Our readers respond
There is something about publishing a newspaper each week. That something is that people read it. The next thing is that they react to it.
This past week I seemed to get a lot of reactions, so I thought that I would share some of them with you.
The main reaction came about last week’s column about walking out of the grand march at prom. It seems that a lot of people who were there were similarly surprised and offended by the rude behavior. I have heard that a clipping of the column is even posted in the teacher break room at the school.
We received one letter to the editor about the prom, but there were many more people who just responded with verbal comments about it.
One person commented that a similar situation happens at award banquets being held this month. After that persons son or daughter gets their award, they get up and leave, not staying for the others. Although they may feel they are sneaking out the back, it still gets noticed.
Hopefully this practice can be curtailed in the future.
Another reaction last week was in response to our poll question on the editorial page and Register website. It asked if you were going to spend your government economic stimulus check, or save it, or use it to pay off debt. A reader, who wishes to stay anonymous, suggested another option; give it away.
That’s right, give it to someone who needs it worse than you do. She suggested disabled veterans groups, Red Cross or other relief organizations, or the local food shelf or arts organizations. “We could also add the environment, church, our schools – the list is endless,” she wrote.
She went on to say that many of us in this country are very blessed compared to others in the world, especially right now with the wars and natural disasters along with the hunger, death and disease that go along with it.
An interesting, and noble, thought. I wonder how many people are willing to do that? I know some who are giving ten percent of the check to their church, but giving it all away might not cross many people’s minds.
Readers Harold and Betty Ann Ogburn of rural Blue Earth responded to the article we had last week about Vera Steinberg donating the land for a nature park.
They wrote that Vera Steinberg came by her generosity naturally. She inherited it from her father.
In 1961 Harold Ogburn heard that Sam Steinberg had sold part of a farm at a very reasonable price and inquired about purchasing a farm from him as well.
A year later Steinberg sold a farm to Ogburn that Steinberg’s grandfather had homesteaded. “It had Abraham Lincoln’s name on the deed,” Harold Ogburn says. Harold adds that the price was very reasonable, and the interest was three percent for the first two years and then three and a half percent after that.
“I told him that I could not ask for anything better, because I was sure his two neighbors would give him a lot more than that for the land,” Harold says. But Sam Steinberg’s response was that he wouldn’t sell it to them, he would only sell to someone who would actually live on the farm. “The Steinberg family was very good to us,” the Ogburns wrote.
Another noble idea, not selling out to the highest bidder, but for the higher good.
Some of our readers responded this week with letters to the editor to be printed. Others sent notes that were not necessarily to be printed but were responses none-the-less. Other comments were verbal, and we like to hear those too.
Thanks for reading us each week. And for responding…