Letter to Editor Dear Tori, Late in the night of Dec. 19 a cruel and terrible thing happened. Some low life scum of the earth coward hiding behind a rifle with an infrared scope, under the cover of darkness, shot and killed our beloved family dog. Our whole family loved Lloyd, but our Mom was his real owner. He was…
Read MoreCategory: Opinion
B. Banister re: purchase of Midland Power building
To the editor, The county supervisors have decided to buy the Midland Power building out on Old 30. Everyone knows that commercial real estate in Jefferson is cheap and very hard to sell. So it makes me wonder why we, the taxpayers, are paying $600,000 for a building that is probably not worth 100K, assuming that a buyer could even…
Read MoreWhat makes you laugh? Or smile quietly?
~a column by Colleen O’Brien When Canadian author Margaret Atwood (The Handmaids’ Tale) was asked, “Is there anything that gives you hope about your southern neighbor?” she replied that she does not think it’s over for America yet, as many gloomy commentators have been writing the past few weeks. Her answer was surprising…and funny: “I think America is an ornery…
Read MoreGive the gift of life: Take COVID vaccine for yourself and others
~by Bill Tubbs, posted with permission My dear wife, Linda, remembers well her mother’s tears and her father’s joy that cold day in 1955 she and her sister and brothers stood shivering outside Briggs Elementary in Maquoketa waiting their turn to receive the polio vaccine. Nothing could stop them. The availability of a vaccine to rid the people of the…
Read MoreRe-reading an old friend
~a column by Colleen O’Brien No matter how good some books are, I know I’ll never want to read them again. But now and then a book comes along that warrants repeated readings. Three of my favorites I have read three times. They are all journal-entry or correspondence stories centered around a war that altered the entire world. One of…
Read More“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” – Mark Twain
~a column by Colleen O’Brien Freedom of speech has suffered its bumps in the road in this country. For close to 50 years during the last century, a group, on their own authority and judgment, banned certain films whether imported or originating in Hollywood. During that particular period of dark ages (1933 to 1978), the Legion of Decency within the…
Read More‘Peat and Repeat were sitting on the fence. Peat fell of and who was left…’
a column by Colleen O’Brien I remember my smallpox vaccination – a round mark on my upper left arm made by some medical tool that looked like a needle. My round mark looked like my sisters’ and all my friend’s round marks; we learned this by comparing them. The shot itself was not painful and we did not get sick…
Read MoreElection stories
~a column by Colleen O’Brien Although it’s way past Election Day and most of us are moving on, I have stories to tell from poll watching, something I’d never done. The stories are mostly uplifting in a way that is reassuring as we’re bombarded with an invisible enemy on top of political hubris. As a poll watcher for Common Cause,…
Read MoreThe times, they never are a’changin’
a column by Colleen O’Brien “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it…
Read MoreSometimes, struggle makes it easier to be thankful
Editor’s note: This column was first posted for Thanksgiving in 2013, in the first month of GreeneCountyNewsOnline’s existence. This year, as most of us find new ways to celebrate thankfulness, it seems a good time to reconsider what we count as our blessings. I was raised saying grace before every family meal, and just about every meal was a family…
Read MoreA salute to the veterans memorial in Churdan
To the editor, I was raised by a woman, Gertrude Jaeschke, who is buried at the Churdan Township Cemetery alongside her father, sister and her husband and a brother. As I entered the cemetery last Saturday, 14Nov20, I was immediately drawn to the Veteran’s Memorial. What a wonderful tribute to those who served and what a great way to tell a…
Read MoreThanksgiving lite
~a column by Colleen O’Brien Hopeful ideas for Thanksgiving get-togethers are fading. Invisible coronaviruses are running rampant across the country – total deaths as of last weekend? Two-hundred and fifty-one thousand, two-hundred and sixty-eight souls. A few governors are now clamping down, closing schools and bars, talking about mandatory masks and social distancing, even cancelling sports. So, even small clan…
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