Viewpoints

Wed
26
Jul

Wexford Wanderings

by Hugh E. Conway

Games 4

Here are two more circle games with song and verse that were played and enjoyed by the children and teachers at many of the rural Wexford Schools. These games were often played by the younger children included “All around the mulberry bush” and “Pop goes the weasel.”

All around the mulberry bush. This game was designed to help teach children cleanliness and good manners.

The game begins with children holding hands and dancing around in a circle singing the chorus.

Here we go round the mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush.
Here we go round the mulberry bush
So early in the morning. (Chorus)

When the children reach the action verse; each child stands and perform the appropriate action.

This is the way we wash our face,
Wash our face,
Wash our face.
This is the way we wash our face
So early in the morning.

Wed
26
Jul

Letter to the Editor: Appreciation for the Allamakee County Fair Board

To the Editor:

I don’t think you hear this often enough, so I want to say “Thank You.” Thank you for donating your time to make the Allamakee County Fair as great as it is each year. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend meetings and conferences, for spending weeknights and weekends completing fairground maintenance and beautification projects, and for taking your own vacation time from work to make fair week run so smoothly.

I think the Allamakee County Fair is amazing, but the hardworking people behind the scenes are what amaze me the most.

Each member of the board brings so much to the table, and the community is so thankful for your skills. From the board member who is mechanically inclined to the board member who takes care of the phone calls and paperwork, without you our fair would not be the amazing community event that it is.

Wed
26
Jul

Letter to the Editor: Mismanagement

To the Editor:

Are you disgusted with the way our country is going? Our Congressmen have put us trillions of dollars in debt. Our country has been mismanaged for a long time. The post office and Amtrak railroad run by the government have lost money for years, and the government wants to run our healthcare.

We have been going downhill financially and morally ever since the 1960s when President Johnson produced the so-called Great Society. He also passed a law that forbid priests and ministers to be active in politics or they would lose their tax exemption. His Great Society program put more people on the government dole, thinking they would vote Democrat.

I call that criminal and it’s starting to backfire on the Democrats as people wise up - they want work, not hand-outs. Do you ever think our Congressmen would ask, “What mistakes are we making right now that could make things increasingly intolerable for our children?”?

Wed
19
Jul

And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that Iowa has experienced its first Fourth of July with legal fireworks sales in a long time, and the results seem mixed. There were a few fires, and a few city councils received enough complaints to maybe reconsider previous actions.

I don’t even know if fireworks were legal in Waukon. There was something in a news story, but since I was not involved, it did not register. I do know I heard fewer fireworks this year than in many past years, when they were not allowed to be sold. It was as if those inclined to purchase them decided that if it was legal, it wasn’t fun anymore!

Were fireworks legal in Iowa in the days of my youth? I don’t know. I know the kids in the neighborhood in which we lived in those days, just west of the Waukon Greenhouse, had firecrackers. That would have been in about 1943 or 1944.

Wed
12
Jul

And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... part two, or three, of why English is a difficult language to learn.

The radio ad was for a restaurant featuring vegetarian meatballs. Imagine learning what vegetables are and what meat means, and try putting them together so it makes sense.

It’s like the phrase jumbo shrimp. Jumbo meaning large and shrimp meaning small, right?

And say you are driving an Allamakee County road and you see groups of wild creatures. There are lots of deer. But lots of turkeys. Why the “s” for the turkey numbers but not the deer? Or the “s” for foxes but no “s” for moose, the latter not seen in Allamakee.

Who made the rules?

Still on the subject of outdoor things, have you noticed the fireflies? They seem extremely bright this year. As if you could put a couple in a jar, as we used to when we were children, and read a book by their light. Which we did not do as children.

Wed
12
Jul

Letter to the Editor: “Trumpcare” would deny millions access to preventive care

To the Editor:

In the very near future, the Senate will likely vote on a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act that would also unravel the Medicaid program and bar Planned Parenthood from participating in Medicaid for one year. As a Family Planning Program Administrator, I am writing to urge Senator Joni Ernst and Senator Charles Grassley to stand on the side of public health and block this dangerous proposal.

This effort, which happened behind closed doors by 13 male Senate Republicans, will devastate access to publicly funded family planning care that an estimated 641 women and men in the most recent year have come to rely on here in Decorah for contraceptive services, cancer screenings, STD services and other preventive care. If this bill were to be enacted, health centers would be forced to scale back services, or even close, and an untold number of our patients would lose access to essential care they need.

Wed
05
Jul

And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that if my name doesn’t appear on the obituary page of this edition, it will mean that I was able to note my 83rd birthday this week.

I note that only because it might give me an excuse for being an old curmudgeon, sort of like what Andy Rooney used to do on his short TV spot weekly.

For example, I often wonder “why is it” that all the bananas on display at the markets are too ripe or too green.

Or why television stations all start their newscasts at 6 p.m.

Or why commercials are all shown at the same time each hour. If you try to skip a commercial spot by selecting another channel, odds are you will find a commercial there as well!

This all came to a head one recent Saturday morning. Most radio stations have lawn and garden shows starting at 8 a.m., summer or winter.

Wed
05
Jul

Letter to the Editor: Northeast Iowa Indivisible Chapter

To the Editor:

“…indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

These recognizable words capture the spirit and intent of the Northeast Iowa Indivisible Chapter.

Our goal is to unify, not divide, by bringing Northeast Iowans together to address our common challenges, including those that have increased as a result of the last election cycle. We aim to support citizenship by providing opportunities for NE Iowans to more fully engage in the democratic process, a process in which complacency has real consequences. Our focus is local, local participants are responsible for developing initiatives to engage with our local community and with our Northeast Iowa legislators. The chapter is headquartered in Decorah but serves the broader northeast Iowa region. We are a diverse, non-partisan group; your ideas and participation are welcome.

Wed
05
Jul

Letter to the Editor: Is it obedience?

To the Editor:

The reason is clear why the 47%ers, as Ozzie Quandahl described in his letter to the editor of Wednesday, June 14, 2017, want abortion as a healthcare right paid for by the government. They think the government paying will erase their heart guilt for disobedience to the Ten Commandments.

Abortion is murder. Murder is pride saying, “I have the right to decide.” The only right man has is to love God and obey His commands. Plain and simple, God covers it all in just ten commands.
The question of a healthcare right is not “Is it right?”, but “Is it obedience?”.

Sue Fry Vonderohe
New Albin

 

Wed
28
Jun

And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that I was one of those students who really enjoyed diagramming sentences and showing off my skill at the blackboard. Remember blackboards?

But it has been 70 years or so since I really knew the terminology, so a couple years ago, when one of the booksellers whose catalogs I get offered a book on diagramming, I ordered it. I was informed it was not available and was out of print. I wondered at the time if that was because it is not being taught anymore, or maybe the rules have changed.

Radio and television almost have me convinced that the language skills I learned no longer apply.

The day of that shooting at the baseball practice, one network ran a crawl on screen that read “capitol police were on sight” when it happened. I kept waiting for someone to correct that to “on site” but it never happened. Doesn’t anybody at the network read those things? Or don’t they know any better.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Viewpoints