Letter’s to the Editor 4-13-2022

To the Editor: 

It was encouraging to see a fairly good turnout for this year’s spring elections. People are starting to understand that even these smaller local positions can affect them greatly, especially if the wrong person is elected. 

In the Colfax school district, the newest candidates were up against incumbents with big families and prominent names in the community, but the unofficial vote count shows the numbers still came in very close. Frankly, parents got tired of not being heard by the school board the last couple years, and this close race should be a wake up call to incumbents that their positions will be significantly challenged when they aren’t doing their job. When board members are grossly bored every time public comment takes place during monthly meetings, and the only communication between the board and parents is to tell them their three minutes is up…let’s just say that incumbency wins will eventually be a thing of the past. Many in the community are already understanding that having a well known name does not make that person best suited for the job. 

So kudos to the candidates who fought hard and gave us some hope. You didn’t lose – you just got things started in the right direction. Thank you!

Denise Solberg

To the Editor:

I enjoy reading the column Out of The Past. In the March 23, 2022 issue I have finally learned how the uneven eastern boundary lines of the Colfax School District came about.

It always intrigued me as to why some students living on the same road went to different school districts. Some to Chippewa Falls, some to Bloomer and some to Colfax.

A special meeting of the Colfax School Board on Monday March 18, 1957 tells the tale. Several farmers living east of Colfax voted themselves into the Colfax District. The vote was 8 for and 0 against and involved 1400 acres of land. It would be interesting to note who those 8 farmers were.

I live near the eastern border of the School District. When we purchased our farm in 1973 our property was in the Chippewa Falls School District. In 1974 we petitioned out of Chippewa Falls and into Colfax. It was quite a process, at the September 30, 1974 regular board meeting acknowledged and approved our petition, then on November 20, 1974 we were allowed to petition into Colfax. One of our best decisions.

Flo Goulet, Colfax

To the Editor:

Middle Ground

There was a time when the term “no news is good news” was most often used by parents who were not in complete contact with their child or children. Today, the term “no news is good news” can be taken quite literally.

I am sure that over the decades all major news agencies of the times had a slant or overarching set of beliefs which informed their approach to news or colored the editorials they might communicate or publish.

These beliefs, regardless of potential slant, always seemed to stand on an underlying, universal foundation of generally accepted moral and ethical societal standards. This approach to reporting allowed for creation of a “middle ground” on which an individual could stand and weigh various viewpoints to form a flexible, world view. Further, this tact did not incite incessant polarized civil discourse among people.

The middle ground today, exists only in the minds of those with common sense, who readily see the extreme positions taken by those in control of the mass media. Few who are actively paying attention to the mainstream news believe literally what they are being fed. I believe this is true regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or political affiliation of those exposed to today’s mass media news messaging.

The middle ground is where reality truly lives…the extremes to the right and left…are places of myth and urban legend…lands of twisted truth and deceit…which incite passion for hatred, evil and violence.

Those who gravitate to the extremes will ultimately be consumed by them. The more who run and take refuge in the edges…the more the middle ground will shrink day-by-day, hour-by-hour…crowded out by extreme ideals.

Societies and individuals within them, who believe in and cherish individual freedoms, must ensure continuation and, indeed, growth of the middle ground. The wider the better. Failure to take reasonable action will see those of us standing firm on the middle ground, embroiled in the inevitable battle between the two extremes.

mid·dle ground /’midl ground/ Noun

1. an area of compromise or possible agreement between two extreme positions

Dave Peterson

Downing