L&T STAFF OPINION

Last year when the Seward County Commission proposed at 25.868 mill increase, it was the beginning of a community division that exists to this day, and it’s time to bring it to an end.

Some believed Seward County needed the major tax hike to deal with the Conestoga tax settlement that is still not yet decided in the Sedgwick County district court.

That was proven false when representatives from Conestoga stated they would not expect immediate payment after a decision.

Still, Seward County pushed through a 17-mill increase despite a massive outcry from the public not to put such a burden on the people.

MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron

Many of us focus more on our physical body, which only houses the inner life, than on the deeper parts of who we are. The apostle Paul wrote, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body (I Corinthians 6:19-20).” While the body is important because it can be the dwelling for the Holy Spirit, we must learn to care for the entire person God created. The dwelling is only truly significant when God abides in it.

A body gives us mobility to work and play. It allows us to touch, see, hear, taste, and smell, and most of the experiences enjoyed in life are tied to the physical body. At the same time, our bodies can become the source of aches, disease, and eventual decline, so they can affect attitudes and how we cope. Paul added, "Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day" (2 Corinthians 4:16). Even as we age, God is able to breathe new life into our inner self through His presence.

GUEST COLUMN, Vance Ginn, Kansas Policy Institute

Kansas has a serious water problem, especially in the west. But more government is unlikely to solve a problem that government policy helped worsen.

The Kansas Geological Survey has documented decades of groundwater declines across the High Plains Aquifer, including the Ogallala region. Long-term drought plays a role, but this is also an incentives problem. The former is beyond the control of agriculture and other water users; the latter is something we can change to ensure the water that does exist supports Kansas families.

Kansas water is governed through permits, administrative boundaries, pumping rules, and government approval. These rules often weaken the reward for conservation and make it difficult to move water to different users.

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

The rise of the Democratic Socialist Party is happening about as fast as the Bolsheviks took over Russia.

From presidents like Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, warnings have been issued that freedom and liberty only die in America by our own hand, not by some conquering outside force.

And we might be watching it in real time.