Stories from Monday, December 17, 2001

When columnist Mike Hendricks' son, Brandon, recently died while in the military, Hendricks took the risk of sharing his inner anguish with his readers. The response was overwhelming. Many readers could identify with the pain and sorrow of losing a child, and dozens of them responded to the McCook college instructor's columns about the terrible experience...

Dear Editor, Peace on earth, good will to men! This has been the yearning of the human heart for many centuries. And at this time of the year we are forcefully reminded of this fact as we sing all of the Christmas carols. Last Sunday my wife and I attended the performance of, "Gloria Patra" at the United Methodist Church and this theme was wonderfully born out (everyone did a masterful job). ...

Dear Editor, I wish everyone in the USA would read or have read to them Blood Brothers by Hampton Sides in the November-December Modern Maturity AARP magazine. All the ballyhoo about Europe's treatment of Jews and these soldiers of ours in the Bataan March -- misery for three years by us Americans!...

It seems that there are three members and the mayor making all decisions before there even is a meeting. I hope the county has enough funds to support residents after the council dumps the water fee on low income families. How many more big shots are they going to pay to tell them what they already know?...

There are other things, besides ants and rain, that can spoil a picnic. In 1940 the World' s Fair was held in Flushing Meadows, in New York City. My father, Walter, was a great fan of fairs, whether it was a county, state, or world's fair. He had taken the family to Chicago in 1934, and to San Francisco in 1939 for the fair, and now he felt that we needed to go to New York as well. ...