Take time to get census right

January 25, 2021

Every ten years the U.S. government takes a census of everyone in the country. The nation has been doing this a long time, and usually it follows well-established procedures. Usually by this time of year, the Census Bureau is releasing its results. Cities, counties and states around the country are learning if they have grown or shrunk. This information is vital in apportioning government program aid, and especially in deciding how to divide up the country's congressional districts. But this year the information is delayed, held up by confusion and challenges to the process this ...

Et Cetera

January 23, 2021

Martin County Library We were glad to see that the Martin County Library re-opened this week. Due to COVID-19, the Library has been open to contactless pickup only since November 23, 2020. They are currently open at 50 percent capacity and also asking patrons to keep to a 30-minute visit. We wish the Library well and hope they will be increasing the time per visit soon as the Library is a great resource for several citizens who don’t have access to the internet and enjoy researching. Resident Recruitment At this week’s Fairmont Economic Development Authority meeting, ...

Time to look ahead work for the future

January 22, 2021

Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on Wednesday. We know there are a vast number of people in this country, even in our readership, who do not consider him to have earned the honor, but he won in what courts, state legislatures and Congress have declared to be a free and fair election. So even if you don't consider Biden to be "your" president, the fact remains that he is "the" president. How we deal with this fact will determine what happens to this country in the future. We hope bipartisanship will be rediscovered in the halls of Congress. Democrats ...

Biden must bring people together

January 21, 2021

When Joe Biden officially become President Biden today, he has a tough task awaiting him. He will take on the job of reuniting a country that has shown darn little interest in being united if it means people have to understand and tolerate those who don't agree completely with them. This is a job that may not be accomplished in one term or two terms. It may take a generation or two to get past today's polarization. But Biden can make a start. We know he is going to reverse many of the administrative orders that Donald Trump issued in his quest to wipe out the legacy of the Obama ...

Expanding the vaccine eligibility list

January 20, 2021

It may be a small step, dependent wholly on the limited availability of COVID-19 vaccines, but the state of Minnesota is expanding the list of people eligible to receive the vaccine. A pilot program, being held in nine sites throughout the state, will begin taking appointments this week to vaccinate teachers, child care workers and people over 65, as vaccine supplies will allow. How many people can actually be vaccinated depends on supplies, which are much lower than had been originally anticipated at this point. The state had been counting an increase in the doses supplied by the ...

The dream of Martin Luther King Jr.

January 19, 2021

Martin Luther King Jr. would be 92 this week. He was 39 when he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee for his leadership in the Civil Rights movement. In the 53 years since his death, one would hope we have taken steps, made some progress, toward achieving his goal expressed in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech — “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character…” Over the years, certainly some progress has been made, but in the past few years we have ...