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Apology for missing town hall meeting

Letters

To the editor: I’d like to apologize to residents for not being able to attend our recent town meetings with Sen. (Gary) Dahms. As chair of the Minnesota House Ways and Means Committee, I have been in daily meetings with legislative leaders as we try to find compromise on numerous budget proposals in order to finish our legislative work for 2025. Because of this, I was unable to leave St. Paul in order to make the town meetings. Thank you to Sen. Dahms for holding the events. While I’m pleased residents were able to have their questions answered by Senator Dahms, I also want ...

Coping with problems and life

Columns

Life has its ups and downs, good and bad, right and wrong. How would you know good days if it wasn’t for the bad ones? How would you learn what not to do if you didn’t make mistakes? Since that is the way life seems to be, how do we handle the bad times? Those bad times cause stress. Stress is triggered when something occurs that demands that you do something about it. The things that trigger stress are called stressors. To survive, we have to learn to cope with those stressors, deal with them effectively, and overcome them. There are any number of stressors with which ...

Toughening in

Columns

“I just need to toughen in!” So said Old Frank, my new landlord at the time. I was twenty-one in the winter when I rented a small dairy farm, sight unseen, from Old Frank. Old Frank was several years past his eightieth birthday when he and I first crossed paths in a waiting room. Frank was garrulous and gregarious and soon shared with me that he had a problem: the tenant of a dairy that he owned was exiting the farming business. “I’m too old to farm anymore,” Frank lamented. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with that place!” I had been striving desperately ...

AI won’t bow to evolution lies

Letters

Dear Editor: Artificial Intelligence is going to lead people to the Creator. Unlike scholars who deny God, Artificial Intelligence doesn’t carry an agenda, it simply deciphers reason. The only logical explanation for all of creation is an Intelligent Designer. Foolish arrogance is going to butt up against Artificial Intelligence, because AI won’t bow to the lie of evolution. It will look at all the data and state the only logical conclusion: there is a Master Designer. It is going to be fun to watch. Gigi Rysdahl New Ulm

A home run worth every dollar

Columns

For historians, the “Shot Heard Round the World” was fired at Concord to begin the Revolutionary War. For baseball fans, the shot heard round the world was also Bobby Thompson’s home run to win the pennant for the New York Giants in 1951. Then, there was the “Shot Heard Round Sleepy Eye.” That occurred May 29,1975. As often happens in baseball, the hero that day was not one of the star players. In a game filled with some of the best ballplayers Sleepy Eye has ever produced, Dominic Sellner, a speedy slap-hitting left fielder got the biggest hit. We will be celebrating ...

Feed your curiosity

Columns

Looking back on my high school and college graduations, I can see just how important those moments were. I didn’t fully get it at the time, but graduation really is a big deal. It marks the end of one chapter and the start of another. Right now, a lot of students and families are standing at that same kind of crossroads. With change comes decisions about what to do, where to go, and who to do it with. At moments like this, one question I’ve always come back to is: What’s my why? If you’re graduating high school, you might be off to college, starting a job, joining the ...