We are compelled to look back on this day. Mostly because it is the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001 – this is being written on Sunday. But also because the world has lost its most compelling monarch, who was a bridge to a past that is setting sail with her death. Good-bye, Elizabeth ...
The paternal side of our family made a beeline from Sweden to Hamilton County circa 1850s. So, six generations later, some of us have moved a whole 10 miles. On the maternal side, mom's ancestors took a 100 years to get here via Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Arkansas, landing in north ...
I know Webster City is still on the radar of so many people whose lives intersected in this small, marvelous Iowa town. I know because I hear from them. Heck, we hear from them. Just last week, we heard from Debbie Long Hatz, whose father once managed the Elks Club before the membership ...
We hear a lot these days about mental health, most often tied to news reports in which someone has ended up dead. But mental health isn’t a topic that should be limited to a post mortem discussion; it’s a very alive reality we must all face in one way or another, sometimes daily. A ...
I guess I wonder what we are waiting for. Permission to be fed up? Permission to act? We watched, didn’t we? One after another, mass shootings took down innocent people — CHILDREN — at Sandy Hook, in Uvalde. We listened, didn’t we? To the attempts to soothe. To the ...
Friday morning I woke early to a text from a close friend. Two women had been murdered Thursday night at Cornerstone Church in Ames, in the mega-church’s parking lot. My youngest daughter was involved in youth group at Cornerstone, years ago. Since then, she has been through more than one ...