Opinion

GUEST COLUMN, J. Basil Dannebohm

Previous presidents traditionally spent Thanksgiving serving a meal to our deployed troops who are away from their loved ones during the holidays. Mr. Trump was at his palatial Mar-a-Lardo resort, playing golf, hobnobbing with the elite, and spewing hatred on social media.

His unhinged diatribe read in part:

“A very Happy Thanksgiving salutation to all of our Great American Citizens and Patriots who have been so nice in allowing our Country to be divided, disrupted, carved up, murdered, beaten, mugged, and laughed at, along with certain other foolish countries throughout the World, for being ‘Politically Correct,’ and just plain STUPID, when it comes to Immigration.”

GUEST COLUMN, Kim Baldwin, Kansas Farm Bureau

There have been clear signs we have transitioned into another season on the farm. The temperatures have dropped, the geese are flying and the kids are counting down the days until their winter break begins.

Fall harvest kept us busy for an extra month this year. We were extra thankful to wrap up that work during a season that presented many challenges.

There are still some farms in the area that didn’t finish before the last round of rain and still have some sorghum left to harvest. But more often than not, the grain is out of the fields and the cattle have begun to arrive to graze those stalks for the next few months.

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

When it comes to the holidays, I’m still a kid at heart. Eating the Thanksgiving Day meal, the excitement of presents under the tree and the celebration of the New Year always spark the joy of my inner child.

There are many other get-togethers around the holiday season that are meaningful including Saturday’s Downtown Christmas Parade. We just celebrated 25 years of sponsoring the downtown event, and the size of the crowd coupled with the increasing quality of the floats are signs that Liberal loves the parade.

If it weren’t for the local businesses, families and organizations who participate, there wouldn’t be a parade.

But each year the floats get better and better, and this year there were several standouts.

For one, the Lanning family continues to set a higher bar year after year, and this year, that was literal. From the Polar Express train a few years ago to the take-off of Santa’s sleigh this year, the Lanning Family Float has become one to see each and every year.

THE POSTSCRIPT, Carrie Classon

I hate getting sick.

Maybe being in Mexico while I’m sick is marginally better than being sick back at home in the U.S. because it is warm here and I can sit out in the sunshine like a big, grumpy gecko and soak up the sun. I can put on my dark gecko sunglasses and take my scaly old self onto the roof where there are chairs that overlook the city. I can drink fresh-squeezed orange juice and, when I finish it, some kind person will ask me if I want another one.

“Yes! I want another one!” I want to say. “I want as many of these as it takes until I don’t feel like a gecko anymore!”

I don’t say that. I usually stop at one orange juice because that’s the equivalent of about four oranges, which ought to be enough to frighten off any virus. Although with me they seem especially stubborn. And I know why.