Opinion

I'm tired of writing about methamphetamine. I'm sick of hearing about the drug and the police reports and telephone calls about people caught making it, using it or buying the ingredients that make the stuff.

I nearly bit the dust the other day. Or should I say I nearly bit the ice. I was walking down the sidewalk from my house to the mailbox with letters Sunday evening when my right foot found a small patch just a few inches in width. Both feet suddenly came out from under me, the letters in my hand flew skyward and I came crashing down back first on the hard concrete.

The elderly man hunched over from age, shuffling down the sidewalk. The older lady in the wheelchair with oxygen feeding through her nostrils.

Those are the faces of heart disease in America, aren't they?

Look at the face on this column mug. A healthy-looking 40-year-old woman. That's also the face of heart disease and a heart-attack survivor.

I suspect I'm not alone in occasionally pondering what Perry County may look like one or two decades from now.

A recent meeting of the Perry County Convention and Visitors Bureau, reported on the front page of Thursday's News, sparked my imagination yet again with discussion of how the county's location in the state and its good highways give it advantages in attracting tourists.

What is it with drugs, anyway?

Yet another meth lab has turned up in Tell City. Thinking about the presence of drugs and drug use in a small community such as ours, and how many other small and large communities throughout the United States are facing the same issues, is truly mind-boggling.

Billions and billions of dollars of public money have been spent in the war on drugs over the past several decades, and yet, illegal drug use continues to be one of the biggest cash businesses in the United States. The question is, why?

Although the Indiana General Assembly has been working since Jan. 8, most Statehouse observers feel the session doesn't begin until the governor delivers his annual State of the State speech.

Gov. Mitch Daniels outlined his goals for 2008 in a half-hour speech in the Indiana House chamber Jan. 15 that focused on his plans to provide additional property-tax relief.

The next day, the governor testified on his tax relief program (House Bill 1001) before the House Ways and Means Committee, the legislative panel that serves as the starting point on discussions.

At his first council meeting as Cannelton's mayor, Morris "Smokey" Graves faced opposition to his decision to eliminate two positions from that city's fire department. The meeting seemed more like a one-man show than democracy when the mayor announced that assistant- and deputy-chief positions, held by Charlie Little and Johnny Young respectively, were being eliminated to streamline the fire department.

Winter has left me sleepy. Maybe the shortage of sunlight is to blame for my missing energy. Or perhaps it's simply the cold that makes me want to stay under the covers some mornings.

Even the alluring aroma of coffee from the machine I program before bed fails to rouse my sleepy spirits. I'm not like this the rest of the year. I could fault old age. But I blame winter.

I have been daydreaming of spring, flowers, T-shirts and green grass. But I know winter has to run its course first. Until then, I'll cope with the long nights and cold.

Looking for ways to save money in 2008? With financial markets on edge, the cost of just about everything climbing and recession worries making headlines, who couldn't use a few extra dollars at the end of each month? Here are a few ideas to ponder in the new year.