Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Sorted by date Results 811 - 835 of 1718
In colonial America you were an Englishman, or you were not. The common claim was that an Englishman was an Englishman no matter where he stood in the world. The colonists increasingly took this to mean that they were equal in status and rights to any other English subject. British people of the upper classes viewed that idea with some distaste and were often offended when approached with familiarity by a colonial American. Most Americans thought that British attitudes about class and title...
Over time, I’ve heard several coaches bark at their teams “practice like its game time,” and likewise “the play isn’t over until the whistle is blown.” They’re references that probably don’t make sense unless you’re a sports fan, and even more if you’ve spent time in the sweaty practices and under the Friday Night lights. I’m recalling these moments of high-strung coaches and players struggling for their places on the roster as I observe the many levels of society. None of the players on any gi...
11 years ago our founding fathers declared their freedom from Great Britain and began a war for independence against the world’s number one superpower. In the end, they earned their freedom. But, what about us? Will Americans continue to be free? America is a free country today, and our children continue to inherit that freedom, but American freedom from British tyranny came with a very expensive price tag. That freedom will someday be lost unless we raise up future generations who understand t...
Martin Luther King, Jr. once famously said that “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character–that is the goal of true education.” For generations, Nebraskans have supported our public schools to do just this—to help build the next generation of educated and involved citizens in our state. To that end, our public schools have generally focused on teaching material that supports our communities, and have steered away from ho...
In my high school days I was honored to receive invitations to speak at the many local and area civic organizations' meetings. This is part 2 of a speech I delivered to the Fairbanks Rotary Club just prior to Independence Day, 1965. Many of the things I said then still apply today, and all of it is important to recall at all times. This was a pretty gutsy thing for a teen to be saying to a roomful of adults. The real purpose, the real reason for Independence Day is to honor the 56 men who...
Allow me to introduce you to a new organization called, the Consumption Tax Institute, Inc. The Consumption Tax Institute, Inc. is a new 501-C4 organization, which is putting together a strategy to put an initiative for the consumption tax on the ballot for November 2022. At some point in the future they hope to announce the start of a new petition drive, but that announcement will have to wait for another day. The reason that I am introducing you to the Consumption Tax Institute, Inc. today has...
The Woke Generation has the idea the truth is long absent, or at least such is implied on the public platform. There is this idea that history doesn’t tell the whole story. They might be right, in part. I remember years ago reading a philosopher’s opinion that history is written by the conqueror, or winner, in any given contest. That part makes sense, or is at least understandable. Pick a country, or geographic region, where its current makeup came about because of conquest. There will be the...
You and I, and all others who claim American citizenship, now have reason to celebrate a new Federal holiday, Juneteenth, our 12th legal public holiday. Last week, on Tuesday, June 15, the Senate unanimously passed legislation to make June 19, or Juneteenth, a national holiday. On Wednesday, June 16, the House passed it with only 14 “no” votes. On Thursday, June 17, President Joe Biden signed into law the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act in the White House’s East Room. In his remar...
God’s word, the Bible, is the source for all that is truth; what does it tell us about Homosexuality? Genesis !:27-28, God did not create homosexuality, men and women were meant to reproduce sexually (primary purpose for sex), 2 men cannot do this and neither can 2 women. Genesis 2:24, God’s design for marriage, one man and one woman becoming “one flesh”. Genesis 18:20-32, The sin of Sodom & Gomorrah was exceeding grave, the men were “wicked” and these cities were destroyed by God because of...
In my high school days, as a result of our debate team’s outstanding record, and other things, I was honored to receive invitations to speak at the Kiwanis Club, the Alaska Medical Association, the State Republican Convention, among many. I also appeared once on the local Fairbanks television station, and did a couple of shows on the local radio station. Immediately following this introduction is a speech I delivered to the Fairbanks Rotary Club just prior to Independence Day, 1965. Many of the...
It is time for the State Board of Education to reject the newly proposed comprehensive sex education standards. These proposed standards are politically driven, have no legitimate basis in science, and undermine the traditional family values held by the vast majority of Nebraskans. The State Board of Education has received more than 2,000 emails and at least 4,000 survey responses in opposition to these newly proposed sex education standards. In addition, public testimony by citizens has been...
A week ago, a few of us met. It is a tradition that started out of a need for support. We had been thrust into a chapter in life no parent wants to experience. In what still seems like a heartbeat, we went from guiding an 18-year-old to planning her funeral. The day is forever stuck in replay. The day starts with some creative time at m keyboard, followed by an argument with my daughter. A hot noon lunch with my daughter and wife, later hearing an apology message she left. I do my shift in a...
I was talking with someone about the weather recently on a day ending with “Y”, which means such conversation is a daily occurrence for me. The person noted I’d been in the weather business 42 years now. During that time I’ve seen many unusual things and had reached a point where I thought I’d seen everything. That changed on Sunday when the Cheyenne National Weather Service office put out a bulletin indicating there was a chance of “lime-size” hail. People have struggled to describe the...
Each year on June 14, Americans celebrate one of the most iconic symbols of freedom the world has ever known: the American flag. We didn’t pick this date by accident. On the same day in 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Act, which read, “Resolved: That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” George Washington described this design as takin... Full story
In reference to the “No Parking” Approved article on June 2, 2021, I want to point out that truckers are a vital part of our local economy. Rather than make more rules to make their lives more difficult, it would seem a better approach would be to find ways to accommodate and help them. Everything we eat, every purchase we make is brought to our localities by a trucker. They are on serious time constraints and unfortunately don’t always have access to restrooms or places to take their breaks or easily dump their trash. I would suggest that the...
“An informed patriotism is what we want… So, we’ve got to teach history based not on what’s in fashion but what’s important: Why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant… If we forget what we did, we won’t know who we are.” Ronald Reagan, Farewell Address to the Nation, Oval Office, Jan. 11, 1989 Patriotism is frequently scorned and scoffed at as being out-of-date, the refuge of the ignorant and violent, and the cause of war. Nothing could b...
President Trump’s criticism of news and commentary desks have quite possibly resulted in unintended results. Or did they? I try to be careful of rabbit trails, especially those that lead to dark holes with unknown personalities. This one can go either way, a long walk on a shadowy path, or a discussion in the daylight. Like him or not, Trump was known among things for calling out the press. “Fake news” is a label given to many reporters, stories and agencies. It became a First Amendment discu...
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity! What is the profit to a man in all his labor which he labors under the sun? These were the words of a man named Solomon who was King of Israel from 965-926 B.C. Solomon had riches, power, fame and everything going for him but he didn’t have wisdom. So Solomon sought wisdom and understanding from God and although gifted with great wisdom from God, he struggled with the real purpose and meaning of life. Solomon was considered the wisest man who ever lived and h...
The first session of the 107th Legislature has come to an end…well, almost. There remains one matter yet to be resolved by the Unicameral Legislature this year. It is the matter of redistricting. Once every ten years legislative district lines get redrawn in order to better comply with the changing demographics of our state. Legislative district lines are determined by population. Ten years ago, LB 703 determined that the ideal size of Nebraska’s legislative districts would be 37,272 people. So,...
You’ll be hard pressed to find someone more pro-life than I am. The wholesale slaughter of unborn children in our country is morally reprehensible and needs to stop. As a reader of my columns, you deserve an explanation for why I strongly advocate for abortion in America to end. First, the unborn life is human from the moment of conception. In an age when we’re demanded to follow the science, the science says the DNA of unborn children is human. That’s why fetal tissue is so sought after for res...
How does one recognize great writing in a novel, a work of history, or a scientific treatise? The typical answers include: if it sells 5,000 copies, if it makes the “New York Times Best Seller” list, if it wins a literary prize, if a literary critic gives his or her stamp of approval, or if it is printed for decades. Each generation of young people discover for themselves the wealth of ideas that they can dig out of Plato’s Dialogues, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Essays, or Shakespeare’s plays. Th...
I have a confession to make. I dodged the draft during the Viet Nam war era. It was easy to do. All I had to do was call up the Navy recruiter in Anchorage, AK and say, “I want to enlist in the Navy.” A short time later I was safe from the Army, and in Navy boot camp at San Diego, CA. Five years later I received a medical discharge and joined the ranks of those who are proud to have served our great Nation, the United States of America. The Navy taught me a great many things that I have fou...
I’ve been thinking of some of my “unexpected journeys” lately. I’ve been thinking how life can change when stepping out of the familiar and walking life’s path with a stranger. About 10 years ago, I was presented an opportunity to go somewhere I had never been, do things I had only heard and read about, and meet people I might only envision after a National Geographic film. It sounds dramatic, even fictional, like being stranded on an island and encountering a primitive culture or something...
In case you haven’t seen any news in the last two weeks, the notion that the Covid-19 virus escaped from a virus research laboratory in Wuhan, China, is no longer a fever dream only found in intellectually compromised brains of tinfoil-hat-wearing bloggers in the far-right corners of the Dark Web. In fact, it now appears that the virus most likely WAS manmade in a lab, and that it escaped into China’s population months before anyone in the West heard about it. So certain is this idea, that Fac...
Last week the Legislature voted to override Gov. Rickett’s vetoes on three bills: LB 108, LB 147 and LB 306. LB 108 and LB 306 expand Nebraska’s welfare benefits, while LB 147 requires the State to take over management of the Omaha Public School’s teacher pension plan. So, today I would like to explain why the Legislature was wrong to override the Governor’s vetoes on these three bills. LB 108 is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. The bill raises the gross income limit for the Supplemental Nut...
