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MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron
After the Boston Tea Party, which was the subject of last week's article, John Adams hailed it as a "magnificent" event. Yet the dumping of tea in Boston Harbor shocked Britain, as well as many colonists. Britain was furious over the destruction of cargo, which today would be worth more than $1.7 million. Determined to reassert authority, and punish Boston, the British government passed four punitive laws in the spring of 1774. Known as the Coercive Acts, they were quickly renamed the Intolerable Acts by colonists who viewed each as a direct assault on their fundamental rights as Englishmen.
First was the Boston Port Act, which closed Boston Harbor to all shipping until the East India Company and customs officials received full compensation for the tea. With its port shut down, the city's economic lifeblood was cut off. Merchants faced ruin, dockworkers and sailors lost jobs, and even basic supplies of food and fuel required special royal permission and armed escorts. This act violated longstanding rights to property, free trade, and commerce protected under English common law. Colonists argued that it imposed collective retribution on an entire community for the actions of a few, contradicting English legal traditions against punishing the innocent. Facing economic collapse and even starvation, Bostonians were stripped of a liberty they had believed was protected under British law.
Read more: OPINION - Path to Independence, part 10: the Coercive Acts
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L&T Publisher Earl Watt
Stopping by some of the senior graduation parties this past weekend was a comforting reminder of the good that is happening in our community.
We can discuss how to make our education system better, but our young people who are completing the system as it stands have good character.
They work hard, perhaps too hard. Many are focused on contributing to their family, even if that means sacrificing some of their academic opportunity.
Some students who should be in class are working instead to support their family. While this is not the best decision for their own academic future, how can anyone condemn the choice to try to contribute financially to the household?
Read more: OPINION – Academic success only reflects what we expect
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR, Reita Isaacs, Liberal
This is another one of those days I absolutely cannot finish a sentence; I erase it, restart, and repeat again.
Does the topic of the day: “Fact, Fiction, Fantasy, or Coincidence ?” have anything to do with it? What’s worse now is I’ve been on a “Mother’s Day” call and lost my momentum; let’s try again.
The word “Avatar” can be placed in all four categories, but let’s start with it’s meaning: It originates in Hinduism and is the manifestation of a god or goddess on Earth, the embodiment of a released soul or spirit, that which embodies or personifies something, or someone else; typically to accomplish a specific purpose, mission, end, operate in a specific setting that it could operate.
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GUEST COLUMN, Vance Ginn, Kansas Policy Institute
Kansas families need lower fuel costs through more supply, less inflation, and fewer government-made costs.
Fuel prices hit families fast. A gallon of gas is not just a number on a sign. It is the cost of getting to work, taking kids to school, delivering goods, that long-planned summer road trip, and keeping rural Kansas connected.
According to AAA’s Kansas gas price data, regular gasoline averaged $3.961 per gallon in Kansas on May 4, compared with a national average of $4.457. Kansas is below the national average, but that is little comfort to families already squeezed by groceries, housing, insurance, utilities, and interest costs. By way of reference, the price one month ago was $3.363 and $2.834 this time last year. Affordability is not judged in Washington talking points. It is judged at the pump.
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GUEST COLUMN, Mary Rose, Seward County Treasurer
In regards to the ‘Order To Stay’ l am personally notifying the Board of Tax Appeals; Mr. Box; Mr. Watt; Stacia Long, County Clerk and Seward County Fire District County Clerk; Forrest Rhodes, Attorney; Anglea Eichman, Seward County Appraisal; Jill Garinger, Seward County Register of Deeds; Gene Ward, Seward County Sheriff; Russell Hansenbank, Seward County Attorney; Seward County Commissioners; Seward County Fire District Board; April Warden, Administrator; Brady Steckel, Fire Chief Interim Seward County Fire District; Kansas Department of Revenue; and Seward County Tax Payers, that the Seward County Treasurer has fulfilled the ‘issued revised tax statements for all affected parcels and issued refund checks or credit’ as specified by the Agreement. It is done.
Read more: OPINION – We have fulfilled our obligation of BOTA order

