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A message on Veterans Day

Community Voices

Editor’s Note: Because of the federal holiday and no mail delivery on Tuesday the Independent will not be publishing a printed paper on Tuesday. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s column is running in the weekend edition ahead of the Veterans Day holiday. On this and every Veterans Day, our nation honors those who served and the sacrifices they made to defend our nation. Since the founding of our democracy, each person who has worn the uniform has left their mark on our nation as they defended our freedom. As we pay tribute to all our veterans today, I am thinking about patriots like ...

It’s open enrollment season – here’s what to know

Letters to the Editor

Fall brings cooler weather and football games, and it’s also the annual time to ensure you have the health insurance coverage you need for 2026. Open enrollment on the federal Marketplace at healthcare.gov — as well as Minnesota’s marketplace MNsure at mnsure.org — runs through Dec. 15 for first-of-the-year coverage. Jan. 15 is the final date to make changes or to set up coverage that begins Feb. 1. Employers have their own open enrollment season for signing up for health insurance at work, but commonly this happens in the fall as well. Health insurance is an investment ...

Love, in-love or both

Community Voices

Just about everyone | know has told me that love was the reason they married their spouse. Whether you are married or divorced, love was in there somewhere. Since love is the most often stated reason for marriage, it would be good to know what that is. What follows is what psychologists generally have said that love is all about. One way that you might characterize the stages in a relationship is in three steps. First comes the Romantic stage. In this stage, we put our best foot forward and do everything we can to ensure that the other person wants to keep seeing us. The second ...

Going antiquing

Community Voices

My wife and I recently took a business trip to St. Cloud. She suggested that we leave early so that we could go antiquing. I learned long ago that “antiquing” is a code word for “shopping.” I used to think that “antiquing” meant making something new appear to be old. This is the opposite of what I’ve always been trying to accomplish. I’ve forever been striving to make my worn old farm equipment, cars, and face look like they are nearly new. But there’s only so much that can be done to conceal rust and wrinkles. As we motored along, we encountered a mercantile outlet ...

Transition time

Local Columns

It’s time to transition, but then, when isn’t it time to transition? Some time ago, I was reading the local newspaper and arrived at the letters to the editor section of the paper. In one of the letters, a person was lamenting how much Red Wing has changed. The writer had left the city for about 30 years, and upon returning, was shocked how much the city had changed. Well ... duh! What did you expect? To be driving on gravel roads in the downtown area? The city transitioned over the years to be the inviting, historically beautiful and welcoming city it is today. So, let us ...

Rooftops of memory

Letters to the Editor

To the editor: I remember Katrina. I remember families waving shirts from rooftops, praying for helicopters that never came. I remember looters—not for greed, but for bread. For baby formula. For dignity. And I remember how the government that delayed rescue rushed prosecution. Today, in 2025, we are back on the rooftops. For the first time in American history, a president’s administration attempted to allow food stamps to lapse during a government shutdown. Over 42 million Americans — children, seniors, working families — stood to lose access to SNAP benefits. Not ...