{"headlinelight18"/}Small-town feel still strong on July 4th
A family can still enjoy an economical, fun day in this economy by attending the 95th annual Parade and Celebration in the town of Springfield, on the 4th of July at 11 a.m. That small-town feel reminds us of a much simpler time in history when people worked together toward a common goal: to celebrate community.
We visit with friends and family and enjoy the school children perform, because dedicated music teachers march them in the parking lot until they are all in step.
Firemen in uniforms proudly march to applause of thanks, for being there in life's difficult moments.
Flags fly high and pride swells in us when veterans march, and the soloist sings the national anthem.
Fire queens return to family, shoes in hand.
The horses signal the parade coming to a close, and the chicken line begs us to arrive quickly.
The best pies served await at the First Presbyterian Church booth.
As you sit under the maple tree and listen to a Sousa march, you can see someone bouncing a child on his grandparent's knee, and you know you are in the right place! "Springfield _ the Place to Be on the 4th of July."
Maureen Culbert
East Springfield
{"headlinelight18"/}Required service not volunteerism
While school-required community service got some attention here a few months back, only one letter came close to a substantive treatment of this style of volunteerism.
I say "style" because this kind of volunteering contrasts sharply with the commonly recognized and practiced form. In fact, it's similar to what was found in both Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. In a 1920 address to the Young Communist League, Lenin promised the youthful cadres a "new communist upbringing, against the self-servers and small owners, against the psychology and habits which say, I seek my own profit and I do not care about anyone else.'"
The notion of a citizen servant also had its expression with the Nazis. In a 1933 speech, Hitler insisted that "the higher interests involved in the life of the whole, must here set the limits and lay down the duties of the interests of the individual." A favorite Nazi slogan was "The common interest before self." Nazi author Friedrich Sieburg gave this summary of the Nazi ethos: "There are no more private Germans. Each is to attain significance only by his service to the state, and to find complete self-fulfillment in this service."
Fast forward to 1997 and The President's Summit on America's Future, at which Bill Clinton stated, "Every young American should be taught the joy and duty of serving, and should learn it at the moment when it will have the most enduring impact on the rest of their lives." Though we haven't gotten to the equivalent of Lenin's Young Pioneers, the Hitler youth, or Mao's Red Guards, we're definitely headed that way. Will group shaming sessions be next?
A basic philosophy behind national service is that an individual's duty to the state transcends any other loyalty.
Robert Olejarz
Sidney
{"headlinelight18"/}Tire crumbs may be hazardous to kids
I recently read about a possible health scare. Tire crumbs, the springy material made from recycled, ground-up tires, have become the surface of choice for playgrounds and sports fields. Even the new White House playground used the rubbery stuff to cushion the Obama daughters' falls.
But the Environmental Protection Agency is now investigating whether the shredded tires, which contain a host of chemicals and heavy metals, could cause cancer or other illnesses. The EPA has been testing air and surface samples to see if the chemicals in the tires can be found in the air or the clothes of kids playing on it.
"I'm not sure there is a imminent hazard," Michael Firestone, EPA's head of children's health protection, told The Associated Press, "but it's something we're investigating."
If my children were still in school and that school had tire crumbs, like Charlotte Valley school has, I would not want my children playing on it _ would you? Just in case?
Michael Walls
East Meredith
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