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Spring in Southwest Minnesota — a season of renewal and community impact

Community Voices

As spring arrives in southwest Minnesota, it brings a welcome sense of renewal — and a moment to reflect on the work that strengthens our communities. Each year, United Way of Southwest Minnesota (UWSWMN) takes this season to thank our Community Partners and look ahead to the opportunities the next Community Impact Grant cycle will bring. UWSWMN’s community impact grants support programs that expand youth opportunities, build healthy communities, promote financial security, and strengthen community resilience. We extend our sincere appreciation to our 2025–26 community partners, ...

Forty-five years on

Community Voices

My wife and I recently marked our 45th wedding anniversary. This is a mathematical impossibility as I feel as though I’m not a day over 40. But maybe that’s just my intractable immaturity talking. My wife was 22 and I was 23 when we were wed. Knowing what we know now, we know that we were too young to know what we didn’t know. Plus, it means that we’ve been married for two-thirds of our lives. Will that fraction keep creeping upward until it reaches 100%? Time will tell. I can’t help but feel that my wife and I are hopelessly out of style. Why? I’m ashamed to admit ...

No penalty for gravel haulers

Letters to the Editor

To the editor: Thomas Paine argued the government of our nation should have two purposes: protecting private property, and securing the free market. Apparently, Minnesotans never did get that colonial memo. Any government allowing private gravel carriers to damage other vehicles by failing to require loads be tarped, refusing to penalize irresponsible parties, and offering disingenuous excuses to victims of such preventable injuries… is deserving of absolute contempt. The embrace of anti-regulatory excess by Republicans has resulted in basic, simple standards of decency being ...

Humble pennies had value that’s now a distant memory

Community Voices

If we had a conversation about things that get no respect, one of the first items that should be mentioned is the good old copper penny. Federal officials recently announced that they’ll no longer issue new pennies. We’ll just use the ones that are already in circulation. Eventually they’re likely to fade away. We’ve reached a point where the penny is almost worthless. Someone who works for minimum wage makes hundreds of pennies every hour. Many people don’t even pick up a penny if they see one on a sidewalk or in a parking lot. It’s almost insult to tell someone the ...

Headless Hydra politics

Letters to the Editor

To the editor: The hydra is a tiny animal that does not appear to die. Cut it in pieces! Each part regenerates. In legend, Hercules fought a many headed monster hydra. As he cut off each head, two more emerged. Finally, Hercules cut off heads as his nephew burned the Hydra’s stumps to kill it. Like the hydra, evil never stops. Evil resurfaces again in places and ways that are hard to fight. Only through cooperation can it be overcome. Killing Iran’s Supreme leader did not end oppression and torture. The assassination scattered the seeds of anger and terror. Now these seeds ...

I like words

Community Voices

When you write an occasional column, you think about words. I like words. I try to find the right ones whether I’m talking or writing. Sometimes I succeed. In my last piece, there was this line. “It is fast time our nation binds our wounds and heals.” The day it came out, a friend said there was a misprint. She thought it was supposed to be “It is past time.” No, I meant “It is fast time.” The nearest equivalent to saying, “It is fast time for something to happen” is “It is high time for that to happen.” In other words, it is due. That is slightly different ...