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Small Business Saturday is November 25

Local Columns

It’s customary this time of year for newspapers everywhere to write glowing editorials about the virtue of shopping local. After all, throughout the year, local businesses support the ability of local journalists to deliver local news, and we hope you will support them. Local news is important. We are not perfect, but we live and work in our communities. We care about the future because it’s our shared future. We grow as the community grows, and we need each other. I happen to be a natural born shopper. I grew up shopping extensively in my hometown of Webster City, and in mom’s ...

Congratulations to VDMC on receiving $751,000 grant

Letters to Editor

To the Editor: Throughout November, USDA Rural Development (RD) is celebrating Rural Health Day. I want to congratulate Van Diest Medical Center on receipt of a $751,000 USDA RD Emergency Rural Health Care Grant. This award is a key part of the Biden Administration’s Invest in America initiative — focused on rural America. President Biden is committed to ensuring the success of rural hospitals and health care facilities by helping them purchase supplies, equipment, renovate, replace operating costs, recover from the recent public health crisis, and meet the needs of the ...

The way to change the world is by speaking up through votes

Letters to Editor

To the Editor: Do you like the world today? Are you worried about America? Who do you blame, the politicians? And who voted those politicians in? I want you to look in the mirror and ask if you’ve done enough. In the 2022 midterm election the voting rate was 46%, less than half. Do you encourage others to vote? A fact check of the voting rate of 50 countries showed the U.S. came in 31st. Almost 250 years ago our forefathers fought a war against a king who taxed them but didn’t listen to their concerns. If you think you are too small to make a difference, you haven’t spent a ...

Reminisces of the 'oom-pa-pa'

Local Columns

I am not a big football fan but on the rare occasions when I have visited a university stadium I love the halftime performances by the college bands. In particular, I enjoy the sousaphones in the bands. For those who are not tuba aficionados, a sousaphone is the round-belled tuba most common in marching bands as opposed to the upright tubas you see in an orchestra. The mellow bass notes of the glistening sousaphones in the marching bands or the oom-pa-pa sound of a tuba in a Dixieland or polka band always bring back memories of a brief love affair with the sousaphone when I was in ...

About that letter

Local Columns

Before me, I have the unsigned letter referenced in Thursday’s story announcing the resignation of this community’s assistant city manager. I could have published it, but I chose not to. There are several reasons for my decision, the first being that this newspaper routinely doesn’t publish unsigned letters. Yes, the letter I am talking about was submitted to all the city council and to the mayor. In fact, it was the mayor himself who forwarded a copy to me. So it is public record. Still, I chose not to publish it. The second reason I chose not to publish it is its intent. ...

God be with you

Local Columns

The English-speaking world’s most common expression of farewell, “goodbye,” originated in the 16th century as “God be with you.” Through a series of metamorphoses over the next two centuries it became the contraction we use today — “goodbye.” Its history notwithstanding, I dislike the term. I’m just not a good goodbye guy. Elizabeth Bibesco wrote, “It is never any good dwelling on goodbyes. It is not the being together that it prolongs, it is the parting.” She’s right, but that doesn’t make goodbyes any easier. Back when non-passengers were allowed in the ...