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Protect southern Minnesota history

Letters

I recently visited Fort Ridgely because I wanted to learn more about the history of this important place in southern Minnesota. Instead, I left feeling very sad and disappointed. What I found was heartbreaking. An estimated 75 to 80 percent of the historical plaques and signs at the site have been destroyed or are no longer there. Without those plaques, visitors have very little information to explain what happened at Fort Ridgely or why this place is important to Minnesota’s history. I also understand that the site is maintained by the Minnesota Historical Society. If that is the ...

Can’t control vanishment powers

Columns

I was about 6 years old when I discovered that I have an extraordinary talent for making things disappear. I owned a Barlow jackknife that had both a long blade and a short blade. This meant that I was prepared for anything from fending off a ferocious tiger to cleaning my fingernails. That pocketknife was my constant companion. One day I decided to try my hand at whittling, having found a funky stick that looked as though it could be carved into a likeness of the Statue of Liberty. I reached into my jeans pocket and found… nothing! Well, not exactly nothing. There were a few old ...

Putting up sign is shameful

Letters

Representing half the population is an almost impossible job, but brave men and women try. I am ashamed of the people who put up a sullied picture of First District Congressman Brad Finstad on the billboard out by Hy Vee. I was shocked that anyone could be this mean. Nobody deserves to be so publicly and blatantly dishonored for making decisions that they believe are in the best interest of their constituents. Our country is divided with differing opinions on almost every issue, and we owe kindness to those who are trying to represent their side of the population. Germaine Rysdahl ...

Getting history straight during trip to Europe

Columns

When I write one of these, it’s like sewing a rug. I take a bunch of ideas and stitch them together till I have a column that I can shake outside and put on the floor. Today, I have a lot of loose ends. These are remnants from our trip to Europe in June. Instead of rug, it might come out looking like a bunch of rags. We spent a week in the Czech Republic and a week in Poland with two daughters, a son-in-law, and a 10-year-old grandson. Part of that was seeking ancestral places. Part of it was touristing. Both those countries were behind the Iron Curtain 50 years ago when I ...

Fritz showed passion as a reporter

Letters

I worked in the Journal newsroom for 24 years, about 20 of which beside Fritz Busch. During that time, I met many writers from whom I learned many, many different tricks of the trade. Some wrote with enviable flair, others with concise clarity. Longtime Journal editor Kevin Sweeney, with both. But almost never, or perhaps simply never, did I meet a reporter with a more brightly burning passion for news. Fritz is a news hound. No news is uninteresting to him. He simply sniffs out the quirky, the clever, the silly, the sublime... Or perhaps news finds him. Fritz would tread through a ...

In the ‘70s, musicals found Jesus

Columns

NEW ULM – By the late 1960s, the musical film genre was at a low point and looked to religion for salvation. The New Ulm Film Society will explore this musical revival with a screening of 1973’s “Jesus Christ Superstar.”  The screening will start at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 8 at the New Ulm Library. In the early 1970s, musicals weird place. For decades, the musical genre was among the most successful genres. That trend continued into the 1960s, but by the end of the decades studios were starting to see diminishing returns. Audiences were turning away from the big lavish ...