Free Trade is promoted as the answer to global economic problems. Basically, the aim of Free Trade is to eliminate all tariffs; to break down the barriers of “protectionism.” It is an article of faith that competition in the market place will result in better and cheaper products; thus benefiting everyone. For instance, competition from Japanese automakers forced our domestic automakers to improve the quality of their product. Textiles from Indonesia, where labor is cheap, has given us cheap clothing. Wal-Mart, the Chinese discount store, gives us all kinds of bargains. So, who can knock Free Trade?

Well, to name a few, the workers for Collegiate Garment who used to employ several hundred workers in Clinton, IA. They and the workers for the coupon clipping service that moved to Mexico are victims of Free Trade. Free Trade without any protection for workers and the environment has benefited, mostly, corporate profits and raised havocs with the lives of millions of workers, both here and abroad.

We knew Mama was out for revenge when she came home from the neighbor’s with an ornery poodle named Peaches. She’d spent a lot of time lately up the street at Betty’s Beauty Hut, and it wasn’t just to get her weekly wash and set. Along with her beauty shop, Betty had a side business grooming show dogs. None of us kids could figure out how she kept her customers straight, seeing as how they all looked the same by the time she got done with them. Mama liked her bouffant hair-do, but I don’t think Peaches cared for that little puffball on the top of his head, and that’s what put him in such a bad mood.

But that’s not what had us dead set against Peaches. Mama’s bringing home a dog was sure to break Daddy’s heart. My dad loved dogs, and he’d made it his personal mission to find us kids the perfect dog. He’d just had no luck so far, what with one thing or another. The one thing being, that none of us kids could remember to latch the gate, and the other, that the good Lord has yet to make a dog that can outrun a Buick./p>

It strikes me as odd that folks who march or speak out for peace are considered weird, impractical, or worse, traitors.  How did Armistice Day, passed by Congress in 1919 one year after World War I as “a day dedicated to the cause of world peace,” become Veteran’s Day in 1954 by President Eisenhower, “a day to honor veterans of all America’s wars?”

Obviously, from an historical perspective, World War II intervened. This put a damper on any sort of peace process or even hope for a peaceful world.  Numerous areas of conflict have arisen in the intervening years and, too often, include American military action.  The warrior culture has been accepted as the norm, as the inevitable response to man’s imperfection and, maybe, even to his sinful ways.  But isn’t there another option?

Why would anyone want to create a website for features and news for a community who had less than 5% of homes online? Why even attempt the task, knowing dial-up was the only means to connect, and the homepage took 4 minutes to load? Consider the lunacy of the premise it would be advertiser-based from businesses who owned their own websites. The only problem was, the community did not have any websites from local businesses!

I am guilty of all charges. The year was 1998, and I had just purchased the URL (www.thecity1.com) for the primary reason to own an internet presence for my Reinforcing Steel company, The City Rebar Detailing, Inc. However, within days of purchasing the site name, I decided to start a community magazine in order to create a more effective method of instant communication, within the Morrison community. The site would provide a community calendar, which had long been advocated at town hall meetings, and also provide a controlled and creative way to use the Internet in a business-like manner.

I recently wrote about the holiday season and the implications, pressures, and heartaches that are bound to occur because of the dwindling cash reserves of many, if not most, of us.  I have had to rethink how I spend each and every dollar, as I don't know whether I will have an income in the future.  My current position is described as "essential," political correctspeak for "we will keep you until we find someone to work for half your pay and no benefits."  A former colleague once remarked that, if the company could outsource our jobs to China, we'd all be gone.  That was five years ago at a company I worked at in Missouri, not in the past year.

I think of how and why I spend each day now.  My former brother-in-law and his wife ate out each day, although they had a perfectly good kitchen in the house.  It was just easier to eat out.  I always thought that was insane, but it worked for them.  Not me.  I will eat in a restaurant now and again, but I prefer a "mom 'n' pop" cafe over Plastic Burger, as I call the franchise places.  The old rule of the road was the more calendars on the wall, the better the food.  That is true.  I have also rediscovered that the local cafe is better than the franchise place, because the wait staff usually already knows what you want and serves it with a genuine smile.

The cops stopped me for driving naked in my 1992 Toyota Corolla today. They didn’t buy my explanation that I was campaigning for Congress. But, then, my unclothed body would be more appropriate as an entry in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! (”World’s Scrawniest Man”) than gracing a spread in Cosmo.

I’m relieved that a real Cosmo hunk, Scott Brown, won the special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s senate seat. In no small part because the seat didn’t belong to Ted Kennedy, or any other Kennedy, in the first place. Edward Kennedy was the greatest legislator of our times. But the fact that many Obama supporters in Massachusetts voted for Brown suggests that maybe a small, but possibly decisive, segment of Tuesday’s electorate was simply tired of the Kennedy clan and the Kennedy machine. Martha Coakley represented the latter, and maybe Bay Staters were saying enough is enough?

It has taken me a little longer to get to Morrison these past few months, and I imagine it will be a similar story next summer.  While I sat at the west end road construction site, waiting for the flagman to let me through the maze of construction, it gave me time to visualize what such a project might have been like in years gone by.

I would like to address the issue of “pet sanitation.” I live on a rather popular walking route in town. It is used by walkers, runners, joggers, and kids walking to school. All too often I have seen my yard and the bordering sidewalk littered with animal waste. It seems as it has increased over the past couple of years. I cannot even begin to recall the number of times last summer that I went into my yard to do yard work, enjoy the weather or watch my kids play and had to avoid animal waste in the yard. As the snow has begun to melt this year, I have already had to dispose of several fresh amounts of left over waste from passing pets and their owners. I know that Morrison has a leash ordinance. Is there an ordinance against leaving behind animal waste?

Dear Editor,

I write this letter as chair of the Morrison Historic Preservation Commission (MHPC) following Luke Vanderbleek’s meeting held at the Odell Library’s Community Room on Sunday evening, February 21st.

I begin by reiterating a “thank you” to Luke for hosting that get together. It was something that should have been done months ago, and, hopefully, it helped clear the air regarding many of the issues in controversy. More...