Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
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I knew one of the two men. There was no way for me to have met the other. They were friends from grade school. They played together on the Esther, Missouri, high school basketball team—although, technically, both lived in a town then known as Flat River, a rough lead mining community, where Norman Rockwell images butted up against the reality of fistfights between teens from rival cities. They graduated into a world emerging from the Great Depression. Both men joined the Marines. One was my uncle, Harold Thomas. Unable to find steady work, h...
Nothing bothers me more than uninformed people angrily spouting political beliefs. Don’t get me wrong, if you’re knowledgeable about the issues and you have different opinions that I do, I could listen to you talk all day. I enjoy a good debate as long as both sides can keep cool and remain respectful. One of the things that bothers me most is when someone says that legislation is being crammed down peoples’ throats. First of all, if you’re one of the people saying this, you’re being dramatic. Calm down. Whenever legislation is passed wi...
During the primary campaign a steady stream of Republican candidates turned our front door into something like a turnstile. We lost track of the number as visits increased toward the end. It was just a blur of future governors, Senators and attorney generals. To be honest, we were quite happy to meet with them and share their message with readers. A newspaper is, after all, a way for the people to learn of candidates and their ideas from snippets notably longer than the modern day television sound bite. Yet it is difficult for politicians to...
On Tuesday, April Fools’ Day, several dozen Dartmouth students gathered in the office belonging to the university’s president, Philip J. Hanlon, and insisted that he respond to each of the items listed on their Freedom Budget. The students demanded a faculty that included more women and minorities, gender-neutral housing and restrooms, and harsher penalties for sexual assaults. In their Freedom Budget, they wrote, “We seek to eradicate the systems of oppression” that exist on the Dartmou...
I think we place a little too much pressure on our mothers to be perfect. Especially as children, we look to our moms as a source of not only basic care so we can survive into adulthood, but also to nurture every facet of our being so we can grow into well rounded, successful individuals. As children we expect the world from our mothers. They can make everything better with a kiss and are the main source of comfort to our small lives. And even though our mothers obviously brought this burden upon themselves, that’s a lot of pressure to put o...
I’m not sure what to make of commencement addresses. In the imagination of those hopeful for words that inspire a lifetime of achievement, they might equal John F. Kennedy’s “New Generation” speech, Ronald Reagan exhorting the Soviets to “tear down this wall” or—at the very least—a good old fashioned rousing halftime talk by the likes of Knute Rockne. Of course, I have no memory of my high school graduation address. I don’t even know who stood behind the microphone that day. The words presented at the end of my undergraduate years, from none...
On April 28, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jewish communities around the world paused to remember all those who died during this tragic era of the world’s history. This day’s observance in the midst of a crisis in South Sudan makes me wonder why Americans are so aware of the horrible atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust, but not so about other more recent incidences of genocide around the world. In the same way that many Americans during WWII didn’t want to believe the harsh reality of the Jewish Holocaust, it’s unseemly and unpleas...
Oh, how I wish that I could begin this with a nonchalant “once upon a time.” It was many years ago, to be sure. In Erie, Pennsylvania, for some project during my television days, I read that the city’s minor league baseball team had a game that evening and headed to the ballpark. Every time one of the home nine who happened to be of African-American heritage stepped to the plate an old couple behind me couldn’t help but comment. “Black as the ace of spades,” they said about one. “All you see is teeth,” they mentioned when another cracked...
We know so little of William Shakespeare’s life. We know that he was christened on April 26, 1564, and that his father, John Shakespeare, made gloves in Stratford and served as an alderman on the town council. We know that in November of 1582, when Will was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, then twenty-six; that six months later Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susannah; and that in February of 1585, Anne gave birth to a set of twins, Hamnet and Judith. We know that in 1592, Will was a noted L...
I’m not sure the good old days were really that good. Quite often I hear people around town talking about how much better things were back in the day. Kids were more respectful, teachers could paddle students to make them behave and no one had to deal with constant texting at dinner. I submit to you that Sidney was a much wilder place way back in the day than it is now, although I supposed citizens don’t really reminisce about the late 1800s. However, I’m sure this sort of thinking has gone on for centuries. We always idealize the past. Everyon...
Two instances—one gleaned recently in a headline the other experienced personally--say a lot about America’s perception of the vast swath in the middle. The headline asked “heartlanders” not to fret over the selection of Stephen Colbert to replace David Letterman in the latter’s late night television slot. The one experienced personally occurred years before, when a colleague from California informed me during a conversation over the 2008 election that “middle America” would never vote for a black man like Barack Obama. Now, I’m not interested...
We’re all liars. Some of you out there might disagree with me, but I’d say if you do, you’re just lying to yourself. I know that most Sidney residents take pride in the community’s high moral standards. Dishonesty probably goes against that. However, sometimes politeness requires a lie. Dealing with children requires a fair amount of lies as well, simply because sometimes kids can’t handle the truth. I challenge you to consider how many lies, small and large you tell your friends, co-workers, children and loved ones each day. I think at the end...
I’ve never been inside a Ford Mustang—never driven one, never caught a ride in the passenger seat. It hardly seems possible, I know. The iconic muscle car turns 50 on Thursday, the anniversary of its appearance at the New York World’s Fair. Ford sold an astonishing 400,000 plus of the pony when the half year model debuted back in 1964 and more than 9 million in all. My sister owned one, but tumbled it down an embankment before I had a chance to slide in. A friend also had one, but he gutted it for use on the track. About a decade ago I knew...
Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, Robert Downey, Jr., Britney Spears, the late Whitney Houston, and countless numbers of other celebrities have gone through rehab at least once, and each experienced far less than a full cure. The actor Danny Bonaduce—the red-headed middle son on The Partridge Family—said, “They charged me more than $40,000 for my stay, and I drank on the way home.” Treatment centers, such as Betty Ford, Sierra Tucson, and Promises Malibu, offer hope to an individual who suffers...
It seems that when it comes to many social issues those on both side of the aisle do nothing but scream at one another and decide they are effectively deaf to any opinions different from their own. Personally, I really do sympathize with both sides of the abortion debate. I don’t understand how any rational person who tries to look at the situation from outside his or her own emotions could lack at least some empathy for either stance. No matter what your feelings on abortion, the only way to solve any problem is to analyze all the factors e...
Ukraine. We’ve all heard of it, right? Thanks to a period of political unrest that led their eastward leaning president to scamper … no, that’s not what attracted the interest of most Americans. Rather, it was Russia’s quasi-takeover of the Crimean peninsula and their continuing chest thumping along border. Donetsk is the latest flash point. The former Soviet republic has been in the news of late, as have the major players: Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama,Viktor Yanukovych—OK, not so much Yanukovych, but those guys in unmarked military uniforms...
Work isn’t everything. As someone who’s worked closely with the elderly, I can tell you that in one’s golden years, the fondest recollections of a life of events never involve how well you crafted expense reports or how many hours you spent laboring over spreadsheets at your desk. Although one’s occupation might be an integral part of one’s identity, it doesn’t make up all of who and what a person is. Being a reporter is a big part of who I am, I work a lot and I think about work quite a bit when I’m not working. I probably read an unhealthy...
I am not a Luddite—not really. You remember the Luddites, right? In the early years of the Industrial Revolution, groups of frustrated British textile workers began smashing machines meant to improve productivity. They had cause, mind you—at least in their minds. In the 1800s, waves of new technology send more and more laborers to the streets, where they were consigned to lives of crime, rum or other things fodder for the likes of Hogarth and Dickens. Men were losing lifelong jobs and they perhaps rightly blamed labor saving devices. Even the...
Three weeks ago, Hillary Clinton spoke at a fundraiser at Long Beach, California and suggested that Vladimir Putin’s actions in Crimea equaled those of Adolf Hitler eight decades ago. She said, “Now if this sounds familiar, it’s what Hitler did back in the 30’s. All the Germans that were the ethnic Germans, the Germans by ancestry who were in places like Czechoslovakia and Romania and other places, Hitler kept saying they’re not being treated right. I must go and protect my people and that’s wh...
We could all use a good dose of self doubt from time to time. Of course it’s great to be confidant, aware of your own strengths and to have faith in your abilities to accomplish difficult tasks and to do well or even excel at your job. But overconfidence can not only put off those around you, but can make you careless in your work. A healthy amount of self doubt make us double check what we’ve done, spend a little more time on tasks and to worry a bit if we’ve done as well as we could have. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Ove...
A line from “The Great Gatsby” came to mind over the weekend. It was something about the human capacity for hope or wonder—reaching over to the bookcase to double check seemed a bit too strenuous for a Saturday afternoon. Fitzgerald was, of course, referring to our innate ability to see potential. But what about the human capacity for foolish trust? Some firmly believe, despite a swell of evidence against their supposition, that the president is either a tyrant or a Muslim. Others look back on the previous administration and pronounce the f...
I have no patience for people who attempt to completely ignore the unpleasant things that happen in life. I totally believe that sensationalism in the news is wrong and that constant streams of stories about murders and explosions is not a fair representation of what’s happening in the world. But bad things do happen often and people need to know about it. I recently reconnected with a very close friend from high school on Facebook. We exchanged quite a few lengthy messages talking about what was new in our lives before I told her about some n...
What to make of Malaysia Airlines flight 370, missing for more than a week? Theories take hold for a few days—the flight crew landed it on some uncharted island for no known reason, it scorched Kazakhstani earth with blazing exhaust from just 5,000 feet, it plunged into the Indian Ocean—before being contradicted by the very Malaysian officials who offered up the hypotheses in the first place. It’s difficult to gauge their competence. With nothing to go on, they turn to such reliable regional governments as China, Pakistan and Myanmar for assis...
On Monday the U.S. Senate passed the Victims Protection Act, unanimously. This bill, which was introduced by Sen. Claire McCaskill and sponsored by Nebraskan Sen. Deb Fischer, as well as Sen. Kelly Ayotte, strives to put an end to sexual assault in the military, bolster victims’ rights and make offenders more accountable for their actions. This legislation allows the victims of sexual assault to decide whether they’d rather have their cases tried in military or civilian courts. A bill which would have made more drastic changes to the way tha...
Thelma Catherine Patricia Ryan is a very Irish name, and she had the red-hair to go with it. Born March 16, 1912, the day before St. Patrick’s Day, in Ely, Nevada, her parents moved to Cerritos, California, when she was a child. After high school, she worked her way through the University of Southern California, taught at Whittier High School, and then married the lawyer Richard M. Nixon. Patricia is the feminine form of Patrick, the name of the English missionary who introduced Christianity a...
