Open Forum

Reaching the age of 90 is a milestone not many people achieve. Reaching the ninth decade and still being a vital part of the community is even more rare. Dorothy Janes of East Gull Lake is not only celebrating her 90th birthday, she is still the volunteer dynamo that she has been all her life.

Dorothy is a fixture with several area organizations. She sits on the board of directors of the Heartland Symphony Orchestra. She is a tireless volunteer for the League of Women Voters. She is an active member of First Congregational Church, and she is a Kinship partner.

Nine years ago, Dorothy was 'matched' at Kinship Partners with a little girl named Amber. That little girl is now a teenager and Dorothy still keeps up with her! Dorothy is the envy of many-a-50's something with her pep, energy and zest for life.

Retirement can be a time of boredom, a time of sit-back-and-complain, or a time to enjoy the opportunities that volunteer work can offer. Dorothy chose the latter. The staff and board of directors of Kinship Partners is certainly glad she chose to share her time with Kinship Partners and befriend a child. We're betting Amber is too! Happy Birthday, Dorothy Janes.

Pat Johnston

Executive director

Kinship Partners Inc.

Let's do it up right

Whether it be watching television or reading the newspaper we see people protesting the war that is in the brewing. These people are bad-mouthing our president, talking and saying things that are not even true.

Let me say Mr. President Bush has done an outstanding job since he has been in office.We elected Mr Bush as our president. Then please let him do his job as president. If he sees that Mr Saddam Hussien has to be taken out of power and we need to declare war to do so, We need to stand behind our president. For the ones that do not think so, maybe you should move over to Iraq. Maybe you would like that country better than living here in this great nation. Also you might like your evil, cunning, lying, murderer and dishonest president better than the great president we have here in the USA. This evil man has killed his people by the thousands. Are you ready to have your life snuffed out by this evil man? If so get yourself a one-way plane ticket and hop the plane and enjoy your life in Iraq and your new president. I say good going Mr. President George Bush. Let's do the job up right this time

Dan Hansen

Wadena

Renewable fuels

Congress failed to pass an energy bill and now, as we prepare for war in the Middle East, we have no plan to reduce our nation s dependence on foreign oil. When the new Congress convenes I hope they immediately begin work on a new energy bill, and I hope that they include a renewable fuels standard (RFS) like the one passed by the Senate in the last session.

A renewable fuels standard will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, create jobs and markets for farmers and help us reduce the use of MTBE,

which is poisoning groundwater around the country. The renewable fuels standard has the support of the ethanol industry, farm groups, environmental groups and even the American Petroleum Institute. The only group op-posed to it is the MTBE industry.

It's about time we stop using MTBE and stop importing oil from Iraq and giving them money to fund terrorism, and use more American-made ethanol. I want to urge everyone to support a renewable fuels standard.

John Gearns

Backus

Turtle talk

As 2nd Associate Vice Chairman of the Professional And Fraternal Order Of Reptile Owners, Renters, Trainers, Racers And Eaters Of North Central Minnesota And Northwestern Wisconsin And The North Eastern Corner Of North Dakota Association Of America International Limited, Wil-lard Johnson Post 874 (PAFOORORTRAEONCMANWWATNECONDAOAIL) I'd just like to say that it's about time the government steps in and puts the hammer down on all these unregulated turtle races.

Far too many turtles are taken from their homes at a very young age and forced into a life of racing, gambling, drugs, unprotected sex and

ultimately, soup. We here at PAFOORORTRAEONCMANWWATNECONDAOAIL are dedicated to wholesome, family oriented reptile fun and are quite well known for our dedication to and our humane treatment of those darling little aquatic and terrestrial reptiles. Write your elected officials and let them know that you too are appalled by and opposed to any and all back-alley turtle contests.

You may also wish to make a non-refundable, non-tax-deductible donation of $5,000.00 or more to our little group or you may wish to visit our web-site at: WWW.PROFESSIONALANDFRATERNALORDEROFREPRILEOWNERSRENTERSTRAINERSRACERSANDEATERSOFNORTHCENTRALMINNESOTAANDNORTHWESTERNWISCONSINANDTHENORTHEASTERNCORNEROFNORTHDAKOTAASSOCIATIONOFAMERICAINTERNATIONALLIMITEDWILLARDJOHNSONPOST874.ORG where you can order tee shirts, caps, jewelry, cookbooks, etc.. Remember our motto: "Keep your testudines upright!"

Stephen A. Busch

2nd Vice Associate Chair-man

Professional And Frater-nal, etc.

Pequot Lakes

Let us decide

Recently, a letter appeared in The Dispatch, written by a member of the Brainerd City Council. She noted the issue of an Environmental Assess-ment for the proposed Wal-Mart superstore, ie., flat roofs, large parking lots, etc. which would be an exposure due to water runoff.

While such assessments are a normal prelude to such projects, it appears her plea is focused on a "smoke screen" approach. This writer doesn't recall any such plans for the new Menards, Home Depot, Multiple Mills Family projects (Fleet Farm, GM or Ford) or the current Wal-Mart Store, along with the two relatively new Cub stores. So, what really gives here?

Free trade is here, folks. Our federal government is focused on reducing import tariffs with all of South America, NAFTA has been with us for some lengthy period of time. Locally, I shop for: 1) quality, 2) service, 3) price. "Thank you," "May I help you?" and "Please come back" go a long way as well.

Small private business interest groups with phony agendas will not prevail. Remember, the consumer is king/queen. We'll decide what we buy, where we buy, and how much we pay.

Mike Splittgerber

Brainerd

Short memories

How quickly we forget. We lost over 58,000 of our young men and women in the Vietnam War. A war that was propelled by lies and deception. Are we going to do it again? The American people were victims of politicians who contrived events to get us into a war for their own personal gain. The saddest part of all is not the lives that were lost, but that we haven't even learned anything from the experience. It is tragic beyond words that the entire folly is about to be repeated because a demagogue decides to hide behind the flag and sanctimoniously tells the nation that we are saving the world from Communism or some other "ism," as our youth obediently go to fight and die in another foreign land. This time it's terrorism. I despise Communism and terrorism, but I despise even more the noncombatant warmongers who use fear tactics to achieve their own goals for their own personal gains.

If this war takes place, it will surely desecrate the memories of all those who made the supreme sacrifice in previous wars. Their deaths will have been for nothing. War is nothing more than an admission that we have failed. We live in an imperfect world, but we should never stop trying to make it better. That is the least we owe to those who died, ourselves, our children and those who follow us.

Sara Dunlap

Brainerd

An offer to help

Dear Mr. President:

Looks like you've got yourself in quite a bind. They've got me in mothballs but I should still be useful. How can I help you?

Vietnam era veteran,

Jerrold C. Turnquist

Deerwood

What rogue state?

There were always two kids in the school yard that I had to feel sorry for, the bully and the coward. The bully could have been liked, and could have really been a part of the main group, but he was a little pushy, and always seemed to need to defend his honor. The coward was different from the bully, in that before he got pushy, he needed a big stick to wave around. The main difference between the two, was that the coward was afraid physically, where the bully had only his honor to protect. But neither could become an integral part of the group.

As I became more familiar with the conservative thinking, I found that though they attacked the honor of their rivals, they never seemed concerned about their own. And yet they were always very concerned about the defense of what they may have in money, other assets, and personal beliefs, and they seemed addicted to an offensive position. Here you might ask, does not those personal beliefs coincide with honor? Here, it seems to me, that the conservative beliefs are things they feel a need to impose on others, yet find it easy to excuse those same shortfalls on their own part.

At any rate they never become part of the "We the People," and they have the need to find an ever bigger stick. As an example I would ask you to look at what the right wing Christian America is trying to do to the world. But if you are a member of that coalition, then you will not be able to understand. Of course, the same is true of the fundamentalists of the Jewish, Islamic, and other faiths, and you may recognize it in them.

Dennis G. Gordon

Nisswa