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THUMBS UP State Park passes at library The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has expanded its library park pass program to include New Ulm Public LIbrary. The New Ulm library has three passes available for checkout. The passes are available on a first-come first serve basis. Place the pass in a vehicle dashboard, and users can have free access to any state park in Minnesota for seven days. This program began in 2018, but has only been available through New Ulm’s library since July 1. It is a great benefit for local library patrons; especially since Flandrau State ...

Stolen from my father’s grave

Letters

To the editor: To the person who stole the cardinal solar light from my dad’s grave at Soldier’s Rest in the New Ulm Cemetery on Memorial Day: You didn’t just take a garden ornament. You took something deeply symbolic, a light placed with love, in remembrance and honor of my dad. The moment I saw it was gone, I felt sick. That light wasn’t expensive, but it had deep meaning. A cardinal — a symbol of hope, presence, and love – chosen specifically for my dad. Stealing from a veteran’s grave is beyond disrespectful. It violates not only the memory of the person buried ...

‘The centre cannot hold’

Columns

I have friends who say they try not to pay attention to the news, for their own sanity. I am a news addict, so I can’t do that. Some days I enjoy being informed. Then there are days that are overwhelming and make me want to crawl in a hole. June 14 was one of those. We were months into the chaos fueled by the election of a man who relishes disruption and anger. The military had been called to confront American citizens in Los Angeles, a step fraught with dangerous precedent. Masked agents were abducting people off the streets in something that felt more like 1930s Germany than ...

There’s a Bill in Congress to make voting harder for everyone

Columns

Under current US law, it is illegal for non-citizens to register and vote in federal or state elections. Additionally, we have robust processes already in place to ensure that only eligible voters are casting ballots. However, Congress is about to vote on a bill that requires all eligible voters to provide citizenship documentation to register to vote.  This bill is called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, and despite its innocuous name, it would do far more harm than good. This law would be both unjust and unnecessary. It is unjust, because it would deprive ...

Historic superlatives have become trite

Letters

To the editor: From the point of view of a narcissist, who can look at pictures contrasting President Obama’s inauguration and his own first inauguration, 47 still boasts about his historically large crowd. (“No one’s ever seen anything like it!”) This self-same narcissist, when confronted with the enormity of the June 14 No Kings demonstrations and contrasted with his crashing of the U.S. military’s 250th anniversary parade, which coincides with his birthday, pouted and fell asleep. Again, there are pictures to contradict 47’s version of what really happened that ...

What is the truth?

Columns

We live in a world where there may be 10 different versions or ways to describe or explain the same thing. I had never heard the name Fake News until recently. People have their opinions and preferences that they will voice as if it is the absolute truth. Advertisements may or may not be accurate. A political cause or charity may benefit no one but the people running it. How do we know what to believe? How can we identify misinformation? How can we know the truth? One truth is that identifying the truth can be rather difficult. One study suggested that in our computerized ...