April 11-17
Young children in the Montevideo region deserve the best that we can give them.
Week of the Young Child ~ April 11-17, is a time to recognize the needs of young children, and thank the adults involved in their education and care.
Child care providers, teachers, parents and other adults, play important roles in the lives of young children, and Week of the Young Child celebrates their efforts.
We can show our support for early learning in our community by thanking our child care providers and teachers, promoting early literacy programs and working to ensure that our public policies support early learning for all young children.
Week of the Young Child is a time to focus our attention on bringing the Montevideo region together for children and to recognize the early years are truly the learning years.
—Deb Spaeth
Prairie 5 Child Care
Resource & Referral
Healthy habits
Soil Stewardship Week will be observed nationally April 25 through May 2. The theme of this year’s observance is “Conservation Habits = Healthy Habitats.”
Each of us can be good stewards of our natural resources where we live, work, and play.
What actions can we take to make our back yards, playgrounds and shopping areas healthy?
What is conservation? It is the careful management of our environment and our natural resources.
What is a habit? It is an action or a behavior that is repeated over and over again.
What is a habitat? A place where people, animals and plants grow and live.
There are many ways we can develop habitat areas or keep our habitat healthy.
It’s simple:
Add a birdbath. Plant flowers, trees or grasses. Recycle so that habitats don’t have to be destroyed and natural resources are preserved. Let a corner of your yard grow naturally to provide shelter and food for wildlife. Plant grass or groundcover on soil where erosion has occurred. Plant grass to stabilize rivers, lakes, and streams. Plant a rain garden. Collect rain in a rain barrel.
If you would like more information contact the Chippewa Soil and Water Conservation District at 320-269-2139.
—Jean Diggins
Chippewa SWCD
Why fear socialized medicine?
It is an asset to our community that we have a local newspaper in which to share our opinions on issues we care deeply about. There is a lot of passion over the passage of the Health Care Bill.
I am grateful that our country is finally doing something about the millions of uninsured who are without basic health care. Ninety-five percent of the population will be covered. I still wonder about the 5 percent left behind. Hasn’t the denial of health care provisions to millions of Americans been a moral dilemma?
The Health Care Bill is not perfect, but it provides a stepping stone to positive change.
The current system is unsustainable with rapidly growing and unaffordable health care costs. The United States is currently spending twice as much on health care per capita than any other country, yet is rated 37th in health care for quality and fairness by the World Health Organization.
About half of the bankruptcy filings in the United States are due to medical expenses. No other developed country lets that happen. They view basic health care as a human right.
Is it possible to be pro-life yet oppose health care coverage for all? Doesn’t liberty and justice for all include freedom from debilitating treatable illness?
Why the fear of socialized medicine? Do any oppose or reject Medicare or Veterans Health Care? Medicare operates with 3 percent overhead; non-profit insurance 16 percent overhead, and; private (for-profit) insurance 26 percent overhead.
The joy of an opinion page is seeing someone express the thoughts and feelings we share, and the challenge to our way of thinking when someone expresses a point we disagree with.
In my opinion, thank goodness for health care reform and for Grayce Ray’s refreshing reporting on issues that matter.
—Vicki Poier
Montevideo
Taxing is not the way to grow
I recently attended a couple public meetings in western Minnesota. A common theme is emerging. There is a tendency to condemn the messenger with regard to school and city budget cuts. While the governor is hearing the cries of foul from many, he is listening to challenges of the industrial business base. The 165 jobs my businesses provide in western Minnesota compete on the world market every day. We lose work to Malaysia and others, often to low $/hour labor and low taxes. Yet, we also win work against these competitors via innovation and thus, 165 jobs. Our competitive advantage is tight. The governor understands we cannot tax our way to success. Success will come via economic growth. Success is no longer measured against South Dakota, but against the world. No country has ever taxed their way to prosperity, and it won’t work now.
I find it interesting that so many in the school districts rail against difficult budget times. Yet, not once do I see those in the education system volunteer in the areas of economic development and job creation. Each industrial job brings 1.5 students to the school district, which brings the school over $75,000 during 12 years of school. Which path should the education system choose: A.) Urge citizens and state for more money? B.) Grow your way to success! I think a quote from Gandhi fits here. Let’s stop looking for politicians to fix our challenges. Grow a job and save a teacher! Grow a job and pave a street! Over tax a job and fire a teacher when the jobs die! While no one donates to local schools more than businesses, I cannot say the same for school staff supporting jobs. I urge all citizens to education yourself on the challenges of industrial business so we can grow together. Profits and jobs are not evil. They are our only path to prosperity!
—Kevin R. Wald
Montevideo
Tea party or Palin crusade
Lyle Henning stated there is not a government tax program that is better than a capitalism plan. Stand at the podium and tell that to the hundreds of thousands of veterans including myself.
Instead of the Veterans Administration, governments let the insurance companies handle it. There is money to be made here with the preexisting condition clause or read the fine print in the policy. It does not cover shrapnel wounds.
Stand by the podium and tell the millions of Social Security recipients the money should be put in the stock market.
Can you imagine denying someone health care because they had breast cancer before their policy was written — preexisting condition?
The Tea Party’s answer to health care is the Bush-Limbaugh plan. Here is what it said: Get rid of ’em.
Sounds like Nazi Germany. Gives me the chills.
Lyle Henning reminds the Tea Party folks to bring a flag and something for the food shelf. Same stuff. Wrap yourself in the flag. Bring along a can of peas. These very same people that cannot afford health care are also hungry. A can of peas for them.
Wow! This is the pinnacle of hypocrisy.
I’m surprised he didn’t remind them to bring along a Bible.
Veterans, senior citizens and others, don’t forget Thursday, April 15, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Trailways parking lot. Courtesy of Mayor Jim Curtiss.
Free admission. Well, maybe a can of peas. A camera would be good to photograph these patriotic, Christian folks.
Stephen Rucker could be there filling in for Bush-Limbaugh. He would be hard to miss, speaking into the megaphone and quoting Macbeth and Shakespeare, and selling the Wall Street Journal.
As for Rucker’s last letter to the editor, how about what this man said:
“If thou havest a feast, invite the sick, maimed and the poor. He who turns his ear away from the poor will not be heard when he cries out.”
These words were not taken from the Wall Street Journal.
I am sure Montevideo-American readers will be looking for Rucker’s next letter to the editor, addressing this man’s words as dogmatic and arrogant, as he did with Grayce Ray’s column.
—Vance Ost
Montevideo
A very moving experience
I was in Montevideo over the Easter week-end visiting my family. Knowing nothing about the arrival of the troops coming home after serving a year in Iraq, I heard sirens going off in the distance while walking up Sheridan Ave. I continued walking and noticed many people gathering on 17th Street. Two big fire trucks were raising their ladders and they put up a huge American Flag. It was just a little breezy. The sky was so blue and the flag was waving gently as they put it up. What an awesome sight!
I heard someone say the caravan was just 15 minutes away. As I stood there I couldn’t help thinking of when the troops came home from Vietnam. They were wounded, sick and broken-hearted, to think they had given their time serving their country and then coming home to angry crowds and people burning flags.
Everyone in the crowd seemed so happy and thankful that no one from this unit was killed and that they were coming home at last to be with their loved ones. I happened to be standing next to a couple whose son came in the night before in Olivia and she said, “You just can’t imagine the feeling we had as we saw him get off that bus.”
All of Monte’s emergency vehicles were coming down the street, sirens going, people cheering and waving. That alone just gave such an emotional and moving experience but when those buses with the troops went by, we cheered and clapped. I want to say thanks to these young people and their families. What an emotional and moving experience.
—Pat Elkington Larson
Coon Rapids
