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Community Voices

Secure retirement should be a right, not a privilege

Some people might be getting tired of all the world and national news about the Trump tariffs, but one population group is wanting to hear every word. Middle class Americans who are 50 years old or older most likely have a large part of their life savings tied to the stock and bond markets. What happens to those markets has an impact on personal wealth. Trump’s tariffs are a gamble. It all hinges on what other countries do and how Wall Street reacts. Judging by the way stocks plunged after China retaliated with tariffs, Wall Street will react negatively to any steps that bring the ...

Make difference against sexual assault

For the month of April, WoMen’s Rural Advocacy Programs, Inc., (WRAP) would like to discuss sexual assault, awareness, and prevention. Since 2001, the month of April has been coined as the National Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) and has helped to make huge strides to bring awareness and a voice to survivors of sexual assault. Statistically, every 68 seconds someone in the United States is sexually assaulted, which is a total number of 531,810 people that were sexually assaulted in the year 2022 alone. The state of Minnesota reported at least 8% of 8th graders experienced ...

Adventures in babysitting

Babysitting a 4-year-old boy is not for the faint of heart nor for anyone who hasn’t spent at least six months training for a triathlon. Toddlers are perpetual motion machines. In addition to constantly being on the move — a toddler never walks when he or she can either skip or run — preschoolers seem to think that they should always be humming or singing or simply making some sort of noise. Just watching a toddler is exhausting; keeping up with one should be classified as an Olympic event. My wife and I babysat our grandson while our son and daughter-in-law were away on a ...

The consequences of lack of empathy

This might be the best time of the year. Believe me when I say I’d like to write about spring or planting or baseball. Then I saw a picture. There was Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary, standing in front of a prison in El Salvador. Behind her, behind bars, were a few dozen men, shirtless with their heads shaved. They are dark-skinned. It was news for a minute on March 27. Nothing lasts in the spotlight as we are barraged by efforts to redo the government and turn our nation into something different than it was. Sometimes it’s hourly, sometimes it’s minutely. The ...

Education and training: two very different learning processes

I came across a quote in the past week, one that links the training of children to the realization of ambition and future potential. For the most part I think it’s a great thought. I would just make a change with the first few words. I would take out training and insert the word education. Some people might think I’m being overly particular. Many of them think education and training are basically the same thing. They think the main reason to go to school is to become employable. I believe the two concepts are different. I think they have different purposes and different ...

Dealing with cutting, self-harm

Patients that psychologists frequently encounter are people who are cutting themselves. Cutting is a form of self-mutilation. Cutting is not the only form of self-mutilation that people do to themselves. They may also burn themselves, pick pieces of skin out of their body, pull their hair out, or anything else that they can do to harm themselves. Self-mutilation is when a person deliberately harms and hurts themselves physically, but they are not trying to kill themselves or commit suicide. The objective is to cause pain. Why would you want to cause yourself pain? What are the ...