L&T Publisher Earl Watt

Resignations from the Seward County Commission and the Liberal City Commission in the pst few months have led to a larger-than-normal response for candidates, and that’s a good thing.

When three Seward County Commissioner resigned at the same time, leaving the commission without a quorum, 13 candidates put their names forward to fill the remaining year on the unexpired terms.

Ultimately, Jairo Vazquez, John Mettlen and Clay Louderback were selected, but having contested races in all three districts said something about the public interest in serving.

THE POSTSCRIPT, Carrie Classon

“I suppose I have to start packing,” my husband, Peter, said.

It is always so hard to leave. Packing up from San Miguel de Allende is not a terribly difficult process because we leave the art on the walls and the dishes in the cupboard and, this year, a brand-new beautiful couch sitting in the apartment. We know the hotel housekeeper, Lulu, will keep a watchful eye on everything.

So it should not be so hard to leave, yet it always is. Our stuff stays behind, and we leave with memories.

There is a principle in psychology which says that in order to slow time, you need more novel experiences. Childhood seems to last a long time because everything is new and everything is a first. As we age, we do more of the same things. This makes one day blend into the next, and one week into the one after that, and before we know it, 10 years have passed without it seeming like any time at all.

GUEST COLUMN, Greg Doering, Kansas Farm Bureau

Like many people who grew up in rural Kansas, opening gates was the first job I had on my grandparents’ ranch. I obtained my title of “gate getter” early, but it took some time before I was able to open all the gates on the ranch and even longer to recognize I was part of an informal apprenticeship.

The more substantial gates around the corral made out of scrap iron and hung on actual hinges were the easiest to unlatch and swing open. At some of the far-flung pastures, however, entrances were guarded by flimsy wire gates, which are really just a removable section of barbed wire pulled taut with a cheater bar and secured with a loop of wire.

GUEST COLUMN, Drew Johnson

As Silicon Valley pours hundreds of billions of dollars into an artificial intelligence arms race, a parallel battle is unfolding over something far less visible but just as consequential: Netflix and a legion of tech giants — such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google — are quietly collaborating to seize control of the technologies behind video streaming.

This erosion of a competitive marketplace will inevitably lead to stagnant innovation, subpar consumer electronics, and a shrinking job market for the American workforce.