ALEX LUFT
Alex Luft was a journalist in Hermann for just 10 months. But this talented young man quickly earned a reputation for asking smart questions and writing bravely and eloquently. He also made hundreds of friends here, and says he will always have affection for Hermann. He plans to return as often as possible. On some of his returns, he will continue to write his very popular reviews of local B&Bs, restaurants, and local attractions.
Perhaps someday HHS will invite him to deliver a commencement speech.
Alex's current plans are to return to school next year to earn a Masters degree in writing. So, for now, Alex is a freelance writer, and he's agreed to continue to write for CountyNewsLIVE.com as a freelance columnist!
As a CNL freelance columnist, Alex is free to pick the topic and the timing of each column. And readers with user accounts are free to post comments. Hopefully, through this column, we'll be able to follow Alex through the interesting twists and turns in his career and life, and we'll be able to continue to soak-up his enjoyable writing.
10,000 reads, gratitude and challenges
Watching those click counts can be a tricky business for journalists, and I remember it as a perpetual issue at CNL. Sometimes the news business is torn between giving people what they want—those things that score high in ratings—and the things that the news “ought” to be doing for its audience.
A common complaint says that the only thing ever shown on the 5 o’clock news is crime, fires, car wrecks and general unpleasantness. But the news producers will be quick to point out that they are simply riding the waves of ratings, and they claim to be a mirror for society’s values—even if the public is dissatisfied with what they see in the reflection.
Even the “fluff” pieces that are supposed to be crowd-pleasers don’t score as well as the distasteful stories. Even though audiences might want to think otherwise, the long run shows that they’re attracted to violence and dramatic situations.
On the other hand, it’s common for “old media”—like long-standing newspapers and magazines—to fill their pages with political analysis and in-depth social pieces that are, more often than not, pretty boring. These are the award-winning pieces that attract only a fraction of the readers as a US Weekly report on Kim Kardashian’s desire to be pregnant.
So, on the one hand, journalists absolutely must be there to report the drama and gossip that audiences crave. But they also have to be disciplined enough to aim higher, even if only every so often.
That’s one of the biggest challenges to anyone who stays in the news business for more than a few weeks.
With this column, I’ve been afforded the chance to do a little bit of the “aiming higher.” But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to keep readers happy.
So, always feel free to let me know if there’s something I’m missing, something I should be writing more about. Leave me a comment on the column or drop me a line at alexpluft@gmail.com.
I’m happy to have the first 10,000 reads under my belt, and I’m looking forward to the next 10k.
Work to learn or learn to work
This duality has always created some philosophical problems, and sometimes those ideological issues press into very real decisions for educators. The most famous example is the classic disagreement between W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington about whether learning institutions for black Americans should center on a classical education (which could give blacks equal intellectual footing as some of their white counterparts) or vocational education (which would help blacks rise from poverty by working in skilled trades). Both men meant well, and both philosophies were flawed, but only W.E.B. DuBois’ endorsement of the highest levels of education for blacks would have ever led to Barack Obama being elected President.
So it would appear that in the long run, valuing education and pushing for the highest levels is the best strategy. But that’s a difficult thing to apply in a real-world situation. Today’s vocational schools do an excellent job of training people to work the jobs that hold our society together. And even the students who go off to a four-year college are urged to consider career implications when choosing their majors.
I’ve found a bit of the same conflict in my own life, in my own efforts to return to school. When I discuss going back to school, people almost inevitably ask me what comes after that. I don’t know. I don’t even know how I would know.
And if I tell them that I want to go to school with no incentive other than two years of learning at a university, I can see the conflict in them. Sure, it’s noble to pursue education that doesn’t provide a career path, but isn’t that whole thing sort of wasteful? Wouldn’t it be wiser to invest in an education that would pay itself off?
I know how they feel, especially as I’m going to have to try and figure out how to pay for these years of school. But I also remember W.E.B. and Booker T., and I remember that the better path looks at the long term and overlooks immediate fears.
This conflict between preparation and the intrinsic value of education is unlikely to cease. Educators across the country, especially in this time of economic stress, always have to strike a balance between spending on traditional education or preparing students for careers after school. Those are difficult decisions.
But for me, it seems that education does have value—as much as a shiny new car or a house on a hill—and I’m buying. I’d rather work to learn than learn to work.
What's wrong with growing up?
My first instinct was to look guiltily around, pause and fire back, “Nothing! What’s wrong with you!” But I knew the computer wouldn’t listen, so I had to read on to find out, if nothing else, what was wrong with me.
The basic gist of the article is that young people are taking longer to “grow up” these days. A few decades ago, most people nearing 30 had already climbed over most of life’s milestones: moving away from parents, becoming financially independent, going all in with a romantic partner and having some kids intentionally. But now, people in their 20s are pushing back these standard rites of passage for other pursuits (intensive education, career-building, adventure) or no pursuits at all (drinking beers, growing a beard, attempting to “find myself” by watching daytime television and eating Cocoa Puffs).
What’s notable is that the trend cuts across cultural lines and seems to be actually growing year by year. The field of developmental psychology is struggling with this seemingly new phase of life that is neither child nor adult nor a true transition, but rather a unique period of life marked by aimlessness, selfishness and a puzzling mix of both optimism and cynicism.
There are plenty of well-documented reasons for the trend. Science has extended our lifetimes and also lengthened a woman’s window for having children. The conversion to an information-based economy means that four years of college are a staple for more kids than ever before. The relative wealth enjoyed by our parents’ generation means they actually can keep supporting us into our upper-twenties. These are all good explanations, and they’re probably all factors in the big picture of the trend.
But for me, this trend of delayed aging is largely reactionary to a number of social scars of the generation ahead of us. When our parents sacked a 50 percent divorce rate, who could blame us for being hesitant to marry? With many older people depressed by their losses in the stock market and constantly worried about their investments, why should we want more than we need to get by? And today’s society has allowed our parents to admit how difficult it is to raise children—how deep the sacrifice really goes. So what would make us want to mimic that pattern?
I’m 24 now, and none of my close friends have married or started families. Our financial independence varies from non-existent to shaky. Going back home to live with mom and dad is an unfortunate but common pit stop on the road of our lives. If pressed, none of us feel like grown-ups, not most of the time, anyway.
I don’t know that all of us ever will “grow up,” at least not by the standards that have been used so far. Life is different today. I’d like to think it’s better, even.
So what’s wrong with twenty-somethings? Probably nothing. I’d rather know what’s wrong with grown-ups.
Growing up!
I'd like to make a really brilliant reply to you great article Alex, but of course it's not going to happen! Ha! However I would like to share with you some wisdom from my Mother, who used to always tell me."I may have to grow old, but I don't have to grow up!" She was telling me that she thought growing up is a state of mind. You body grows older, but your mind doesn't have too! Hopefully as you grow in years and experiences it will help you make wiser choices, but you can still think young!
Once....
When we were in Georgia, visiting my sister, we were called yankees... So I guess to the southerners we are notherners....
I'm a Midwesterner--depending on who you ask
And because I was born in eastern Missouri, I’ve automatically adopted the mantle of a Midwesterner. With that identity comes the stereotypical characteristics—I’m supposed to be modest, friendly and, for lack of a better term, sort of dull.
I don’t know if I’m any of those things, and if I am, I’m not sure it’s because I was born within 30 miles of the Mississippi River.
But the confusion reaches a whole new level when you travel and find out that other people can’t see the identity you’ve assumed all along. I visited Minnesota last week, and as long as I am in the great white North, I am no longer a Midwesterner. I am a Southerner.
Just for the record, Minnesotans consider themselves Midwesterners. I suppose they include Iowa, too, but stop their distinction somewhere around Hannibal, Mo. Perhaps we don’t have enough snow down here.
Okay, so I can put down the Midwesterner label; it really felt like a borrowed suit jacket, anyway. But then I try on this new idea—Southerner.
I had to search my personality for all of its Southern values—or, more accurately, stereotypes. I suppose I can be hospitable at times. I’m fond of fried foods. I believe in loyalty to home and family. I like country music.
But then again, there are plenty of less tasteful ideas about Southerners out there. I’m not holding on to a bygone era, I’m not ill-educated and I’m not a racist. Maybe I’m not a Southerner after all.
That’s the problem with these geographical identities. You can attach to one label for your own reasons, but there’s no way to control how other people interpret that label. And, my Minnesotan friends show me, there’s no way to really control which label others might use.
Compound that with the psychological phenomena that people within a group will undoubtedly like people in their own perceived group while distrusting those outside it, and the question of “So, where ya from?” starts to take on some real weight.
Midwestern Boundary
Alex,
I was born and raised in Minnesota and, after raising my own family in Colorado, was pleased in 1987 to relocate to Missouri which I assumed was a return to my midwestern roots. Some time ago Minnesota started using the term "upper midwest" as its geographic location. If you, or anyone else, do not feel like a southerner, I suggest you consider yourself a proud resident of the "lower midwest".
Dave Fagerness
It could be a long year... again
It’s masochistic, it’s troubling and I don’t know how to explain it exactly, but I faithfully look forward to football Sundays. I watch the first quarter, when the Rams seem like they could keep pace with their opponent. I watch during the second quarter as the game slips away. I watch them cement defeat in the third quarter, and then in the fourth quarter, when the game no longer even has entertainment value, I’m still watching. I must have a problem.
This isn’t a particularly unique phenomena—every team has its own strange following of die-hard fans that seem immune to mediocrity. But when I tell people that I’m planning to watch a Rams game, they often look at me with a look of benign confusion, as if I’ve just told them I’m going to spend my afternoon sorting marbles.
But it goes even further than that. When you’re as addicted to an NFL team as I am, you start to view yourself as sort of a part of the team. When a normal, healthy human being casually mentions that the Rams are awful and impossible to watch, I take it personally. It’s all I can do to keep from writing a column like this to try and convince them to care even a fraction as much as I do.
I trace the roots of this illness back to the first season the Rams came to town. I got a St. Louis Rams starter jacket for Christmas. I wore it proudly to elementary school and wholeheartedly aligned myself with the blue and gold.
Even through their first years of hopelessness, I believed in the Rams like a child believes in Santa Claus. And when they won the Super Bowl in a miracle season, my fate was sealed. No matter how bad they get, I’ll continue to love them.
And that’s why it was so distressing to sit through their first preseason game against the Vikings last Saturday. In preseason, winning and losing doesn’t matter, but watching the players in your team’s colors get systematically battered by their opponents doesn’t really inspire optimism.
It looks like it will almost definitely be another long year.
And that’s fine. I’ve suffered through bad seasons before, and I’ll suffer through this one. Just don’t give me a strange look when I tell you I have plans for Sunday.
Taking lessons from tragedy can be a lesson itself
It’s one of the most uncomfortable and non-human parts of the news business.
But, the news veterans say, it has to be done. There is a greater good at stake. If your picture of a child drowned in a swimming pool reminds parents to safeguard their backyards, you’ve done the right thing.
I can’t help but fall back one those lessons when I look at a situation like the bus and tractor accident last week. Many people have been outspoken on the accident, and a dichotomy seems to emerge: there is a call for prayer and compassion in a tragic time, but there is also an urge to try and take lessons from that tragedy.
Both are needed. But we don’t have to try and parse out the lessons right away. One of the other things they teach you about covering the news is that you’ve got to let the story play out before you write your first paragraph.
For instance, we don’t even know if there really are lessons to be learned in this situation. After all, we can’t forget that last week’s crash was an accident. An accident is, by its very definition, an unintentional event. Any meaning that we attach to that event is as much a reflection of ourselves as it is of the accident.
So, when we are eager to talk about blame or fault in these situations, we are showing our own human, understandable frustration with the fact that most of the things in this world are simply beyond our control.
Maybe we can turn this accident into a reminder about using adequate lighting on country roads. Maybe we can turn into a lesson about driving slower.
Or maybe we can simply look to the sky, acknowledge that none of us can decide exactly what tomorrow will bring and continue to live the best lives we can.
The wisest 24-year-old I know...
Alex turned 24 on July 27. But he has the wisdom of a man 30 or 40 years his senior.
One of the luxuries I had when Alex worked for me here in Hermann was I could ask Alex to process a situation, and what would come back -- always -- was sound judgment. It's the product of his excellent upbringing and his high intelligence and his compassionate personality.
Fortunately for us, Alex will always have an emotional stake in Hermann, and his perspective will always help -- even if he's thousands of miles away (currently, he's just 100 miles away, in a nice neighborhood in South St. Louis).
Thank you, Alex.
(Your relatively young column is now at an impressive 7,500 reads! No other column or forum we've had in 2-1/2 years comes close.)
Watch out, Tiger Woods.
And then I played my first round.
The first thing that caught my attention was the customary beer-drinking as part of the game. Man, I could really get into a contest in which the “12-ounce-curl” is counted as a legitimate sporting move.
Then there’s the golf carts. It’s all the fun of driving without the frustrating limits of roads, laws, traffic or regulation of any sort. And they don’t even make you wear a seatbelt. Genius.
As if all that imbibing and cart-driving wasn’t enough, there’s also fun equipment to play with. The iron clubs make a satisfying whoosh when you swing them, there are plenty of jokes to make about the ball washer, and you’re welcome to fool around with the flags when you reach each green.
At some point, you also get around to actually golfing. That’s the tricky part. My swing is something akin to wiffle-bat-toting toddler trying to fence with his own shadow. My drives were not all that bad (at least when I made contact), but the subtlety of a chip shot completely escapes my grasp.
When it came time to putt, one of my teammates handed me a putter, and I insisted I’d rather use a three-iron because I felt it was a “lucky club.” My golfing compatriots leered at me.
But then the magic of golf took over. Without any real plan, any technique or any hope of success, I reared back and then slowed my swing to a gentle tap. The ball rolled in. Birdie putt.
At that moment, I no longer had any questions about the guys who wear T-shirts with the saying “A bad day of golf is better than the best day of work.” Who cares if our team lost the tourney by nine strokes? The tiny white ball went into the hole in the ground. And that beats the heck out of the best day of work.
Prop C Message sent; message received?
In a political vacuum of one election night, it seems the Prop-C supporters were an unstoppable majority. Many voters tallied a yes on C in order to “send a message” to Washington politicians about staying away from healthcare decisions.
Well, message sent. The only problem is that we’re not in a political vacuum. Only time will tell if the message was received.
For those who stalwartly defend the healthcare package passed by Congress, there are ample holes to be poked in the message of Prop C. First of all, Prop C specifically targets only one part of a much larger plan, a move that gives it a shot at passing legal muster but doesn’t truly combat the spirit nor the scope of the entire healthcare reform plan. That is, even if Prop C holds up, it only amputates one of the reform plan’s legs. Missourians will still have to grapple with the rest of the law, and without the benefit of mandated insurance purchases.
And it seems highly unlikely Missourians ever would have to actually confront the consequences of Prop C. Most legal scholars expect it to be instantly canceled out by a lawsuit. The system simply doesn’t support the idea of states picking and choosing which parts of Federal law to ignore and which to follow. That doesn’t really sound Constitutional, or even American.
Finally, we have to ask if that 3-to-1 ratio is really as loud a message as it seems. Consider where those votes came from. Republicans showed up to the polls on Tuesday in a much larger percentage, because they typically had more interesting races to vote for. In Gasconade County, relatively few Democrats even voted.
So that “message” meant to symbolize Missouri’s defiance really came from only about a quarter of Missourians, and most of that quarter were Republicans. The message doesn’t seem to carry as much weight when considering its origins.
No matter what the effect of Prop C will be, Missouri was the first state to challenge the national law. Florida, Oklahoma and Arizona will follow in November, and they’ll have more evenly split voting between Republicans and Democrats.
So even if Missouri’s “message sent” is more like a shouted complaint, it signals a vigorous debate with disagreements still in store.
Let's Look At Some Numbers
Interesting piece, Alex. Thanks for discussing this topic.
It has been all over the national political news all week and it really is
interesting how it has played out. Political and election analysis is something
I love to do, so I went to the State’s Election Results website to give this
issue a shot.
On the numbers, I think there is a lot of spin and a lot of twists going on in the media to make you think 71% really isn’t that big a number. Almost every commentary I’ve seen on this states that the voting was
65/35 Republican/Democrat. Well, looking at the official numbers, it was more
like 61.5% Rep., 33.6% Dem., and 4.9% other. (Remember that 61.5% number for
later) So, you can’t really say this was a Republican skewed vote. In order to
reach that conclusion, you would have to assume that 100% of the Republicans
voted Yes and that 100% of the Rep. voters voted on Prop C and didn’t leave it
blank. With over 578,000 Rep ballots, you would have to think at least some
people voted No or left it blank.
Just take a look at Gasconade County’s results as an example. There
were 2682 Rep ballots and only 2418 Yes votes on Prop C. On the other side,
there were only 373 Dem ballots, but 700 No votes on Prop C. So, we have to
know that not all 100% of Rep ballots voted Yes on Prop C. But even so, if you
assume that statewide 100% of the Rep ballots voted Yes, then there were AT
LEAST 90,105 Prop C Yes votes that were not Rep. Another thing that isn’t
mentioned very often is that almost 5% of the Prop C vote was non-partisan.
That’s 45,463 Prop C votes did not vote Rep or Dem in the state wide elections.
In fact, 40,075 of those ballots only voted for Prop C and nothing else!
Another thing to throw in the mix is that we know for a fact that some
Democrats crossed party lines to vote Republican for local elections. I don’t
know what the percentages are, but I’m sure it plays a role in the overall
numbers.
Another spin that is put out there is the low voter turnout.
In my research, I found that this 2010 primary election, with 940,152 ballots
cast, had the 2nd highest voter turnout in Missouri August Primary
history, by the number of votes cast. The highest August Primary turnout was in
2004 when almost 1.5 Million votes were cast.
As I was going through the voter turnout data, I was shocked
at how high the turnout was in 2004, so I looked into it a little further and
came up with some interesting info. That year, we were voting on the so-called
“gay marriage ban” and there was also a big primary race for the Dem Governor nominee
between Holden and McCaskill. Well the gay marriage ban was passed by almost
71%. Now, if you had to guess if one party supported the gay marriage ban more
than the other, what party would you pick???
Got an answer??? Here are the numbers:
OK, the voter turnout in the 2004 primary was 59% Dem and
40% Rep and 1% other. (Remember that 61.5% number from earlier?)
So, can you remember back to 2004? Did the media say the
vote on the gay marriage ban really wasn’t as big as 71% because there was a heavy
majority of Democrat voters???
You bet not. In fact, I did just a few minutes of research,
and most of the national stories I could still find online commented that the
high turnout was because the gay marriage issue brought out a lot of Republican
voters. Oh really???
So, with all the evidence I was able to research, I would
say the 71% vote on Prop C is an across the board vote. You can’t really pin
this one on a heavily weighted Republican turnout any more than you can pin the
71% gay marriage vote on the high Democrat turnout.
When you bring it back to the Prop C vote and what it means
for Democrats in office, you would have to think they are shaking in their
boots a little bit. They have to know that a lot of non-Republicans voted Yes
on Prop C and that means a lot of people don’t like to be told they have to buy
something.
What this boils down to is allowing the Federal Gov’t. to
come in and make healthcare insurance a requirement of citizenship. If this
Federal law stands, then the saying that goes, Only 2 things in life are
certain…. Will have to change to, Only 3 things in life are certain: Death,
Taxes and being forced to buy Health Insurance.
The people of Missouri have spoken and our leaders in Washington
better pay attention, or they are not going to have their jobs too much longer.
This bill needs to be repealed and they need to start looking at other options.
Thanks again, Alex, and thanks for reading my long post!
Brian Chorley
Good deal!
Very astute number crunching! Only a few things I'd like to add to this , one being the response from the White House. Total ARROGANCE! Their view?? We the People... Don't matter!!! That will soon be rectified! Also, those who voted NO on Prop "C".... must LIKE authoritarian Dictators ordering them about in their lives. Try North Korea if that's your political view.... that's how things are done there, or Communist China, the Soviet Republics etc etc.... NOT here!!
And lastly, there was a BIG thing at stake here, that kind of got overlooked. If The FEDS can get away with ORDERING you to do this, then what CAN'T they ORDER you to do later??? The lid would be off, the Sky the limit, and you become a SUBJECT, and NOT a CITIZEN. Simple enough...... Are you an American CITIZEN, or a SUBJECT of the CROWN???? I thought we fought a war in 1776 to get AWAY from this sort of thing???
Hank Vonk
Rural/urban split endangers St. Louis' 2012 DNC bid
Nelly’s not going to be enough, especially when the national convention might not be able to change the course of the 2012 election in the Show-Me State.
No matter what your political persuasion, we can generally agree that St. Louis hosting the Democrats is a good thing for the state. It will fill hotel rooms, it will sell plates of food and the economic impact could ripple through all of eastern Missouri. First-time visitors will be introduced to the Gateway City, and St. Louis will fill headlines across the country.
And the political importance of Missouri will be on a high. National experts will see us as the bellweather of all bellweather states.
There’s only one problem for St. Louis. It’s a blue dot in a red state, and it’s a red state that is unlikely to vote blue in two years.
The Republican strongholds of the state saw a fair percentage of voters supporting Obama in 2008. A decent number of Gasconade County residents took a chance on the Democratic candidate. But with the political trauma of the last two years, especially considering the divisiveness of healthcare reform, a strong anti-Obama sentiment resounds.
So if a Republican state in 2008 is leaning even farther to the right, Missouri might seem to be a lost cause for Democrats. Not even a convention could push enough votes to win the 11 electoral votes from Missouri.
The Democrats will announce their choice of host city before the end of 2010, and if St. Louis misses out, it could deepen the divide between urban and rural Missouri, especially if urbanites blame the middle of the state for losing in its convention bid. The Democrats would never concede Missouri, but hosting their convention elsewhere doesn’t exactly translate as a sign of full-speed-ahead campaigning.
Everyone has to vote their conscience. If most Missouri voters want nothing to do with Washington Democrats, so be it. Missouri has sided with the winners before, and it has sided with the losers. This time around, there’s something more to lose than just our electoral votes.
Real choices, real ties, real meaing in upcoming primaries
There is a popular sentiment that Americans are in an anti-incumbent mood. People everywhere feel dissatisfied. People want something different. In the case of the U.S. Senate, Tea Party Republicans want to oust Washington insiders. In the case of the county, people unhappy with any number of issues want a change in the cast of characters in the weekly drama of Gasconade County government.
That would suggest good news for challengers like Chuck Purgason and Kristi Nichols. It means a good shot for challenger and Hermann Mayor Larry Miskel.
The problem is that even though voting out incumbents seems in vogue, and it creates a lot of noise, there’s very little follow-through. Around 95 percent of incumbents nationwide return to their posts at the national level. Name recognition still carries major water in local elections.
It’s unlikely that Roy Blunt will be denied his shot against Democratic candidate Robin Carnahan. Tea Party candidates simply might not have the resources to gather enough votes. But a relatively low percentage of votes will signal a strong dissatisfaction from Missouri voters, and Blunt would be wise to heed that warning.
The local election is perhaps more unpredictable, and its effects are complex. But whoever the winner is, the results of the election could provide some clue as to the most effective leadership for the county.
These two elections also find a strong tie in the biggest issue of the elections—budgets. Blunt’s challengers carry a flag of halting federal spending. Miskel touts fiscal conservatism and a strong record of balancing Hermann’s city budget. In a way, the challengers in these races would hope that the urge to save money would lead the way.
But again, the results of these elections might not change anything. After all, one vote from Missouri is unlikely to cause any major change in how the U.S. government spends. And the budgetary pressures on Gasconade County are going to be a significant challenge for any commissioner in the coming years. Incumbent Ron Jost is certainly no free-spender. The importance of the vote might be its representation of the constituency. Votes for challengers will be a vote for fiscal conservatism, and winners should pay attention.
Who won the wars?
You can probably be safe to tell your kids that our troops won every war that the politicians allowed them to win. As far as the number of brave soldiers killed...well, I think the press stopped telling us the numbers on 1/20/2009.
No wins, no losses
It's true that there's no way to mark up wars in terms of wins and losses. And soldiers should never be judged by the politicians, the press or critics write the history. But that might be the subject for another column.
Afghan conflict is fit to be forgotten
He said Vietnam was the only one we ever lost. I don’t remember him mentioning the conflict in Korea, and perhaps he did, but it’s called a forgotten war for a reason.
I wonder what I might one day tell my children about America’s adventures abroad with guns and tanks and bombs.
I recall the first days of the Iraq War and its midnight shock-and-awe campaign as eerily reminiscent of an ultra-violent reality television show. Almost in real time, Americans watched perpetual coverage on the cable news networks as expertly crafted missiles transformed into luminous green bubbles in an explosion viewed through a night-vision lens.
It was war, and in the years since those first shots, we’ve seen the real effects of war coming home without limbs and with stories of a conflict turned into “a meat grinder,” as one D.C. politician labeled it. But most of the war, for the average American, has been a television spectacle. This isn’t WWII. There are places—unlike Hermann—where people aren’t directly linked to soldiers or the fighting. There is an insulation to the Iraq War.
But if the Iraq War has been mostly a political issue for vast swaths of my generation, then the conflict in Afghanistan rarely rises even to the level of heated debate. It seems destined to be a forgotten war.
The Afghan War is not easy to root for. Even though some media outlets have approved the resumption of work by General David Petraeus, they still tend to cast the American involvement as mostly folly. The strategy falls short on the ground. Troops are asked to be community-builders rather than armed peacekeepers. It wouldn’t be a stretch to view the conflict as “unwinnable” and hope for dignified American exit.
Exit strategies are certainly complex things, and in the case of Vietnam, pulling out of that conflict did rise to the level of an important social phenomenon. The hippies became a political force. Power shifted at the top levels. The American people became wary of sending American troops to foreign soil to act as referees.
Afghanistan hasn’t triggered that social revolution. Most people would rather listen to Taylor Swift, earnestly wish the best for the troops and benignly opine that a swift exit is a good exit. I know I would.
And one day, when a child asks me about which wars I’ve “lived through” as an American, I might tell them about the Gulf War and Iraq. I will try and count them simply as wins and losses. Afghanistan won’t be so easy, and I might not mention it at all.
Is Hermann the best place to live?
I had one major problem with the assessment. THE LIBRARY! Yes, it may be small in square feet, but it is in a major network accessible by the internet. If they don't have a book, they will get it (from one of the other branches) and contact you by phone or email that it is in! In addition to the other branches, they have gotten books for me from other libraries and even bought a couple for me that others would also be interested in.
I find it SO much more user friendly than the St. Louis County library. If you haven't used the library and New Haven, Owensville, Union, Washington etc are more convenient - stop in and get a card. I not only read quite a bit, listen to audio books during drive time, but review lots of subjects that interest me because the books are there and are covered by our tax dollars.
scenicregional.org, by the way, is the website.
Point taken
You make an excellent point about the usefulness of the library. It's a great resource, and the entire library network compares very favorably to other library systems.
My comment on the size of the library was a hasty critique of its usefulness as a public meeting space or a place where people spent significant amounts of time interacting with large groups in the community. I don't mean to say that the library isn't a good one, but it would probably not meet the criteria of Money magazine's rankings.
Is Hermann one of the 'best' places to live?
A thriving business scene is a major factor in the rankings. Hermann is not a boomtown, at least not lately, but Hermannites do enjoy a high standard of living compared to some other similarly sized Missouri towns. The tourism business buoys the economy with a seasonal influx of cash, making Hermann’s economic situation passable, if not ideal, by Money’s standards.
Another part of the business environment is quality local jobs. Like most places in the country, Hermann is hungry for jobs. It could use a major blue-collar employer to enter the city. It could use more white-collar jobs in the mix as well. Overall, the job scene in Hermann would fall below the Money line for best places to live.
Crime rate is another criteria for Money magazine’s rankings, and Hermann has that one tied up. The local law enforcement is well-regarded, and Hermannites feel safe walking the street at night. Hermann clears the bar on public safety by a long shot.
How about public facilities? St. Peters scores for its rec-plex, and a similar development has been envisioned by some in Hermann. The city has a couple of parks. Seniors and clubs use the community center, but it’s only a meeting room and kitchen. There is a small library. Overall, Hermann seems ready for growth in its facilities for public use.
What Hermann lacks in public spaces, it makes up for in natural beauty, which is another factor in Money’s rankings. The hills of wine country, the rivers and the open spaces can’t be beat. Again, Hermann scores well in this category.
Finally, the rankings value a place where people can fulfill the basic functions of their lives—working, learning, shopping, living, playing—without having to go too far. A lot of people leave Hermann for work, going as far as St. Louis. Others don’t go too far from the intersection of Highways 94 and 19. I know from a year in Hermann that there are some things you simply must leave the area to obtain, but there is rarely a genuine need to leave the Hermann area.
Oh, and if anyone’s wondering, Hermann would probably get more points in such a ranking if it had a bowling alley.
It looks as if Hermann would be fringe choice for one of America’s “best” places to live, at least by Money magazine’s standards. But that’s okay. There’s another standard out there—the one espoused by the people who return to Hermann after years of living somewhere else—that is worth just as much.
Hermann must keep step with standardized testing run-around
Almost everyone hates being on the students’ side of a standardized test, and most teachers are less than thrilled by the prospect as well.
Amid an interesting school board race last April, one of the questions asked to the four candidates focused on their opinions of standardized testing. After all, doing well on standardized tests translates into Hermann’s record of Distinction in Performance. But it also sets the table for failing to make No Child Left Behind’s Adequate Yearly Progress—a measure that sometimes seem grossly inaccurate in marking true educational growth.
One candidate, Sherry Englert, expressed concern that standardized teaching can set teachers up for failure. They can get caught in between teaching the test and using methods that don’t translate as well to the state testing. Board member Todd Witthaus agreed that teaching the test doesn’t necessarily best serve students, and candidate Curtis Thomas characterized testing as a “double-edged sword” that could produce valuable data but also spur some deleterious consequences.
For most of the American education system, from master’s degree programs to first-grade reading skills, standardized testing appears to have decades left before any serious push to replace the system. So we must live with it for a while.
Hermann High has implemented an ACT prep class, and it’s a terrific step for the district. For college-bound seniors, taking the ACT without preparation is like running an unfamiliar race course—speed will still win, but every bit of knowledge about the lay of the land could make a difference. As long as testing is around, Hermann should continue to help students navigate that part of the academic world.
Testing will go on, but the trick is to use caution about putting too much stock in the results. The AYP, for example, is ludicrous in its requirement for every subgroup in a school to make academic improvement. Some of those subgroups are defined, after all, by their performance on other standardized tests. Teachers should be judged over a time period long enough to show real trends, rather than simply comparing one year’s scores to those of the subsequent years.
That’s not to say test scores are useless. Valid tests have proved to be very good indicators of future academic success, even if it is somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Some good students are bad test-takers, but other students are simply lacking behind. When the test scores show that, it’s important not to make excuses or blame standardized testing before addressing the problem suggested by the test results.
I can only hope that admissions offices will practice such discretion when looking at my GRE results. Fingers crossed.
Why LeBron matters to all of us (even if you don't like sports)
But, a friend asked me yesterday, what if I don’t care about basketball? Why should I care about LeBron?
It’s not about his untouchable stats, his monstrous dunks or even his pregame ceremonies. It’s not about LeBron the basketball player, it’s about LeBron the symbol.
At just 25 years old, he is a towering representative of the generation just coming into their own. He’s not that much different from the most successful entrepreneurs who are just forming their companies now. There are 25-year-old lawyers who will one day sit on the Supreme Court, and just now they’re arguing their first cases. The future politicians are sharpening their teeth and beginning to build their dreams. Perhaps the doctor who will one day cure cancer is, at this moment, struggling through his or her residency.
These 25-year-olds will decide a lot about our future. So maybe LeBron shows us a bit about who these young people are.
His decision to leave for Miami is a sign that individual success has become more valuable to this generation than complete loyalty to the communities that raised them. Ask an angry Cleveland fan about whether or not they think LeBron cares about the people in his home. They’ll tell you LeBron hasn’t been grateful enough for the support he received. They’ll tell you he’s selfish.
When LeBron turned his back on Cleveland, he made a statement about the importance of chasing individual dreams, even if it seemingly comes at the expense of everyone around you.
With that environment of self-importance, how will this generation of 25-year-olds create a community like the one that nurtured LeBron’s success in the first place? What would a community look like without volunteers, dedicated parents or philanthropy? In an every-man-for-himself world, there seems to be something lost in the beauty of interdependence.
But think about LeBron staying in Cleveland. Think about him doing what was right for his community. He would probably grow old in that city without realizing his full potential; and that seems like an equal failure.
So LeBron had to leave, because our world is one predicated on a delicate balance. We need people who will stay loyal to their communities through thick and thin. But we also need people who doggedly chase their dreams, because without them, the community has lost its ability to grow.
So I hope LeBron wins his championship in Miami. That would be the only way to really thank the people of Cleveland.
And I hope that the cancer-curing doctor and the future President keep going after their dreams as well, because that's the only to really thank everyone who has come before.
Love to Read Alex's stuff....
I think your paid subscribers would jump quite a bit if the only ones who could view Alex's articles were those readers of the paying variety.... I'm just sayin'
Long live the four-day workweek
It was time to go back to work, and the only thing making the work week seem bearable—especially from this awkward Tuesday/Monday vantage point—is that it will be four days long. That means 32 hours for most people, and 32 hours seems doable.
But dare to dream. What if every week were like that?
If you take a step back, our adherence to the 40-hour workweek seems peculiar. Some jobs have a lot more than 40 hours of work to do each week. Some have less. How did we get here?
Many times in our history, our social norms dictate what eventually becomes law. But the workweek is different. The maximum amount of work was capped at 40 hours during the era of the robber barons to mitigate rampant abuse of workers by industrial employers. In a time when even young children might have spent 60 hours a week at work, that 40-hour workweek probably seemed like reaching the very summit of humanitarian policy.
For the last 100 years or so, despite the radical changes in what Americans do at work and how they do it, we’ve stuck with the 40-hour workweek. The legal standard transformed into our social norm, and not only do we accept the 9-to-5, we’re leery of anyone who rejects it.
I will rarely ever urge anyone to mimic the French, but they might be on to something with their 35-hour workweek. In fact, workers in most European countries on a similar economic level of the U.S. work far fewer hours per year than Americans. We want to believe that hard work is what gets us ahead, but those European counties certainly haven’t met with economic and social ruin, at least not because of their short workweeks.
What about countries that work more? Well, Mexico has a 48-hour workweek. But I don’t think we’d like to swap national economies or standard of living with them.
I’m not saying I’m against work. Working is part of a happy life, even if we’re not happy to do it all the time. There are few things better in life than the tired feeling after a good, hard day’s work.
But 40 hours a week might not be the right amount of time for our best American lives. Maybe we’d be happier, healthier and—consider this possibility—more productive at 36? 32? 30?
I wish I had more time to figure out exactly what that number would be. But I really must get to work.
Lest you get the wrong idea about Alex's willingness to work...
This column is one of many reasons I like Alex. He knows Hermann is an exceptionally hard-working town -- the Puritan work ethic is more alive in Hermann than many, many other places in America. He knows the idea of a 23-year-old suggesting shorter work weeks will make some people think, and make others just annoyed. Like the best 23-year-olds, Alex drags us into thinking about new ideas.
But please don't make the tempting leap to the idea that this young man is afraid to work. In his time in Hermann, under my management, Alex rarely put in only 40 hours in a week. Fifty and 55 hours were common for Alex, and he NEVER, repeat N-E-V-E-R complained. Alex put in full days on Mondays, followed by coverage of Monday night City Hall meetings. And he filed his stories faster than I do. He put in full days on Thursdays, and then topped them off with a long school board meeting, again, filing a round-up story faster than I do. On festival weekends, he volunteered to take at least half the reporting. On football nights, he went back to the newsroom at 11:00 p.m. and processed game photos and wrote a complete narrative of the game, just so readers could see it all when they woke-up Saturday morning.
God, I miss that kid!
So -- while we debate the idea of copying the French and their short workweeks and lavish eight weeks of vacation -- keep in mind that the proposer of the idea is a guy who happily works 55-hour weeks when needed!
God, I miss that kid!
It's a dirty job, but they've still go to do it
Gov. Jay Nixon signed a bill in June that would drastically change the landscape of Missouri’s adult businesses at the end of August. The law would ban nudity at strip clubs, keep adult stores far away from any churches, schools or parks and close up the shops by midnight. The adult industry is already challenging the law, and there will be a fight coming.
No matter how you feel about adult businesses, you have to wonder if the government is blundering here, overstepping its bounds and steamrolling independent businesses.
There’s some real problems with this law. Let’s look at the changes—banning nudity at strip clubs seems like a nightmare to enforce. It would really only damage the industry. What happens in the back of strip joints would still probably happen in the back of strip joints.
And closing at midnight? It’s the guys who show up at the club before midnight that you should be concerned about.
Then there’s the proposed rule of keeping smut shops far away from schools, churches and parks. The intent here is to push those shops away from neighborhoods and likely into blighted areas. And in that way, I think it would succeed.
But that’s only a real success if you buy into the stereotype of porn shop owners. They’re not all greasy guys with too much jewelry and no morality. A lot of them are family-oriented people. I once did a story involving one of Columbia’s oldest dirty movie stores, and I was surprised to find three generations of normal, friendly, accommodating people who owned the place. One of the adult industry’s leading advocates in St. Louis is a suburban school board member. They’re, believe it or not, everyday people who just happen to find their livelihood in one of the more hush-hush facets of life.
To make matters worse, there are legitimate questions about the politics at play—even an FBI investigation into a pay-for-play scheme involved in the 2005 version of the law.
Dirty businesses aren’t going away, and there’s no reason to punish the people behind them this way. Because even if you don’t approve of the goods or services that these places peddle, it’s their right to do so. That’s more important than banning post-midnight porn purchases.
The underdog still has a place in American politics
Purgason appeared slightly nervous but still maintaining a quiet sort of do-or-die consequence as he brought a homemade posterboard to the front of the room. On the board were scrawled figures about the burgeoning national debt, and Purgason dressed the part in a bolo tie and haircut that, and I mean no offense here, looked like it had actually utilized a bowl in the styling process. He cast himself as an outsider, and he was clearly equipped for the role.
As a small businessman from southwest Missouri, Purgason told us that he was for no-nonsense cuts to spending, real family values and hacking away at government waste. He appeared ready to raise his sail amidst winds of dissatisfaction with the GOP and the spending habits of the federal government. The other reporters and I listened to his speech, asked a few questions. He was an undeniably likable guy. He was interesting, and using his homemade poster, was slowly winning the room.
Then, quietly, Blunt and his entourage entered through the back door of the chamber. I turned to watch Blunt's reaction to Purgason's stance against "Washington insiders." Blunt only wanly smiled.
That's when it seemed like the real world crashed back onto Purgason. Blunt had waited no more than a minute or two, but Purgason quickly packed up his board and stepped aside for the GOP big-hitter with a loaded family name.
I thought that might be the last I heard out of Purgason. He simply didn't have the political fuel to fight a real campaign against Blunt.
But then, last week, Purgason began airing radio spots in Springfield, and he's apparently raised enough money to expand those advertisements to the cities and throughout mid-Missouri. The AP reported Purgason hoped to make "a real race" of the bid for the Republican nod in the Aug. 3 primary.
Good for him.
No one gives Purgason much of a shot against Blunt, and it's even more unclear how he'd fare against Democrat Robin Carnahan in the general election. But his candidacy is nonetheless important. His candidacy is a reminder that in America, there still might be a way to start a campaign with permanent markers and posterboard. There still might be a way to break up a race that would otherwise pit two of the state's power families against each other. The underdog has a place in American politics.
And maybe, just maybe, Purgason will keep hanging on. Maybe one day he'll walk into a crowded room with his entourage and, with only his presence, quiet some up-and-comer.
I just hope he's still sporting a bolo tie.
Maybe so.... But....
But in this era of "we're sick of the same old same old".... and "the
same repackaged party retreads"..... maybe a FRESH face with new Ideas
DOES have a shot at taking out the "old school".... especially when
people remember, it's the "old school" same ole same ole retreads, that
GOT us in the fix we're in NOW!!!! So, elect the "Staus Quo"
candidate??? Or, vote for NEW and CHANGE????
And, please people, do NOT confuse the word "Change" now, with the
word "Change" from the last election!!! There was no real "Change"
offered there!!!! You were offered a Chicago politician, and that's what
we got!
Hank
Real growth for Hermann needs more options for renters
Some will scrutinize a renter’s background and credit check, others will settle for a month’s rent and a handshake. One landlord will voluntarily improve his or her properties to charge a higher rent, others will go only as far as the market or government demands. Some like to check in every now and then, some won’t come by even if you make 42 phone calls.
But good or bad, landlords play an important role in the growth of any area by inviting people who are moving from other places, working in high-rollover jobs or simply seeking a low-cost lifestyle. Homeowners are great, but a city needs renters, too. I think Americans forgot that at some point and began to view homeownership as a sort of Constitutional right. But the housing market bust shows the folly in that dream and reminds us that a healthy rental economy must complement the growth of the housing market.
What does this mean for a place like Hermann? It means that if city leaders want to see real growth of the city’s economic base and lure in a major business, there needs to be a soft landing of plenty of quality rental housing.
When I moved to Hermann, my apartment choices were hurried and scarce, leaving me only one option that fell in my price range. It was a terrific apartment and a good overall experience, but given my experience, I don’t know that the city would be able to absorb even a half-dozen young workers moving into the city and looking for decent rental housing.
The idea of a planned apartment complex—especially one with low-priced units—is a politically intricate one in Hermann. There is a stigma attached to renters, and it’s not a good one. Renters are poor. They don’t care about their properties. They import drug problems and crimes. They can bring a city down, the wisdom goes.
Maybe, sometimes. But I was a renter in Hermann.
I’ve heard plenty of mentions about what it would do for Hermann to bring in some sort of major industry. There’d be more jobs, there’d be more able-bodied workers coming into the community and perhaps taking root. The entire economy would get a shot in the arm.
I only hope that the city would also make a home for those workers, and that the process would include moderately priced, well-kept rental property. The city would benefit from both landlords and renters who care about where they live. There could be increased oversight from the city to ensure safe housing, and there could even be renters’ associations or a renters’ bill of rights. Hermann is a welcoming place for tourist, and it could be for renters, too.
If you want to rent an apartment, you’ve got to make peace with your landlord. And if you want your city to grow in a sustainable way, you’ve got to make peace with landlords, too.
Landlord's take...
I'm sure Alex is a model renter,,,,but my experience is that landlord's in general are too often beset with bad or horrifying tenants.
Case in point was our claim before Judge Berkmeyer, who sided with 'a tenant from hell' because he judged a HUD document all parties signed to get the TFH to vacate was also a document where the tenant was not liable for any damage, unpaid water bill, baby faeces, cockcockcroach infestation, drug useage etc etc
His decision stunned us and left us wondering why the material facts were ignored.
Berkmeyer needs to tour some damaged properties left for landlord's to clean up and observe the disgust many landlord's have for tenants.
I believe the judge erred in our case because he did not get a grasp on the situation nor determine how or why the tenant breached nearly all the conditions of the lease.
An appeal was not considered because it was too costly and time consuming. Judge Berkmeyer needs to take a more time to adjudicate and balance the facts. Five to seven minutes is not enough time to judge a $3000 small claim.
Dads start to get credit where credit is due
Even today, the to-do over dads seems to run a second to the nearly sacred occasion of Mother’s Day. Even, I’ll admit, in my own family. What gives?
I won’t venture too far into a discussion of our changing American gender roles—but suffice to say that fathers once occupied a privileged spot that allowed them tremendous social freedom as the head of the household but could also trap them into a seen-but-not-heard role. I assume there have always been fathers who wanted to spend more time with their children, but society didn’t always welcome that sort of thing. It was more of a go-to-work, discipline-when-necessary and provide-stout-advice-when-asked sort of job for dads.
That wasn’t the kind of thing people felt like celebrating because it was supposed to be a duty. But it’s not around so much anymore.
We can bemoan the vast number of children who grow up without the benefit of their father’s presence, but we must also acknowledge that many men are closer to their kids than ever before. And most time, they’re doing it in typical dad style—making it up as they go along.
An essay by one of my former teachers and feminist writer Mary Kay Blakely expressed her sympathy for working dads because they didn’t have the same sorts of networks built that working mothers did, and their jobs sometimes allowed them less “wiggle room” to deal with domestic issues. Sometimes it’s easier for a mom to call in sick because her child has the flu than for a dad to do the same thing.
Combine that with the fact that many of today’s fathers have experience only with the mold of their own fathers—that background domestic role—and you see that being a 20th Century dad in the U.S. has been pioneering, sometimes treacherous territory.
My own father is a shining example. He’s a world-class dad. He’s mixed the old style provider role with a guy who likes to hang out, who has a perpetual interest in his kids’ lives. He cooks and cleans and does whatever needs to be done. But most of all, he is completely devoted to every aspect of family life.
And that’s the kind of thing that ought to be celebrated. One day, Father’s Day won’t be a mild aftershock to Mother’s Day. It won’t be just another obligated tie. It will be a celebration of the fulfillment of true fatherhood because society will value interactions between a dad and his kids the same way it does with the maternal bond.
Go Dad.
A surprising group in the counterculture of 2010
“The most idealistic, brave and politically intelligent young people I know have joined the armed forces,” Hitchens said. Young idealists are common, he suggests. But if you want to find a group that bares any comparison to the politically powerful movements of generations past, you’ll have to look to the troops.
But that seems to turn everything on its head. Think of the men holding the guns during the Kent State massacre—they were agents of the man. Now, Hitchens suggests, it’s the hippies on the other side that have populated the place of power, the inertia against which political change must push. Hitchens comment gives us pause to further appreciate the position of the U.S. Military member in today’s society, but I was more struck by the implication that I—and some young people like me—might have become the “square” part of society.
Look at popular culture today. We’re all on Facebook. Our relationships rely more text messages than on face-to-face meetings. We all consider ourselves experts on… well, mostly everything. We like to think of ourselves as less motivated by money than our parents, as we’re instead usually on obscure quests to find some other sort of fulfillment. Above all, we are obsessed with our individuality; as the world fragments around us, our identities become more and more self-centered.
It appears the pendulum has swung back to a culture that prizes progressivism, sometimes for the sake of the title. Young people become advocates by clicking on web pages. A generation that doesn’t show up to the polls claims dissatisfaction with the system.
Those are all generalities, sure. But if today’s culture, today’s machine—if today, “the man” lives on Facebook—then who provides counterbalance?
The troops. Conservatives. People dedicated to doing things in an old-fashioned way. And I don’t necessarily mean the lifelong conservatives or people who live their lives with the values of their older generations—I mean the young people who espouse those values.
So, if you believe that putting in a hard 40 or 50 hours a week at an everyday job is a good way to make a living, you’re the counterculture. If you resist the temptation to impersonate an activist and instead live your life by time-tested values, you’re the counterculture. If you’ve enlisted to really put your life on the line to defend what you believe, you’re the counterculture.
Congratulations. Keep on fighting the man.
HE SCORES!!!!!
Right on target!!! Well said, and Thank You for saying it!!
Ten great lessons from 10 months in Hermann
The problem with a reflection is that it blurs with the ripples of countless ideas tossed like pebbles through the surface of the water. So to keep the picture som ewhat clear, I’ve limited myself to 10 great lessons from my 10 months in Hermann.
10. Life in a small town is reminiscent of life in high school. There are many things that divide people, but there are far more things that tie them together.
9. Education really means something. It’s why I saw so many Hermann teachers working so hard. You’re in much better shape when you get out of school than when you go into it. That’s probably why I’m going back.
8. There are a lot of types of bovines. I can’t name or identify them.
7. There’s more to sweet wines than berry flavors and residual sugar. The Hermann winemakers give real craftsmanship to a class of wine that many people unfortunately write off as inferior to dry wines. Everyone talks dry and drinks sweet. I’m going to try and talk sweet more often.
6. Hard work pays off, but it takes a while. I’ve been employed in one fashion or another nearly every day since my 16th birthday, but I don’t think I ever put as many hours into something as I did during some stretches with County News Live. It’s easier to say at the end, but that doesn’t make it untrue—hard work is valuable.
5. There are great firefighters who do it without getting paid, and those guys in the Hermann, Rhineland, Morrisson and New Haven-Berger departments do it because they actually do care about the people who live near them. It’s the same with the police, EMS and hospital workers in a small town like Hermann. They take care of people they know—which makes their jobs both more difficult and more deserving of gratitude.
4. History doesn’t take care of itself. After seeing all that Hermann does to preserve its old buildings and traditions, it’s sad for me to see beautiful old neighborhoods that other cities have let go. Someday it will be my generation’s responsibility to keep the past alive, and at least I’ll remember that for people in Hermann, all of the work was worth it.
3. Sauerkraut is good. Especially with a bratwurst underneath.
2. It’s impossible to please everyone. There were always people who didn’t like some aspect of my work. There were people who didn’t approve of my decisions, and there were people who’d rather I didn’t show up with a camera. Life is messy most of the time, and the best you can do is try and leave room for a handshake when the dust settles.
1. Home is the place that you think of when someone says the word to you. Hermann was my home for a while. Nothing will change that.
A Very Very Wise and Intelligent Young Man
I had the privilege to get to know Alex some while he was in Hermann and the effect he had on the students at Hermann High School was truly incredible. My former students remark about his quick wit and his encouragement for the young student writers. I am sure that if Alex had one of those pedometer things attached to him he must have walked hundreds of miles when he was here. I would see him walking down one street and then another. The energy and whole heartedness he put into the integrity of his work was exceptional and very fair minded. I will miss him terribly, but will be with him in spirit in whatever road he takes next. God Speed Alex and always welcome in Rhineland, always.
Truth is
Alex is an exceptional talent! Read any of his Reports, Reviews etc, and you can plainly see the quality and style of his writing. Hope the people of Hermann appreciated what they had while he was here full time. He's a guy destined to do big things, literary wise! It's cool he plans to remember his "early days" here, and continue to "pop in" from time to time and write for us!
Good luck in your new ventures, and looking forwards to your next story/posting here!
Hank
You are going to be missed!
Alex,
It was a pleasure to know you and to read your news articles. Thanks so much for your great coverage of events around the community.
Good Luck in your new ventures and returning to school. I'll look forward to reading you next postings here at CNL.