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Today's Opinions

  • 'Tis the season for green

    I'm not much into green beer and while I'm a fan of corned beef, I can do without cabbage.

    Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day and while lots of us will be wearing the green, a lack of Irish heritage doesn't inspire me to truly celebrate the day like those whose family trees have roots in the Emerald Isle. I enjoy reading about Irish history and the nation is near the top of places I still want to explore.

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  • A vision that became a reality

    Each year the members of Leadership Perry County are charged with designing and delivering a project to improve the lives of the citizens of Perry County. Seventeen years ago a small group of emerging leaders from the first graduating class took on the task of creating the Perry County Community Foundation.

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  • Our nation has survived worse economic situations

    The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Or so many media reports about our nation's current economic condition seem to indicate.

    One of the latest stories to scare people was an Associated Press report last Monday by Tom Raum and Daniel Wagner, who said we may now be in a depression, not just a recession.

    Stocks tumbled most of the week - reaching 12-year lows Thursday - probably partially due to Raum and Wagner's report, as investors were selling and taking their losses, fearful that a depression like that of the 1930s was about to grip the United States.

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  • Time more valuable than gold

    Life teaches us hard, but valuable lessons. One of the most valuable comes as a warning: don't take what we value for granted, especially people. Of all the commodities people put value in, the scarcest, and perhaps most valuable, is time.

    There's no futures market on extra days, months and years. We're only allotted so much of it and when our meter expires, so to speak, we're gone.

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  • Join the adventure that is 4-H

    What is 4-H? I get that question a lot. I have two different answers. 4-H is a community of young people who are learning leadership, citizenship and life skills. But I can also give another answer - 4-H is fun.

    4-H is a chance to help others in your community - whether it is collecting money to purchase items for those less fortunate, going to a nursing home to play bingo just to keep the residents company for one evening or sending cards to troops or veterans. These are all community-service projects Perry County 4-H'ers have accomplished.

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  • Who watches 'Watchmen'? You should

    "Watchmen" comes out tomorrow, but many of you out there may not have a clue what it's about. Sure, there are costumed crime fighters and what appears to be plenty of action, but is this just another comic book movie? No, actually you might say it's the anti-comic book movie.

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  • As stimulus dollars flow, will we learn any financial lessons?

    Perry County stands to gain hundreds of thousands - perhaps  even millions - of dollars in federal stimulus spending. That's good news. We welcome needed local investments in roads, streets, sewers and other infrastructure projects that will help our community prosper in the future.

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  • Fish-fueled Lenten journey begins

    My cupboards are packed with peanut butter and jelly, mushroom soup and a few tins of sardines. My freezer holds  boxes of fish sticks and a sack of shrimp for some special pre-Easter occasion.

    Lent is here and that means, at least for me this year, abstaining from meat and amending unhealthy behaviors.

    In a quest to bolster my usual ho-hum approach to Lent, I'm trying to avoid meat through Easter. Yep, 40 days without steak, hamburger and pork chops. Call it an effort at self-denial and penance for years of eating poorly.

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