Opinion

To the editor:The U.S. Government has issued its latest commandment to humanity last Friday: Thou shalt receive free contraception from your employer, without paying a deductible. This ?Obamacare? mandate includes religious institutions. The right of a 30-year-old to get free condoms from his boss trumps the First Amendment.However, apparently, there is not a condom big enough to protect 78-year-old Dr. Lazar ...

To the editor:Hats off to Mr. Nelson.We need more people like Mr. Nelson to ask the questions that should be asked. I don?t see Mr. Nelson as being too negative, I see him as being concerned.It sounds like the board is trying to silence Mr. Nelson because they don?t agree with him. Do we still have freedom of speech? Does the school board care that their decisions are putting a burden on a lot of people? Do ...

We are only 1 month away from the opening day of school for the 2012-2013 school year. It has been a very busy summer with a lot of action happening in all of our buildings. Are they ready to go? What work has been completed and what work is yet to be done? When will the public be able to see the finished products?First of all I want to congratulate and thank our custodial and maintenance staff this summer. They ...

?We have a bird named Pretty Boy and I am his mom and Mom is his girlfriend?? wrote my daughter in her school journal.?Very funny,? commented her teacher.Funny? I suppose so if it also wasn?t true enough to be kind of embarrassing. I don?t know what?s worse, the bird?s name (trust me, we didn?t pick it), the fact that he thinks we?re a mated pair, or the idea that, despite that, he still cheats on me (he ?wolf ...

To the editor:The Jefferson County Sheriff?s Office would like to thank those who participated in the searches for Duane Hinkle on January 12, 13 and 26, 2012. The help of friends, family, neighbors, agencies and groups, including the Fairfield Fire Department, the Brighton Fire Department, the Fairfield Police Department, the American Red Cross, Jefferson County Emergency Management, Washington County Emergency ...

To the editor:Susan Komen for the Cure (breast cancer) wisely decided but then unfortunately reversed it?s decision to end their significant funding of Planned Parenthood, Komen also fails in its programs to address the causes of this terrible disease especially by abortion and contraception, a major part of the business of Planned Parenthood.Abortion and contraception are long known to be causes of breast, ...

To the editor:Fairfield 1st Fridays Art Walk is incredibly grateful to everyone who contributed this year to the February Film Festival of Iowan Shorts. This year?s film festival was different than previous festivals as it focused mainly on Iowan short films. These films were screened at six different locations around and near the Fairfield town square. Further, the films ran in continual loops so that participan...

July 17, 2012Washington, Iowa To the Editor: It?s a shame when you can?t take your 7-year-old and 2-year-old great-granddaughters to the park.After a great lunch at Taste of China with my grandson and family, visiting here from Tennessee, the girls wanted to go see the beautiful fountain.There was so much rowdiness and profanity coming from a group of men in the bandstand, you couldn?t enjoy the park.Thank...

A lady ?commissioned? me to build her one of my ?cattails.? Since this was my first ?commission? job ? i.e., someone was actually paying me to build something ? I jumped on it!For those of you who don't know what my ?cattails? are, I take those old window weights, the kind that used to be inside the old-fashioned window frames, weld them onto rebar, add some rusty leaves, and voila, a truer-than-life cattail.I ...

July has to be the worst possible time of the year to run a race. And yet, that?s what I did a week ago when my family and I participated in a 5K run in Omaha.It?s a run my extended family organizes in honor of my late cousin, Justin Nealon. Justin enjoyed playing sports and loved running especially. He ran well enough in the 2003 Chicago Marathon to qualify for the Boston Marathon the following year. Unfortunate...

My 14-year-old daughter is a quiet, serious soul who isn?t prone to hysterics or drama, so you can imagine my reaction when I heard a shriek and a ?slam? come from her room Jan. 18. Was it a mouse? A rabid raccoon in the backyard? No, the Internet had ?crashed? right as she was trying to access information while writing an English paper.Teenagers, lawmakers and otherwise sane adults sounded a collective ?gasp? ...

To the editor:Thoughts of Fairfield, IowaAre mostly happy, not forlorn.I?m so lucky to have lived thereWhere these memories were born.Our little town was a ?cultural mix,?Characters that we knew.Some who walked, some who talked,Leaders and followers, too.Some were colorful, some were shy,Some thrived upon attention.Most deserved our love and praise,A few we best not mention.There was George Anderson, ...