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Sartell Newsleader • www.thenewsleaders.com
Friday, Nov. 23, 2012
Opinion Our View Sartell Sabre swimmers make the city proud Hats off to the Sartell Sabres girls’ swim team. The team scored a second-place win in last weekend’s Class A championship meet at the Aquatic Center in Minneapolis. The Sartell Sabres girls’ swim team were Class A state champions last year and in 2009. Just because they didn’t get top honors this year makes them no less “champs.” They gave that state meet their all, exerting themselves like pros, both as individuals and as a team. They made Sartell proud. It’s often said sports, at their best, are all about teamwork. That is one of the life-lasting lessons athletics teaches in high school: teamwork. Every girl on that swim team has said without teamwork, their winning streak could not have happened. And that is not false modesty; it’s true. Just one example of that is Sabres swimmer Ellen Bloom. She told the Newsleader a day after the event that she’d been under intense pressure as the last swimmer on her relay team for the 400-yard freestyle event. By the time Bloom was ready to dive into the pool, the Visitation High School team was just a point ahead for second place, behind Northfield. Bloom saved the day, beating Visitation in that race by 2.16 seconds and earning the Sabres the second-place trophy for the weekend. As exhausting as that swim was, Bloom forged ahead with grit and determination, and with every stroke she felt energized by her teammates and the fans cheering her and the team on through all of the two days of competition. “I heard them cheer before it was my turn,” Bloom told the Newsleader, “but once in the water, I knew what I was doing. I didn’t hear anything, but I knew the whole team was there behind me . . .” All of the Sabre swimmers can tell you the foundations of teamwork are hard work, moral support, mutual dependency and a deeply caring camaraderie. Anybody who sees those girls together could mistake them all for sisters in a very, very close-knit family. That camaraderie and team spirit shines through every task they undertake and every lap they swim. We salute the Sabres on all of their seasonal accomplishments. They are definitely some of Sartell’s very finest.
Fairness and ethics
Newsleader staff members have the responsibility to report news fairly and accurately and are accountable to the public. Readers who feel we’ve fallen short of these standards are urged to call the Newsleader office at 363-7741. If matters cannot be resolved locally, readers are encouraged to take complaints to the Minnesota News Council, an independent agency designed to improve relationships between the public and the media and resolve conflicts. The council office may be reached at 612-341-9357.
Tell the nicotine demon to bug off
A gaggle of teenagers who live at the end of the block sometimes struts down the street puffing away like crazy. I feel like saying, “Kids, don’t smoke.” But they wouldn’t listen. They’d scoff like I did once upon a time. I quit smoking four years ago. It’s the smartest thing I ever did. The dumbest thing I ever did? That’s easy – starting smoking when I was a teenager. I quit, cold turkey, for almost six months back in 1987. Like a fool, I started again. All it took is one lousy cigarette, and I was back once again in my chain-smoking mode, sending out toxic smoke signals. Not a week went by since then that I didn’t vow to quit smoking – maybe tomorrow, perhaps next week and certainly by the time the New Year rolls around. Empty vows. Then, one afternoon, I was sitting at the kitchen table talking to the neighbor lady, Marty. I put out my cigarette, crushed the empty pack of Basic menthols and tossed it into the trash. “That’s it,” I said. “No more smoking!” “I’ve heard that one before,” said Marty, laughing. “Well, this time I’m serious,” I said. “Wanna bet? Ten bucks!” We shook on the bet.
Dennis Dalman Editor In the coming days, Marty later admitted she would sometimes peek in my kitchen window to see if I was “sneaksmoking.” She would enter my house, her nostrils quivering, sniffing the air for lingering smoke traces. A week later she paid up, slapping down a $10 bill on the table. The first four days were cold-turkey hell. I was light-headed, shaky, loud. I paced and kicked furniture. At one point, guests fled the house, fearing I was about to murder them. I kept having a ridiculous urge to go to the mailboxes at the south end of the mobile-home park. I kept thinking, “I’ve GOT to get to the mailbox! To deliver those letters! Now!” It was only later I realized the mailbox-torment was nothing but the inner nicotine demon prodding me. The mailboxes are next to the grocery store where I bought cigarettes. The demon knew if I got as far as the mailbox, I’d think, “Oh, what the
heck, I’ll get a pack of cigs and then quit tomorrow. Or maybe next week.” That’s my advice: Don’t listen to the devious trickster. He will give you infinite excuses to destroy your resolve. Tell the demon to shut up. After four days of his sly torments, he will leave you alone – except for a rare return visit. I quit cold turkey because I knew if I used patches or gum, I would foolishly think, “Oh well, I can smoke just one or two and then quit again. Maybe next week.” I wanted my quitting to be a torment so when I was over it, I wouldn’t want to go through that misery again. But whatever works for you (gum, patches, whatever), do try it. If you fail, try again. I recommend writing a list of the dozens of reasons why smoking is not good: smelly house, too expensive, fire dangers, offensive to other people and to pets, and last but not least – bad for your health. When the demon tempts you, re-read that list and then tell the demon to bug off. A few times, I admit, I was so tempted to smoke a cigarette – “just one.” But that was the demon again, back for a quick visit. I told him where to go. My advice to kids is this: “Please, kids, don’t start and you won’t have to stop.”
Letter to editor
Reader responds to Newsleader opinion page
Fred C Joesting, Sartell If you read closely in the Opinion and Our View columns of Dennis Dalman you will find a sentence that should be the goal of everybody. “The main law should forbid partisan control over election processes at every level.” But when reading the two columns by Dalman, all you hear him talking about is what he perceives as Republican efforts to suppress votes and other forms of voter fraud. I am in no way indicating there is no fraud and suppression by Republicans. However, if Dalman would expand his horizon to hear from some independents and conservatives he would find allegations against Democrats are also substantial. The Newsleader prints a section telling us “staff members have the responsibility to report news fairly and accurately and are accountable to the public.” To be fair and accurate it
seems to me one has to look at fraud and suppression by anyone regardless of party affiliation. Gov. Dayton aired many ads about defeating the amendment for voter photo identification because he said we had to go back and get it right. Now we hope Dayton and the Democrats will work with the Republicans to get a bill on voter photo identification done. Hopefully saying we have to go back and get it right was an honest statement and not just a fraudulent way of defeating the amendment. One of the things Dalman lists as attempting to suppress voting is “purges of names on voter registration lists.” Does he want names to stay on forever once someone has voted? If you want a fair election the only names on a list should be legal voters. If someone has died, if someone has moved or if someone has committed
a felony then those names need to come off the voter registration list. To not do so enables fraud to happen. Dalman talks about “”Attack ads against Obama.” I am sad to say there were definitely attack ads against Obama but also very sadly there were attack ads against almost everybody running as a Republican or as a Democrat. Obama’s campaign spent months attacking Romney even before he won the nomination. Dalman decries “despicable statements made by Rush Limbaugh and Tea Party extremists.” But I did not see him worried about the same kind of statements by extremists like Move-On and the Democratic National Campaign groups. I wonder how Dalman feels about the ultimate voter suppression? The disenfranchisement of millions because of abortion.
B e re a s o n a b l e , d o i t m y w a y I was watching a discussion the other day between some Democrats and some Republicans. The Dems were saying this country is in trouble because the Reps are refusing to compromise their positions. The Reps were saying the country is in trouble because of the policies of the Dems and the only way to fix the mess is to turn away from those policies and return to fiscal sanity. The debate reminded me of two football teams facing each other on the 50-yard line with neither side able to move the other. As a result, nothing gets accomplished. Nobody scores. The election showed us clearly the country is almost equally divided between those two positions. It also showed us this situation of deadlock must be desirable because the electorate continued the stalemate by their election choices. When a stalemate happens in a football game, the soccer-style kicker is called upon to come out and kick a field goal. That usually is not very satisfying, but it at least brings about an end to the deadlock. I believe what is needed in this country is a good field-goal kicker. I have written before Republicans do Republican things because it’s what they believe. Democrats do Democratic things because it’s what they believe. For either
Ron Scarbro Guest Writer side of this debate to say, “Be reasonable, do it my way” is ridiculous. Most Republicans probably think if they caved to the demands of the Democrats, the country would suffer irreparable harm. I’m pretty sure the Democrats feel the same way. At least I hope their thoughts are more with the country and not just with their political parties or with their own particular political futures. This is what I know however, if compromise is not reached, the country will suffer and possibly more than either side could ever repair. The so-called “fiscal cliff” we are facing is a reality. It isn’t going away. If it happens, Greece will look like a Sunday School picnic. The people we have chosen to represent us are our employees. They answer to us. They are charged with the responsibility of doing the business of government. The economic mess we are in is their doing. It’s not the failure of the American
people. It’s the failure of their elected representatives. Every citizen in this country needs to write their representatives and give them the following message. Put your party affiliation aside, do a quick re-read of the Constitution, swallow your egotistical pride and compromise for the good of America. Unscrew what you have screwed up. Failure to act is a criminal offense and you will be held liable, period. The election is over. The country has chosen. For better or worse, the status quo has been re-elected. Many of you do not like the results. Many do. Today it does not matter. What matters is the people we have chosen to get the job done need to get busy with that job and get it done. Failure truly is not an option. We all have our opinions as to what is the best policy for this government. The resolution to the fiscal mess we are in will probably have to take on some from both sides. Like a field goal it probably won’t be totally satisfying to either side, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is resolution be found and compromise be reached. Another thing is crystal clear. Both Obama and the Congress are equally responsible for our situation and they both will be held accountable.