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Ripley schools praise ‘accomplishment’ of designation

The Ripley Central School District Board of Education learned that the district has been named a National Showcase School by Capturing Kids’ Hearts at their regular meeting this month. District Superintendent William Caldwell said he had been contacted by the organization with the news. “The top 3% to 5% of schools doing CKH receive this designation,” he said. “For most schools, it takes three to five years. Doing it in two years is a big accomplishment.” In September, 2023, the district initiated the Capturing Kids’ Hearts program. The program, founded by Flip Flippen, ...

Another Memorial Day remembrance

Memorial Day was always a special day for me, even as a child. It was a particularly important day of remembrance for my mother. Every year, she made sure we wore the commemorative red poppies to honor her youngest brother, the family hero. Kenneth Arthur MacMillan was the youngest of four children. When their mother dies, my mother, Alberta, was 6 and the siblings were 4, 2 and baby Kenny was 14 months. He never knew his mother who spent the last months of her life in a tuberculosis sanitorium. Alberta remembered the four children gathering below their mummy’s window to wave and ...

A warming Earth in a chilling May

Well, the weather forecast for the rest of May doesn’t look too cheery with intermittent rain punctuated by daytime temperatures in the 50s and low 60s until the end of the month. I do hope that Memorial Day was better than the weather bureau predicted. If it wasn’t certain, the national corporate media would blame it on DOGE inspired cuts or on those old and slightly tired words “climate change.” There used to be a day when you could have a friendly conversation about the weather but today writing or talking about the weather may open you up to attacks on your intelligence, ...

‘Irrational criticisms’ overlook morality

“America now has both the pope and the antichrist,” stated a meme posted by a person who also posted another saying, “Trump is a POS, second only to Hitler.” Is Trump gassing Jews? Does Trump espouse a Bible-despising worldview like the Nazis did? It wasn’t long ago when I walked through a hallway plastered with malicious remarks and nasty caricatures, which included the devil masked as a man whose speeches were regarded as nothing but “lumps of imbecility, buffoonery and vulgar malignity.” Ridiculed as “the weakest man who had ever been elected … vain sterile, ...

Let me thank you for your time

The other day, as I was sitting in a dentist’s chair having my teeth cleaned, it reminded me of the reality that there are some jobs that physically have to be done by people. There are jobs that cannot be done at home using only a computer and an internet connection. It is not just dental work; it is most medical work. Patients have to be seen; the sick have to be taken care of. As to teaching, effective education requires that teachers be in a classroom. In the winter, snowplows actually must be operated by snowplow drivers, etc. As to manufacturing, you can’t produce truck ...

Staying consistent with Constitution: Rights extend to all people in the U.S.

In my opinion our forefathers were geniuses when they wrote our Constitution. Our Constitution, the oldest national constitution in use today, defines the principle of government and their jurisdictions and the basic rights of citizens Its first three words – “We The People” – affirm that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens. Our constitution describes the three equal branches of government, each with specific responsibilities. The Legislative branch makes the laws and controls the purse, the Executive branch enforces the laws and the Judicial ...