Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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As I wander through stores looking at all the items on display that can be purchased for Christmas gifts, memories of past Christmases come flowing back. Although some of the memories bring tears, they all bring me smiles. I remember a Christmas when I was very young and hearing my parents discuss how they were going to be able to buy gifts for my brother and me since the money they had set aside for Christmas had been used to repair our car. But on Christmas morning there was a new pair of jeans and a fire truck for my brother under the tree...
I read with interest the opinion last week by Mr. Chris Pippin. I was especially intrigued by his assertion that “No one with any real attachment to an organized Christian religion based on the teaching of Jesus Christ” would not “put value on all human life at all stages, including the people who practice or support abortion." While I am relieved to find that he believes this, I beg to differ. A bit of searching finds numerous attacks upon abortion clinics and providers committed by avowed Christians. The incidents included vandalism, prote...
Binge drinking has been a progressing issue in the United States. The big question though that many have is, “What is binge drinking?” Binge drinking is defined as an excessive amount of drinking in the time span of 2 hours. For men, this would be five or more drinks, for women, four drinks. Excessive alcohol use is responsible for about 88,000 deaths and 2.5 million years of potential life lost in the United States each year. Bing drinking is responsible for more than half the deaths and two-thirds of the years of potential life lost res...
Editor's note: Amy Nelson's column this week served as her winning entry in the VFW's Voice of Democracy Audio Essay Competition. A Glasgow High School senior and Courier Photo Intern, Nelson was awarded $100 and a Voice of Democracy Certificate of Merit from the VFW and its Ladies Auxiliary on Dec. 10. Nelson will advance to the state level of the VOD competition. At the awards dinner, hosted at the Glasgow VFW, there were other winners as well: Dalton Kassa (Ophiem), Chloe Moore (Glasgow),...
The typical liberal knee-jerk response to the tragic shooting at Planned Parenthood in Colorado on Nov. 27, is that it was an overreaction from some Christian fundamentalist. It was quickly labeled domestic terrorism by Planned Parenthood. Obviously it was, but that should have also been what the shooting at a company Christmas party in California a few weeks ago was called, but we had to wait for “information” before we could label a Muslim as being fundamentalist in his faith. But I digress. An opinion article a few weeks ago opined that thi...
Some years ago, one of my adult daughters (all of whom then lived away from Montana) had a date with a young man. After the date, when I asked how it had gone, the response I received was, “He was just too/to/two.” Coming from a family of English majors, people who love English, grammar, and learning, I understood her perfectly. He would not remain long in her life. One of my father’s treasures was a huge Oxford English Dictionary. This tome was so large and unwieldy it had its own stand. It stood open, in the living room, in pride of place...
To Virgil Vaupel I am a little late in writing this note, as it has been on my mind since you started to get personal attacks against you and what you write. Better late than never, I hope. I have traveled and lived over a large portion of the USA, and also have lived in Canada, and in those travels I have read many columns written in newspapers wherever I happened to be. I find that your columns are the most thought-provoking that I have read in many years. While I do not agree with you all of the time, (I don’t agree with anybody all the t...
The Soul of a Community The Post Office in my mother’s hometown of Barlow, N.D., closed in 1965. I know this because when I visited tiny Barlow in 1972 to see if there was anyone still there who knew my mother (she left Barlow for good in 1917 when she was 14) I ran into several who had gone to school with her. In the course of a very pleasant and nostalgic evening over very weak coffee one of my hosts (we were in the parlor of the house my mother was born and raised in) showed me a letter he had saved—the last letter to have been pos...
We’re taking a break from the recent back-and-forthery on the subjects of gender and race this week. To be fair, Tess Fahlgren and the Courier’s Georgie Kulczyk and Lih-AnYang have had their say in response to Virgil Vaupel’s comments of Nov. 25 (“Reverse Equal Opportunity”) and VV has been oddly quiet. I was able to take the temperature of readers from Frazier to Saco (and north to Opheim) over the last week, and while the responses were less vitriolic than one might expect, the general consensus was something like amusement giving way to we...
The last while I’ve been coming across stories on the internet about new medicines being approved as well as some that are on the verge of approval by the Federal Drug Administration. One of them is now in the clinical trial stage and is expected to become available soon for people who have Parkinson’s Disease. Another drug that has made it through all the stages and is now being distributed is for breast cancer. Then there’s a brand new medicine that helps those diagnosed with lung cancer. According to ads I’ve seen about this drug, it is h...
That last little rain we had made me think about digging out my overshoes, and then I remembered, my overshoes are pretty much like everyone else’s today, either irrigation boots or Muck boots. Do you remember when we all wore rubber overshoes? As I remember, the most popular women’s overshoes were those lovely, zip up the front, fur topped ones. They could be found in a variety of colors also. The young kids pretty much wore pull-on overshoes. Some of the little boys and, of course, teenage boys and men may have had buckle overshoes. This app...
Early this morning, as I was scrolling through Facebook, I noticed a friend had tagged another friend with photo of a billboard. The message on that billboard read, “The X belongs in Texas. Christ belongs in Christmas.” I innocently commented that I hoped my friends realized that “X” stands for Christ, and to look it up. The immediate response was, “ I hope you realize I feel it’s wrong to still not use Christ in Christmas. It’s laziness.” I was prompted by this to do a little research about the use of “X”. It turns out it was first used hund...
Miss World Canada Anastasia Lin returned home to cheers and camera flashes after spending a week in Hong Kong, where she garnered international attention of major media for her attempt, ultimately unsuccessful, to attend the Miss World Finals in Sanya, China. Miss Lin, China born and a Canadian citizen likely surprised the security personnel in China when she went public with their threats against her father in China to silence her human rights advocacy. They wouldn’t have expected international headlines when they intimidated him into pressuri...
Before Thanksgiving we had a hearing in the House Natural Resources Committee about the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). When talking with my colleagues from all over the country about LWCF, I ask them to imagine America without iconic national parks like Rocky Mountain, Grand Canyon, Acadia and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks. All of those parks were created by the LWCF. Since Americans first set eyes on the natural beauty of our country, it has been one of our shared values that those lands must be cherished and that...
I love living and working in rural Montana. The open spaces, the feeling of community, and the strong agricultural heritage and values are just three of the many reasons that make me happy to call my rural community, home. And during this weeks’ Rural Health Week, I’m especially proud to add another reason to that list: affordable health insurance options that give rural families like mine piece of mind, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. Quality health care is critical to the health of rural children and families and the strength of our com...
As your managing editor, I’m hesitant to wade into the arguments between Virgil Vaupel and several female contributors to the Courier in this week’s edition, if for no other reason than the obvious fact that none of the writers involved need the assistance. I will simply say for the record that none of the sentiments on today’s page are coordinated. I make it a policy to keep submitted columns and letters private until publication when sensitive, even among staff, and did not specifically request any special contributions to the discu...
Virgil Vaupel claims the EEOC discriminates against white men. And in fact, there have been cases in which the EEOC has ruled in favor of white men who were discriminated against. If Virgil had chosen to cite credible examples of this happening, he may have introduced a compelling argument. Instead, Virgil listed many ways in which women and people of color have proven their abilities by being hired into positions of power, including as magazine editors and as athletes. None of the examples he listed gave any credibility to his claim that the...
I was heartened last week to see two others expressing the same sentiments I expressed over the refugee situation. It gave me hope for America. And then there was another shooting at a Planned Parenthood Clinic. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume it was based on religious objections to abortion. Christian fundamentalists are as extreme in their views and methods as ISIS. They employ terroristic tactics on those with whom they don’t agree. Now, I know that Planned Parenthood offers some abortions, but those are really a small per...
In response to Mary Honrud’s Part III of Are They Willing from the November 11, 2015 Courier. Safe, legal, and rare. This is what was promised to the American people that abortions would be upon legalization. Of the three, legal is the only one to be a fact. Safe. This depends on your definition of safe, which I guess is totally subjective. (It’s confusing living in a time when words are fluid and not definable.) In 2010, only 10 women died from complications. Omelettes … eggs. 421 women from 1973 to 2010. Omelettes eggs. Worldwide, 47,00...
Everyone is entitled to express opinion, but not every opinion deserves to be printed in the Glasgow Courier. Not Virgil Vaupel’s rant based on unsubstantiated information. Not as a paid columnist. In Mr. Vaupel’s column, “Reverse Equal Opportunity” (Nov. 25, 2015), he said “American manufacturing … no longer hires on merit. They hire on skin color, sex and race.” Mr. Vaupel also believes that the decline of America began with the feminist movement. These are big statements to make. Are these just his personal perceptions based on whatever i...
I mistakenly read Virgil Vaupel’s “column” in last week’s paper. At first, I only read about a third of it. I stopped reading because, to put it mildly, it made me angry. I seldom read Virgil’s writings because: 1. He makes little sense to me; 2. I don’t like his bigoted statements; 3. He irritates me; and 4. I think he deliberately writes things to get a rise out of people. I admit, I eventually finished reading his column, and this time, he succeeded in getting a rise out of me. There are multiple things that struck a nerve. Let’s just...
Let’s see now … Is that person you sit beside at a high school basketball game a local business owner? Are you friends with that person? If you answered those questions with a yes then answer this one. Are you doing some of your shopping on the internet? Do you make the 250 mile trip to Billings, the 285 mile trip to Great Falls or the 140 mile trek to Williston to buy stuff you could get in Glasgow but don’t because the items may be a little higher in price locally? If you make the trips and buy stuff in Billings, Great Falls, Williston or Ha...
We are a nation of immigrants who despise immigrants. Syrians and Middle East refugees are just the most recent of the indigestible bits in the melting pot that we are so fond of claiming as our great distinction among nations. And Hispanics, like the poor, we will always have with us and will probably disparage them for another few decades in addition to the disparagement of the past 150 years, give or take. In 1939, a ship bearing 900 Jewish refugees from Hitler’s genocide was turned away from American shores. We excluded Asian peoples f...
When I wrote my first opinion piece for the Courier, I said we weren’t a Christian nation, as the Constitution may have been based on Biblical values, but it was not based on the life of Jesus Christ. Most of our Founding Fathers were Deists, meaning they did believe in God, but they did not believe in Jesus. They specifically did not want an established national religion, adamantly wanting every citizen to be able to believe and worship as they chose, and to not be punished for their choice of religion (or even no religion). I received some f...
Collateral damage: n. Unintended damage, injuries, or deaths caused by an action, especially unintended civilian casualties caused by a military operation. In a place that has been ravaged by civil war for four and a half years, the fleeing refugees are collateral damage. Syria’s troubles existed long before the Arab Spring in 2011, however. Iran’s closest ally has been involved in trouble in the Middle East as far back as my memory goes. I am by no means an expert in Middle East issues or relations, but even I can see that those fleeing, inn...
