Opinion

To the citizens and taxpayers of the city of Cannelton: Since a reference has been made from the current mayor that the City of Cannelton has not progressed in the past 12 years, I find it now necessary to present facts as to the increased assets that have been added to the city from 1995 to the end of 2007.

1. Community center, land and equipment, $1,254,680

2. Fire station, trucks and equipment, $719,554.56

3. Police equipment and cars, $93,096.90

4. Library building and accessories, $600,013.06

Today is Memorial Day, a day set aside since 1868 to honor and remember our nation's veterans.

Then it was called Decoration Day and was established by an organization of Union veterans called the Grand Army of the Republic.

The first observance was held at Arlington National Cemetery, where officials including Gen. Ulysses S. Grant presided over ceremonies. Children from the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphan Home and members of GAR made their way through the cemetery reciting prayers and singing hymns while putting flowers on Union and Confederate graves.

As each Perry County senior receives their diploma this week and next, changes are going to happen. No longer are you high-school students confined to an 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. schedule, a structured life of clubs, sports, school work and other obligations tied to school.

Now is the time to really use what you've learned in those walls to make your decisions count even more than what they have. Experience new things. Go out, do things you never would have thought about doing.

Perry County's response to animal-abandonment, -neglect and -cruelty problems, woefully inadequate not too long ago, has been developed over recent years into what can be described as a solid foundation. We have a state-of-the-art shelter, an animal-control-officer position and regulations he or she can cite in doing the job.

I think the newspaper does a good job of extending thanks and congratulations to individuals and businesses who are recognized for their work, hard work and commitment to community.

Many of the letters to the editor we publish each week voice thanks to our neighbors who lend their time, talent and treasure to various projects. Our Hometown Heroes feature published approximately every two weeks offers an opportunity to thank individuals who might not otherwise receive the thanks they deserve. But, sometimes, good works go unnoticed.

How wonderful the earth is springing back to life in bloom, with more to come. Of course, all of the planted bulbs have bloomed, now the perennials and the flowering almond, with its wonderful full-pink flowers. Forsythia with its bright yellow blossoms with its green leaves is starting to encroach on the yellow, the airy white clusters of blossoms on the sarvis tree.

Now, the redbud trees have joined the display with their purplish-pink blooms, with the dogwood and lilacs following. These are all beautiful while in bloom, but seem to be gone in a flash.

I watched nursery workers plant an oak tree in front of the newspaper office Thursday. I had hoped it would go directly in front of my office window but it sits slightly to the south, easy to see when I'm sitting at my desk but out of sight when I'm front of my computer.

I often watched robins and other birds that loved to eat berries and chat in the old tree that grew for years right outside my window.

America has suffered tremendous setbacks within the nightmare, train-wreck presidency of George Bush. Our dollar seems almost worthless and our government owes trillions of dollars, mostly to foreigners, for the first time in our history.

Our economy is in shambles and we have almost no influence in the world past the reach of military, currently bogged down in an expensive and endless war.

We understand county commissioners' reluctance at getting involved in a family's land dispute, but the basic question posed to them by a Birdseye man this month should have been answerable.

As reported in today's issue, Herb Huff asked commissioners for information about a roadway in Oil Township that may or may not be a county road. Huff and his wife are in a long-running disagreement with other family members about whether access to the roadway just off Indiana 62 can be restricted or, if it is still county owned, has to be left open.