Opinion

Editor's Note: A Quality of Life Committee working under the auspices of the Perry County Development Corp. is partnering with The News to present stories of people who have moved to Perry County or who have returned here after several years away. Nancy Myers penned this month's view.

I moved to Perry County almost nine years ago to work for the Hoosier National Forest in Tell City. I came from a national forest in Arizona near Phoenix that was very busy.

One of the wonderful results of publishing your e-mail address on a Web site, as we at The News do, is that people anywhere in the world can find it and send us stuff. I get all kinds of news releases from people I've never met, promoting products, services, events and ideas I could never dream up by myself.

For example, I had heard of Take Your Daughter to Work Day, and just like you, had kept quiet about its inherent constitutional issues. But I wasn't aware until Monday that someone had come up with Take Your Dog To Work Day, which happens Friday.

Many of you saw the comments made by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels recently when he said the next president "would have to call a truce on the so-called social issues" so he or she could focus on the fiscal problems facing the country.

As I've made clear, I really like Gov. Daniels, and I consider him a friend and colleague, but his comments mirror those of the GOP establishment who view values voters dismissively as "single-minded."

"Why does The Perry County News have to publish garbage in order to sell papers?" a reader asked on our Web site, www.perrycountynews.com.

I have to confess, the reader was right about us wanting to sell newspapers. Please buy several copies whenever you can, even if you have a subscription. Think of the children.

In Thursday's B section, we published a picture of a few 4-H Shamrock members spending the morning cleaning the Windy Creek Perry County Greenway on the north side of Tell City. Youth from Deer Creek Baptist Church recently cleaned Sunset Park in Tell City, helping prepare that area for last Monday's groundbreaking for a new riverwalk project.

Those who opposed the health-care bill are currently debating whether "repeal and replace" should be the clarion call in the coming election.

Regardless of how this debate turns out, those in favor of doing better should focus their immediate attention on identifying and fixing the most harmful parts of the legislation. The new Independent Payment Advisory Board should be a top target.

If you're a voter, you'll be asked in November if you want to help change the Indiana Constitution.

Property-tax caps that have been the subject of numerous news stories, several here and many elsewhere, survived the first of the steps, in 2008 and this year, required to get them into the state's most important document.

Step 3 is yours to handle, as a voter in November's election.

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.

Editor's Note: A Quality of Life Committee working under the auspices of the Perry County Development Corp. is partnering with The News to present the stories of people who have moved to Perry County or who have returned here after several years away. This column was written by Chad James.

In 1991, I moved away from Perry County, excited to begin my college years at Purdue University. The previous 18 years were spent largely with family. My mother had 13 siblings and my father had 11.