Quantcast
Channel: News Letter Journal
Viewing all 1332 articles
Browse latest View live

Prevention is a team effort

0
0

Last Thursday I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to attend a Prevention Summit in town, thanks to the Weston County Prevention Task Force, The Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, RT Communications and the Newcastle Police Department. The event featured Ben Cort, who provided marijuana education, focusing on its impact on youth, and Erasmo Carrizosa, who spoke on the opioid crisis in America. 

What I learned, besides an incredible wealth of knowledge on both topics, is that prevention is really a community issue that requires community involvement. 

Both speakers stressed that a community must be involved to spread the knowledge and keep different drugs from hitting epidemic levels. 

Kristi Lipp, director of the local task force, shared the need for the community to be involved and to be aware of the problems. She also said it was important for the  community to gain the knowledge necessary to help prevent epidemic-level drug problems. 

Marijuana in Colorado, according to Cort, is a booming business, with more dispensaries than there are McDonald’s and Starbucks in the state. He said there is one cannabis shop for every 47 people in smaller communities around Colorado, with more in larger communities. 

Wyoming has a unique opportunity to educate the public before the state potentially faces a legal marijuana industry, Cort said. He maintained that the community must be involved in educating its residents to guarantee that Newcastle does not face the same problems as Colorado encountered since legalization there. 

Carrizosa also acknowledged the unique opportunity Wyoming has to educate its people on opioid use before the state finds itself in a situation similar to Ohio’s, which has declared a state of emergency because of drug overdoses. 

Carrizosa said that 90 Americans die every day from opioid overdose and that over 2 million Americans are dependent on opioids. Wyoming, which does have some opioid use, has not hit the epidemic stage, according to Carrizosa. With community involvement, he said, Wyoming has the opportunity to prevent the opioid crisis from hitting that level. 

We all want to see our community as a safe place to raise children. We all want to feel safe walking our streets. 

Drugs are here in Newcastle, and several members of our community have problems and struggle with addiction. 

We as a community need to join together and support prevention, education and recovery before we find ourselves facing the issues other communities in the country face every day.


When you make a promise…keep it!

0
0

Bill Sniffin

For NLJ

 Know where to draw the line. 

– From Code of the West, Cowboy Ethics. 

 

Living in Wyoming is most often a blessing, but sometimes it can be a challenge. At those times you need some standards to draw upon.

When you live in an isolated state with a small population spread over 98,000 square miles with occasional severe weather, well, you better have some universal codes and standards to help you survive.

The Code of the West is something that makes sense in such a place. A state with a sense of place about it. 

Back in 2008, I published a column that involved six years of on-again and off-again research. I called it Wyoming’s Universal Truths and Fundamental Values. It was an attempt to put into words those concepts and values unique to our state.

It cited ideas like “small is good” as a Universal Truth when it comes to our state. And “you do not drive by a stranded motorist on a lonely country road in winter” as a Fundamental Value.

It looks like I wasn’t the only person trying to figure out a way to verbalize these concepts. 

A group of folks were thinking along these lines when they put together a video based on Cowboy Ethics called Code of the West. You can access it just about anywhere. 

That effort was funded by a consortium that included The Center for Cowboy Ethics and Leadership, Anschutz Foundation, UW College of Business, Daniels Fund, McMurry Foundation, Trihydro Corporation and the Wyoming Business Council.

The guy who was the author of all this is Jim Owen, who developed what he calls The Code of the West. This code has been adopted by Jonah Banks in Wyoming and Trihydro Corporation, among others, as an operating philosophy.

When I tried to boil down a Wyoming philosophy, my effort was very wordy.  The Code of the West is simple, just ten short phrases. Those phrases are as follows:

• Live each day with courage.

• Take pride in your work.

• Always finish what you start.

• Do what has to be done.

• Be tough, but fair.

• When you make a promise, keep it.

• Ride for the brand.

• Talk less, say more.

• Remember that some things are not for sale.

• Know where to draw the line.

Even the Legislature took notice made it the official Code for the state of Wyoming.

This Wyoming Code is a much-abbreviated version of the first Code of the West compiled by the famous western writer Zane Grey. Grey wrote a lot about Wyoming cowboys during his long career 80 years ago.  

A few of the more interesting ones on his list include: 

• Never try on another man’s hat.

• Never shoot a woman, no matter what.

• Give your enemy a fighting chance.

• Never wake another man by shaking or touching him, as he might wake suddenly and shoot you. 

• Never shoot an unarmed or unwarned man.

• Be generous with your life and money.

It would be natural that a humorous version of this would be developed, too. One of the best is by Cowboy Poet Bix Benders, which included these gems: 

• A smart ass just don’t fit in a saddle.

• Always drink upstream from the herd.

• Never miss a good chance to shut up.

• When you give a lesson in meanness to a critter or a to a person, don’t be surprised if they learn their lesson well.

• Don’t worry about biting off more than you can chew. Your mouth is probably a whole lot bigger than you think.

• Always take a good look at what you’re about to eat. It’s not so important to know what it is, but it is critical to know what it was.

• If you get to thinking you are a person of influence, try ordering somebody else’s dog around. 

• Never kick a fresh dropping on a hot day.

• Never smack a man who is chewing tobacco.

• If you find yourself in a hole the first thing to do is stop digging.

• Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. 

• Telling a man to get lost and making him do it are two entirely different propositions. 

• When you’re throwing your weight around, be ready to have it thrown around by somebody else.

• Write it in your heart. Stand by your code and it will stand by you. 

My all-time favorite Cowboy is Will Rogers and I believe that Bix acquired more than a few of his funnyisms here from old Will.

Bill Sniffin is a retired newspaper publisher who has penned a number of books about Wyoming. Check out additional columns written by Bill at www.billsniffin.com. and find volumes from his coffee table book series, which have sold over 30,000 copies, for sale at the News Letter Journal.

It takes a village to save a dog

0
0

Dear Editor,

A recent dilemma I found myself in reminded me of what a great community Newcastle is. 

One of my dogs got separated from me north of town while we were out for a run. As I whistled and called for him, he appeared on top of a rock ledge trying to get back to me. I lost sight of him as I tried to get into a position to coax him back in the direction he had come from to get there. There was still enough snow and mud on the steep hillside below the rock face that I could not get up to where he was. 

Over the next 52 hours, I searched frantically for him. I called my friend, Kyla Popma, and asked her to keep an eye out when she was on her run. Kyla dropped what she was doing, loaded her baby boy, Josiah, on her back and hiked the trail up that steep ridge to look for him. She did the same thing again the next day. After many hours and miles of searching and finding fresh mountain lion tracks the size of a softball in the snow within 100 yards of where I last saw him, I found my four legged friend “Finley” trapped in a crevice 20’ down and 40’ from the bottom of the rock face. 

I was able to get to him, but getting him out of there by myself would have probably resulted in both of us falling to the canyon floor. It would likely have been “our last episode.” 

Fortunately, I had a cell phone signal and was able to call for help. I had previously talked to many people about Finley being missing. Glen Riggs had helped spread the word, which resulted in Marge Sturgis and Brian and Jeff Conklin also responding to offer assistance. I was able to call Brad Troftgruben and Pat Hayman. Brad enlisted the help of Wade Willyard then went to the hardware store and bought rope (which he declined to let me pay for) to use in the rescue. 

Pat met up with Brad and Wade and together they located us. They dropped a rope down to lift Finley out, then dropped it down again so I could use it to get myself up to the top as well. 

Brain and Jeff hiked up to help, but I called to let them know we were headed out before we saw them. 

These people all dropped what they were doing to respond to my situation. Many other people expressed concern and helped spread the word. This really is a great community in which we live. My wife Susan and I would like to thank you all! We are indebted to you and proud to live in such a great place.

—Jim Jones

City misleads about money for E911

0
0

Dear Editor,

Thanks to the NLJ for giving us the details of the 27 March meeting between representatives from Newcastle and the County to discuss cost sharing for law enforcement center operations and upkeep (“City, county meet to discuss law enforcement center, April 5, 2018, page one).  

One item that caught my eye was the statement by Mayor Piana that the city had not received monies from the county for operation and upkeep of the Enhanced 911 (E911) System; along with other comments that indicated that the city alone bore the cost of installing and later updating the system.  

That is completely false. Every quarter the county forwards to the city the revenues from a County E911 tax assessed monthly on every phone in the County. I know for a fact that the initial upgrade to E911 was paid for only with County E911 tax revenues with some additional help from a County Homeland Security Grant. No city funds were used.

I would guess that those same tax revenues were used to pay for the recent upgrade to the system, as well as the monthly cost of trunk communication lines. From 2012 to 2016 the county gave the city an average of $64,800 annually. For some reason there was an uptick of tax revenues in 2017, and the city received $82,700 from the county.  

How do I know this? While I was the County Emergency Coordinator from 2006 to 2015, I regularly tracked these revenues because they were key to implementing and maintaining the E911 System. I briefed the County Commission many times on the existence of these revenues and how they were being used.  

I will give Mayor Piana the benefit of the doubt because it is the city which ultimately holds these revenues and cuts the checks; however, the source of those revenues is the county and the local citizens who pay that tax on their phones, whether they live in Newcastle, Upton, or out in the County.  

I would also suggest that the NLJ dig a bit deeper on the stories they publish, and not take the word of public officials as gospel.

   —Doug Jorrey

LTC, USA (ret.)

When enough is enough

0
0

Over the past few months, I’ve been contemplating a couple of incidents that occurred in January involving basketball coaches and parents.

In Ohio and Minnesota, a few coaches’ actions have caught the attention of the national media – not because they committed some atrocity against a young person, but because they’ve finally had enough of parents.

The coach’s story from Brainerd, Minn. embodies the sad reality of how difficult coaching has become today. Scott Stanfield began coaching after serving as a police officer for 30 years, yet after only seven years as the head basketball coach, he resigned because he couldn’t take the treatment he received from parents any longer.

If anyone is wondering what it’s like being a high school coach, the way Stanfield compared coaching to being a police officer speaks volumes.

“The basketball emotional stress was way worse than being a cop, I feel defenseless as a coach,” were his words.

He was defenseless against parental pressure regarding playing time. He was confronted multiple times– often heatedly– by parents about their child’s time on the court, and it just got to be too much. 

He also spoke the sad truth that coaches know all too well… “That is the number one reason without question that coaches are leaving.” 

The story from Ohio, while also a sad situation, is a little more satisfying for coaches everywhere who have experienced the difficulty of dealing with parents, because these coaches are taking action that is long overdue.

Four varsity coaches who work for a private school have filed a lawsuit against four parents for libel and slander. 

The coaches are claiming lost revenue due to anonymous emails sent out defaming their character and accusing them of bullying. There was an investigation conducted and no evidence substantiating the claims was found. However, because of these allegations, the coaches were unable to host summer camps, so they are seeking damages in the amount of $25,000.

I say, good for them because their situation is one that is all too familiar. 

I think it’s about time that parents who go after a coach because they are disgruntled about their child’s playing time had to answer for their actions. 

I know coaches who have had been physically accosted. There have been anonymous letters sent to school boards accusing them of bullying, and parents have gone directly to superintendents without so much as a mention to either the coaches or the athletic director when they’ve had a problem. 

Because of playing time, parents threatened the reputations and careers of these coaches– not only their coaching career, but also their teaching career.

Folks really need to remember that most kids aren’t going any further with their sports’ careers than high school, and the life lessons they are learning through those four years are what they will take with them as they go out into the world. 

What do we want those lessons to be?

I would like people to understand the sacrifices coaches make to work with other people’s children— the hours they spend away from their family, the miles and miles spent on a bus, the sleep lost reviewing film and the time spent in the off-season preparing kids for the next year. 

Believe me, they don’t do it for the money.

I will guarantee that I have never known a coach who does not love every kid on their team, and who wouldn’t defend them as if they were their own child. When one of their players are in trouble, it’s not just their parents who worry. The coach does as well. 

I’m also tired of people throwing around the word “bully” like confetti. Every time someone is falsely accused of bullying, it diminishes the response in those instances when bullying actually does occur. If you go out for a varsity sport, you should expect to get yelled at.

Similarly, if you aren’t one of the top players on the team, you should expect that you aren’t going to get as much playing time. Parents must force themselves to watch the game without bias and realize the skills their child has in comparison to those playing ahead of him or her. Or, if their child has skills that match other players, are those that are seeing more court time older? If that’s the case, they may just need to wait their turn.

Another thing to keep in mind is that every player on that court is someone’s child, so when you are demanding that your child plays, someone else’s will have to sit. Then there’s another unhappy parent.

Most importantly, parents need to gut up and actually have a conversation with a coach they are having issues with, rather than send anonymous emails or letters, or going to administrators or the board with their first complaint.

I hope these coaches win their lawsuit and I hope it sends a message, loud and clear, that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated anymore.

 

Shortal, J. (January 18, 2018). Brainerd coach resigns because some parents just wouldn’t quit. Kare 11 News. Retrieved from http://www.kare11.com/article/news/brainerd-coach-resigns-because-some-parents-just-wouldnt-quit/89-509296190. 

 

Smith, C. (January 19, 2018) Ohio coaches sue parents for slander and libel, seek more than $25,000. USA TODAY. Retrieved from http://usatodayhss.com/2018/ohio-coaches-sue-parents-for-slander-and-libel-seek-more-than-25000.

Classifieds – April 12, 2018

Classifieds – April 19, 2018

Jones is new ASUW President

0
0

University of Wyoming students have elected Seth Jones, a current junior in communications and political science, from Upton, as president of the Associated Students of UW (ASUW).

Alexandra Mulhall, a current junior in political science, from Worland, was elected vice president.

Jones will preside over the student government that oversees a budget of more than $1 million, including funding for a variety of student programs. He also will serve as an ex-officio member of the UW Board of Trustees.

UW students also elected ASUW senators, who serve on various committees and represent their colleges in budgetary and policy matters affecting all UW students.


Earning their keep

0
0

By KateLynn Slaamot

for NLJ

Rodeo team members sell their sweat at annual Slave Auction

Many auctions take place in and around Newcastle, but members of the Newcastle Rodeo Club get to partake in a unique fundraiser auction each year. The club has been in operation for several years, and last month hosted the sixth year of its annual “slave auction” fundraiser. 

During this fundraiser, club members introduce themselves to spectators, sometimes adding humor, said Emily Hartinger, an adviser with the club for all six of those years.

Members of the club, which include high schoolers and middle schoolers, are auctioned to the highest bidder for a day of work. According to a couple of seniors attending Newcastle High School, this is quite the experience.

Newcastle BLOOMS

0
0

Dedicated volunteers make it happen

Story & Photos by Jen Kocher/For NLJ

This is Anne Hanson’s favorite time of the year, she admits, as she unpacks the crates of flowers and organizes them in her backyard greenhouse. 

Plastic trays of canna lilies, petunias, and salvias fill the shelves as Hanson tests soil moisture and rearranges plastic trays. It’s up to Hanson to nurse the tenuous buds along to full bloom, and eventually they’ll be replanted in the coal cars and planters throughout downtown and the city.

 “It’s a labor of love,” according to Hanson, who along with friends Marsha Halliday and Ann McColley, originally initiated and now maintain flower handling responsibilities. The group, who collectively refer to themselves as “We Go Girls,” have been beautifying Newcastle for the past 14 years. It began with hanging flower baskets outside of downtown storefronts and eventually morphed into coal car planters six years ago. 

Youngster makes chickens his business

0
0

Story & Photos by 

Jen Kocher/For NLJ

While many young boys pine for fire trucks, Tonka toys or tricycles, 5-year-old Wesley Ertman wanted chickens. It began at age 2 after a visit to a family friends’ farm. 

After that, he wanted to go over to see them every day and began lobbying his parents for some chickens of his own. A year later, after Wesley’s passion showed no signs of slowing down, parents Adam and Heather finally gave in. 

Today, the whole Ertman family has a hand in the operation, with the exception of older brother 8-year-old William, who’d much rather be playing video games. He helps his brother on occasion when he feels like it, he says, but Saturday was not one of those days. So, as Wesley put on his boots to go to work, William hung back idly swinging a golf club and thinking about his soccer game later that day.  

A simple plan

0
0

Local gardener creates hydroponic system to combat disabilities

Story & Photos by Jen Kocher/For NLJ

While many gardeners are just beginning to conceptualize their backyard gardens, James Blare is already harvesting his first round of vegetables. Tiny green cucumbers the size of pinky fingers sprout from yellow buds while leggy tomato plants and robust beans shoot up a trellis in his backyard greenhouse. 

His secret? Hydroponics.

Beginning in late February, the seeds for Blare’s indoor garden were cultivating in the warm, moist air of his hydroponic greenhouse. Individual plastic pipes feed off of the main water line, which is recycled and pumped back through the 35-gallon bin fueling the self-regulated watering system. Water trickles lightly over the clay pellets in each pot. Pellets, or coconut fibers, replace dirt in the “pots,” which slip into two holes in the tops of five-gallon buckets. The “pots” are cheap, plastic drinking glasses that Blare found, and cost four for a $1. Though he could easily fit four per bucket, he sticks to two to give the plants more grow room.

KC’s Lawn Service: A childhood chore turned business

0
0

Lawn care is not the only thing on the list of possible jobs performed by Casey Thorson with KC’s Lawn Care Service. After moving to Newcastle from North Dakota in 1981, Thorson took a childhood chore and turned it into a business that he has kept going since the late 1980s. 

“It is something I did my whole life. I mowed the lawn for my mom and my grandmas when I was younger. My mom would drop me off to do my grandma’s place after doing our yard, and then I would walk across the street to do my other grandma’s yard.  I thought, why not start doing it for myself,” Thorson told the News Letter Journal. 

He joked that while the equipment has come a long way since he began his childhood business, it has always been a blade moving in a circular motion to cut the grass and dispose of it, although he noted that he has been lucky to always use equipment with a motor. 

No more potshots

0
0

A couple of years ago, Stephanie wore a tie-dyed, rainbow-colored shirt to church to match her mood on a bright and sunny morning. She had no idea that a federal court had issued a decision on a gay marriage case that week, or that there were plenty of rainbow parades getting airtime on the 24/7 news cycle to go along with a slew of social media posts shrouded in the colors of the spectrum.

My wife simply saw the bright sunshine and dressed accordingly for church that morning, but the interim pastor who was here at the time approached her after the service, visibly concerned, and asked if she “was making a statement.” As a lifelong Republican who has been active in local and state politics for decades I wasn’t surprised— but I was pissed.

I explained to the pastor that I agreed with her religious and political opposition to gay marriage, but challenged her suggestion that Christian conservatives who held that position should forfeit the rainbow because gay rights advocates had adopted it as their symbol. I was surprised to have to remind the minister that the rainbow was actually God’s gift to us after Noah’s flood— His promise to never again use a flood to destroy life on Earth. Why would Christian conservatives surrender the symbol to the “other side” just because they claimed it?

I had exactly the same thought when I received Jim Jones’ letter (below). I grew even angrier after I read his letter and quickly explained in an email of my own that I meant no offense and he shot back that he was “sorry I made it political,” and suggested I print an “apology” in this week’s paper.

I receive countless letters with the headline “We live in a great community,” and often change that headline. I have looked the word “community” up on several sources, and all of them list “village” as a synonym.

Just because Hillary Clinton used the word in a book title doesn’t mean I’m going to eliminate my own use of the term. In fact, as a conservative it is more likely that I will use it even more because I refuse to surrender a word with positive connotations because somebody I disagree with uses the term in a manner I disagree with.

The whole point of this being that I am sick of the way this page has been used to personally attack other members of the community— myself included— and won’t allow it to go without challenge anymore. As such, I either won’t print letters like this, or will accompany them with a response. If you choose to exercise your right to free speech by being uncivil to other community members and labeling them out of ignorance, please use FaceBook to do so. I hear Mark Zuckerberg embraces communication in any form, but this newspaper’s opinion page is going to hold to a higher standard moving forward.

Just a little ‘sprinter’ weather

0
0

By Bill Sniffin

Both in the movie business and the book business, there is the concept of “false ending,” where you as the viewer or reader think the story is over. Not so. Later the ultimate ending arrives. Just about every movie or book uses this device.

This also applies to Wyoming’s weather during this time of year.

As part of our recent travels during this wet and crazy spring, I heard an expression by an Omaha TV weather reporter, who kept referring to their all-time record cold weather as coming after they had had a “false” spring. 

I like that term for spring.  My favorite way to describe Wyoming’s four seasons is: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter and Construction. 

Lander Mayor Del McOmie shared a funny weather description that he found on the Wyoming Going Blue Facebook page, which is all about law enforcement in the state.

It boasted 12 seasons, and included one really cool season they called “sprinter,” which pretty much covers right now.  Here is their list of the 12 seasons:

1.    Winter

2.    Arctic Freeze

3.    Second winter

4.    Spring of Deception

5.    Semi Truck tipping season

6.    Sprinter

7.    Actual spring (lasts two weeks)

8.    Construction season

9.    Torrential downpour

10.  Cheyenne Frontier Days – hail season

11.  Summer

12.  Pre-Winter – Fall Snow

We had scheduled an extended motorhome trip crossing the south from Las Vegas to Flagstaff to Albuquerque to Santa Fe to Oklahoma City to Dallas and then north to western Iowa. The trip worked out well and we saw many relatives and friends. But this year’s wacky weather was not limited just to Wyoming. Flagstaff had blizzards. Dallas had hail and near freezing temps. Golf ball-sized hailstones pummeled the car I tow behind our RV.

We timed the trip to end up in Iowa, figuring they would have a normal spring.  No so. Temperatures were all time lows, with snow and hail. We finally got out of there on the one nice day and made it to Cheyenne. It was a long pull, but worth it. 

So there we were, stranded in Cheyenne, spending the night in our motorhome at the Terry Bison Ranch RV Park. We were trying to get home to Lander, but the weather was typical Wyoming Spring– here came the winds!

Three semi trucks and a camper were on their sides just south of Cheyenne as the winds roared 75 mph for a direct hit on high profile vehicles on Interstate 25. Some reports said 88 mph gusts were blowing over these rigs on Wyoming Hill. More than a dozen rigs were over turned statewide.

We desperately wanted to get home but not on Tuesday, April 17.

Now there are two ways to get to our home from Cheyenne. The shortest route is Interstate 80 through Laramie, Rawlins and Jeffrey City. A slightly longer way (45 minutes longer) is north from Cheyenne to Wheatland, Douglas, Casper and Riverton then home.  So, here I sat in front of my laptop on a spectacular Tuesday morning (April 17) checking roads and forecasts. You just cannot make this stuff up.

Blizzards and rainstorms are issues when driving a 13-foot high motorhome, but crosswinds are the biggest hazard. It is just too dangerous. We are at a time in our lives where we would rather wait a day than “have to” get home. Here is what I found:

Snow was predicted in Casper, Riverton and Lander. Crosswinds of 50 mph were forecast for Wheatland. The moisture was coming out of the north as Worland and Powell and the rest of the Big Horn Basin were going to get wet with rain and snow. Thus, the Interstate 25 route was not going to work on this day. 

So what about the Snow Chi Minh Trail on Interstate 80? The TV stations had blocked out all of SE Wyoming as “dangerous high winds.” With no “high profile” traffic recommended. This meant that Cheyenne to Rawlins was unsafe for me, anyway, and that area north of Rawlins often features terrible cross winds. 

I really like the Wyoming Department of Transportation weather forecast maps, which showed most roads “green” on this day, which would normally be welcomed. But not when driving a vehicle that is quite susceptible to toppling over. Cheyenne to Laramie looked okay but Laramie to Rawlins was the typical Snow Chi Minh Trail forecast: high winds and blowing snow. We stayed another night in our favorite capital city before getting home.

Bill Sniffin is a retired newspaper publisher who has penned a number of books about Wyoming. Check out additional columns written by Bill at www.billsniffin.com. and find volumes from his coffee table book series, which have sold over 30,000 copies, for sale at the News Letter Journal.


His blessings are rapidly departing from us

0
0

Dear Editor,

My People Are Destroyed For Lack Of Knowledge, as in Hosea 4: 1, 6: Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. 6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

When the children of Israel, the nation of Israel, came into the promised land they were fresh from their covenant with God at Mt. Sinai, in which covenant they had promised to remember and do and keep God’s law and statutes and judgments, in return for which God would bless them. By the time of Hosea’s prophesy we see that God has a controversy with them because “there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.”  The people are destroyed in accordance with Deuteronomy 28, because they have no more knowledge of the Law of God. In 721 B.C. the Nation of Israel was conquered and carried off into the Assyrian captivity, the final result of God’s anger with them for abandoning their covenant with Him.

Early in the 17th century, let’s say about 1620 AD, some 2,340 years later, the descendants of those same Israelites began to migrate to and establish a new nation on the eastern shores of North America.

According to the Mayflower Compact their purposes were “. . . for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith . . . “  These people were the children of the Protestant Reformation, a movement or turning back to God from what they perceived as the anti-Christ catholic church. Their generation had turned back to God, their handbook was the Bible, and their intent was to establish truth, mercy, and the knowledge of God in their society. God was recovering His people.

As they struggled and worked to build a viable culture and society based on God’s laws, God blessed them. The new nation grew and prospered and became known as a Christian nation, and God blessed them more than any nation of people in the history of the world.

But, alas, just as the Israel people of old took their blessings for granted and wallowed in their debaucheries, so has this new nation gradually done the same. The Bible, which was once the basic textbook of education, has now been banned from the schools, and the schools themselves have become a world-class laughingstock. Prayers to God for His mercy and blessing are now mostly banned from public functions, and absolutely forbidden in schools. 

As we have forgotten God has God forgotten our children? The nation has forgotten its heritage and embraced such false concepts as egalitarianism. Illegal aliens are permitted to run wild and even allowed to vote and have a say in important matters facing the nation. The Constitution has become “a scrap of paper” and the God given rights of the people are trampled underfoot.

And the blessings of God are rapidly departing from us.

Once again the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. If we had a prophet like Hosea he could truly say to us, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” and “thou has forgotten the law of thy God.”

Who can stand in the face of a controversy with God? No one, that’s who!

Our only recourse is II Chronicles 7:14:

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Will you do it?  Will we do it?

—John Buehler

Students and parents should be aware of EWC policy

0
0

Dear Editor,

It is has recently come to my attention that the Eastern Wyoming College Board of Trustees intends to adopt two new policies that I believe will compromise the moral standings of not only the college, but also the Goshen County community and the EWC service areas. As a recent EWC Graduate, I take great pride and ownership in the college. I write this with the best interest of the students, faculty, and community at heart.

The policies intended for adoption are “Board Policy 3.27 Transgender Employee Policy”, and “Board Policy 5.14 Transgender Student-Athlete Participation.” Board Policy 3.27 would require employees of the college to address other peers by the “pronoun with which they identify.” Whereas Board Policy 5.14 would allow that “a transgender student-athlete may participate in sex-separated sports activities.” 

The question cannot help but be asked— what happened to free speech and one’s personal moral beliefs? In a community as small as Torrington and the surrounding Goshen County area, it grieves me that there are such tyrannical powers in the college that wish to dictate the actions of our friends, neighbors, and the young people of this community. 

Additionally, what happens with the restrooms at the college? Board Policy 3.27 goes as far to state that an “employee is permitted access to restrooms and locker room facilities corresponding with their full-time gender identity.” This policy appears to open up the bathrooms to anyone – regardless if they are “trans-gender” or not. I can’t believe that I am the only person who is bothered by this.

In recent discussions with students at EWC, and with fellow community members, I have found that very few individuals know that this is happening at the college. I encourage you to learn more about these policies by visiting ewc.wy.edu, click on the “About Us” tab on the left, and find them under the “Board Policies & Admin Rules” tab on the right side of the page. Additionally, I would encourage you to visit with the members of the Board of Trustees and voice your concerns to them. Action on these polices will take place at the regular board meeting on May 8 at 5:45 p.m. at the EWC Torrington Campus, Tebbet Room 274.

   —Chelsea Baars

2017 EWC Graduate

Goshen County

It takes a village idiot to be editor of the NLJ

0
0

Dear Editor,

Thank you for printing my letter in last week’s journal mostly unmolested.

I had hoped to take the opportunity to use some of your editorial space to highlight what a great community we live in. 

Unfortunately, having you discard my heading “We live in a great community!” and replace it with the title of a Hillary Clinton book, “It takes a village,” manages to make my letter have the appearance of much of the liberal gibberish that has often filled your pages for the last several years. 

I can assure you I will take nothing from Ms. Clinton and certainly would not take her work and sign my name to it.

Please print this response without any changes. Thank you.

   —Jim Jones

Ladies get geared up for a big week

0
0

Coming off their first win of the season over the ranked Douglas Lady Bearcats a week ago, the Lady Dogies were challenged with taking on another talented Lady Bearcat team— this one from Scottsbluff, Nebraska— on Tuesday, and then were on the long road trip for a rematch against the Lady Outlaws of Rawlins on Saturday.

Unfortunately the squad was shut out in both competitions, but head coach Bryce Hoffman was pleased with how his ladies played overall.

“Scottsbluff is solid, and they are balanced front to back and have all their pieces in place when it comes to depth,” he described. “The game against Rawlins was just a battle the entire way, but it came down to the simple fact that they were able to finish one of their shots and we weren’t.”

Dogies grab first win of the season

0
0

The Dogies picked up their first win of the season with a close 3-2 overtime victory against the Scottsbluff Bearcats’ junior varsity team last Tuesday at Schoonmaker Field, but followed that up with a 0-6 loss against the Outlaws in a rematch in Rawlins on Saturday. 

“It was great to get a win at home and I thought we played very well,” head coach Josh Peterson grinned. “It was exciting that we were able to push the game into overtime, and then come out on top.”

The Dogies got on the board first, scoring a goal about 15 minutes into the first half of play. Junior Kyle “Scrappy” Haslam put a good pass over the top of the Bearcat defense and sophomore Jacob Rhoades was able to get to it and send a nice shot into the far post.

Viewing all 1332 articles
Browse latest View live


Latest Images