Rhythm of the Rails looks at good old days

I am so very impressed with the wonderful outdoor theatre presentation of Rhythm of the Rails which is a historical as well as hysterical experience. The very talented performers portray several characters from Brainerd, Pillager, Little Falls and other area towns. The railroad days are presented vaudeville-style depicting places and personalities of the olden days.

The temperance ladies march, the mail-order brides arrive via locomotive, the hobo sneaks into town, and the women and children visit and play all dressed in authentic clothing from the late 1800's.

I especially enjoyed the story of Casey Jones, the songs and antics of the "Harmony Engineers," the beautiful voice of opera singer, Mike Lundin and the many other soloists and singing and dancing groups and the very talented band.

I highly recommend this wonderful theatre experience for all ages. Everybody will be enlightened, uplifted and entertained.

Thanks to Jody Crowe, the executive director and producer, for his inspiration, talent and creativity in bringing such a great show to the Brainerd Lakes area.

They will be performing ...July 29, 30 and 31. The outdoor setting is in the Northern Pacific Center (the railroad shops.) Tickets are available at the WWWI radio station as well as at the "theatre."

I know you will laugh as you watch and remember some of the good old days in Brainerd, the hustling, bustling railroad town of central Minnesota.

Dianna Jenkins

Nisswa

The Dispatch's excellent coverage

Your Tuesday edition printed a story on page 9A writing of the tribulations of a young miner in the west African forests of Guinea whose sweat-covered efforts uncovered a 182 carat diamond.

As I read of this 25 year old's luck, or perhaps not so four-leaf clover, I was reminded of John Steinbeck's 'The Pearl.' Steinbeck's novel weaves the tale of a Baja, (Mexico), California youth who discovered a pearl of unusual size. Governmental difficulties, corrupting influence of sudden wealth, turned this boy's life and that of his family into a wide-awake nightmare.

Steinbeck's 'Cannary Row' is possible the best known of this author's efforts.

I commend your paper for excellent coverage.

Don Tate

Hillman

Minneapolis Tribune of the North

During the last few years I have noticed the Dispatch has been trying to become the liberal Mpls. Tribune of the North. Your enamored treatment of the so called war protesters was too much and then when the backlash was just getting started and was too much for you to handle out comes, "We're cutting this off now." So much for freedom of speech. As a Vietnam era veteran I know how much this type of people support the troops. What a joke.

A good example of your bias is in today's paper. Clinton's National Security Adviser admits to taking classified documents and it's on page 7a. I know and you know that had Pres. Bush's National Security Advisory Rice been caught doing the same thing it would have been page one headlines. This Dispatch is off my list and I am going to encourage friends to do likewise.

Kenneth Hines

Nisswa

Should the U.S. have waited?

This morning's headline in the Dispatch was "U.S. death toll in Iraq 900." On June 7, 1944, the headline would have been "Death toll on Normandy beaches over 6,000." How many of those lives would have been saved if we had stopped Hitler before he captured all of Europe? Saddam Hussien had a similar goal to capture all of the Middle East. Should we have waited until he was successful then made Normandy-like landings on the beaches of one of the Arab nations he controlled?

William Fawcett

Breezy Point

Story was good for a laugh

One of my favorite features in the Brainerd Dispatch is its excellent selection of comic strips and cartoons. Medical folks have extolled the health benefits of humor for years. A chuckle a day can serve to relieve tension and reduce blood pressure.

I was pleased beyond measure to note that the Brainerd Dispatch had the foresight to print some of its humor on the front page. The cartoon to which I refer shows one of the Brainerd City Council members, and quoted him as saying, "I believe that rural should stay rural and I want to help the townships maintain this philosophy." This is the same councilman that spent years trying to convince township residences that they should petition to be annexed into the city.

If a chuckle a day can reduce blood pressure then an explosive laugh must have a much more profound effect on blood pressure. Oak Lawn and other nearby township residents may want to clip this story and save it for its medical benefits.

Denny Schmidt

Oak Lawn Township