake you started over, or used a special eraser, but there was nothing more comforting than ...

Sit right down and write a letter

Local Columns

Back in 1935 when Fats Waller recorded “I’m Going to Sit Right Down and Right Myself a Letter” he had no idea that the written letter, a common means of communication for centuries, would be an endangered art form 90 years later. You don’t think so? How many handwritten personal letters have you received in the past week compared to, say, 40 years ago? Do you have an up-to-date postal mailing address book? I don’t. E-mail, text messaging and cheap long-distance calls have nearly eliminated handwritten letters. In my case, the exception to e-mail was an occasional letter to ...

The gift of music

Local Columns

It was a pleasure to sit in the school board meeting this past week and listen to the members applauding the efforts of the high school music instructors, Kaitlyn Abens, the high school band instructor and Aaron McCullough who is in charge of the vocal music department. This week, there was a post on social media with this message: You don't have to choose. You can do sports. You can do extracurriculars. You can participate in community activities. You can have a job. And you can do band while you do it. If you've ever had the desire to learn an instrument, join band. If your ...

Oom-pah-pah

Local Columns

Though I regret the embarrassment this may cause my loved ones, I must make a confession: I love polkas. In my youth, polkas were considered “square.” Today’s young folks might call them “dorky” or “pathetic” or another term of derision. After years of trying to hide my attraction to the happy tunes from Europe, however, I must come clean, square, dorky, pathetic or otherwise. My affinity for polkas apparently took root 75 years ago on a farm in northern Iowa’s Kossuth County. My earliest memories of my grandfather’s dairy barn include an old wood cabinet radio ...