Opinion

A number of years ago I found myself sitting in one of the front rows of a church listening to my son-in-law deliver the Eulogy for his dad. The heart of the eulogy was that Richard had been a “simple man” – loving father, devoted husband, good friend, a union welder. Just a rock-solid man . . .

This Mother’s Day, like everything else this year will be different. You probably won’t go out for lunch. And yet it will be the same, if you do get carry out you will probably be the one to clean it up.This year moms have had to pull triple duty. Not only running the house and taking care of the kids the state made you honorary teachers!  Like moms do, you clenched you’re jaw and figured it out.

Most of the time I love this job. And most of the time I'm the weird untraditional sort of "reporter" that isn't doing it like the big guys. I'm sure you wouldn't catch a single one of them giving a hug to a gal crying because she just lost everything she owned, Nor would you see them pondering if they should go to the nearest ATM and give the gal some cash to get her through.

Vinton native Jesse Hepker was very excited for his senior year. After being nominated by his high school choir teacher, Jesse was selected to represent his state as part of the Iowa Ambassadors of Music on a two week trip to Europe this July. Jesse should have been joining 3,700 other music students and families of the US on what would have been the trip of lifetime.

During the COVID-19 pandemic it has been interesting to watch the drive this has created to internet use. People are now finding that you need to go to online platforms for essentials like groceries if they cannot go out. We now use it to hold meetings or to even see the doctor. I actually loved my online doctor's visit.

Editor:I hope none of you Gould, Linsey, or Schwartz come down with COVID-19.  I also hope if you do get it you can recover at home without drug therapy.  If you do feel shortness of breath - don't delay call your medical practitioner immediately.  If you are unfortunate enough to be placed on a ventilator pray for a miracle for you have an 80-90% chance of not surviving.

In all of the COVID-19 concerns, and wondering about the future, and shaking my head at what we are doing to ourselves because of it, sometimes I need some time to step away from it all. It seems like I need to do that more, the longer this goes on. With all of the debates on the Opinion page about what we should do, shouldn't do, who did what, who didn't do what and what we are doing now or aren't doing now, I try to follow along and figure out what I think for myself.

Shortly after we moved to rural Benton County, the local newspaper printed a series of articles about disaster preparedness. The premise of the article was that if there was a disaster in your area and you had to leave your house for a week, could you grab everything you need in less than ten minutes? Then there would be a short list of items you should be able to access quickly.

Dear Editor:To Norma Gould and others: Did you click on the link to Democrat State Senator Karen Whitsett? The drug therapy you state is unproven, but I don’t think it matters much to those who are out of choices. Medicos are starting to think that when a patient is put on a ventilator that it may not be the appropriate therapy.