L&T Publisher Earl Watt

Not so long ago Steve Helm was a school board member who believed educators who went out of town for training sessions were spending too much money on food, and he set out to curb this excessive spending by creating a per diem system instead.

The result was the district spent more money on out-of-town meals, not less. It was one of the many nitpicking efforts made by Helm that did not achieve the results he claimed he would as an elected member of a board.

Helm was not re-elected to the school board.

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

Versus Signs started the Fourth of July weekend right by hanging a massive star spangled banner on a crane on Kansas Avenue Friday morning that remained flying throughout the weekend, and what a weekend it was.

John Adams said that America’s independence would be celebrated across the entire continent one day, and he was right. He wrote his wife Abigail that the day would be celebrated with “pomp and parade, with shoews, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more.”

How many years the celebrations will last is unknown, but they have now reached 250.

THE POSTSCRIPT, Carrie Classon

As far as I know, most of my people were farmers. On both my parents’ sides, my Scandinavian ancestors came across the ocean looking for better topsoil. I know immigrants came for many reasons — to start businesses and escape oppression and to avoid starvation. But, as far as I know, my ancestors were in search of better dirt. And they found it. A full foot of topsoil was a treasure beyond measure to these farmers who had tried to make a living on rocky soil.

Perhaps it is why I am not a gardener. I suspect I have a lot of my ancestors still in me. Perhaps I am rebelling against the work that was in my family’s life blood. But however I might feel about planting and weeding, I think there is something within me that recognizes the cycles of the seasons, the coming of summer and the pause that comes in the middle of the summer.

MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron

As we’ve seen in previous articles, between 1763 and 1776, Britain and her American colonies became trapped in self-fulfilling prophecies. British efforts at control provoked colonial resistance, which in turn convinced Britain that independence was their goal, and their actions pushed the colonies closer together and toward separation. Neither side initially wanted full independence, but repeated crises destroyed mutual trust and made separation inevitable.

In fact, by the summer of 1776, American colonies had already achieved practical independence. Today we’ll review decisive action that concluded with the Declaration we’ll celebrate this week.