4 I The Lovell Chronicle I November 11, 2010 www.LovellChronicle.com
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Remember the families,
too, on Veterans Day
Throughout the years we have urged people to
thank a veteran on Veterans Day. This year, let's add
some people to the thank-you list: veterans' families.
Veterans certainly deserve our appreciation for
their service and sacrifice. Their sacrifice has helped
keep our country strong and free.
Most veterans are modest about their role in our
lives. They have a job to do and do it well - or did in
the past. Few tell grand stories about their service, he-
roic though it may be.
Still, it is right and proper to extend a hand to a
veteran you may encounter and simply say, "Thank
you for your service."
This year, let us remember, too, the families back
home - the wives, children, mothers, fathers, broth-
ers, sisters, extended family members and friends who
wait and worn/while loved ones serve in lands far
away.
We have all seen the strain of worry on a moth-
er's face as she awaits word from a son (or daughter)
serving half a world away in a place like Afghanistan
or Iraq. Some may even say that military service is, in
some ways, harder on those back home than on the
soldiers, sailors and airmen doing the fighting.
In this modern age, e-mail and cell phones can
keep loved ones closer, but it's not the same as being
there. How hard must it have been on our fathers and
grandfathers - and their families -- who fought in Eu-
rope, the Pacific, Korea and Vietnam decades ago? Six-
ty or 70 years ago, a mother could go for weeks and
even months without any first-hand knowledge about
the current well-being of her precious child. They un-
derstood the sacrifice, but it must have eaten them up
inside.
The U.S. Dept. of Defense is honoring families by
designating November as Military Family Appreciation
Month, celebrating the tremendous support families
provide to the military and service members and not-
ing the sacrifice families make for the cause of free-
dom.
In our current times, military families are enduring
multiple deployments, spending h01idays and family
, i milestones far apart and juggling everyday household
and life tasks while a family member is in harm's way.
So this week, when you think of the sacrifice of
military service and are ready to extend a hand to a
veteran, remember, also, to thank the family members
he or she left behind worrying and waiting. Their sacri-
fice is great, too.
--David Peck
Letters to the editor
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All letters must conform to the law of libel and be in good taste. They
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livered to our office at 234 E. Main St., Lovell. A strict t:00 p.m. Tuesday
deadline will be enforced.
2010 MEMBER I
2009 AWARD-WINNING NEWSPAPER
Postmaster: Send address changes to:
The Lovell Chronicle, USPS 321-060
234 E. Main, Lovell, Wyoming 82431
(307) 548-2217
Published every Thursday
Periodical postage paid at Lovell,
Wyoming
Editor and Publisher: David Peck
News Editor: Brad Devereaux
Staff: Gladys McNeil, Pat Parmer, Dorothy Nelson,
Erin Henson, Marwyn Layne,
Teressa Ennis, Jason Zeller.
Letters to the editor
Halloween history explained
Dear Editor,
It would seem that your city leaders and "some"
citizens view Halloween as morbidly gothic and dark
in nature and are opposed to the celebration of Hal-
loween and allowing children to trick-or-treat on
Oct. 31, especially if it falls on a Sunday, as a bad
thing. To educate those who feel this way, here is a
bit about Halloween...
"Halloween is one of the oldest holidays celebrat-
ed today, and one of the most popular, second only to
Christmas. Millions of people celebrate Halloween
without knowing its origins, and myths, or the his-
tory and facts about Halloween.
"Some people view Halloween as a time for fun,
putting on costumes, trick-or-treating, and having
theme parties. Others view it as a time to avoid at
all costs.
"Halloween is on October 31st, the last day of
the Celtic calendar. It was originally a pagan holi-
day, honoring the dead (loved ones or passing sea-
sons). Halloween was referred to as All Hallows Eve
dating back over 2,000 years. All Hallows Eve is
the evening before All Saints Day, on which pagans
were converted to Christians, and is celebrated No-
vember 1st. The Catholic Church honored saints on
this designated day.
"Halloween culture can be traced back to the Dru-
ids, a Celtic culture in Ireland, Britain and North-
ern Europe (where many of our families originated
from). Roots lay in the feast of Samhain, which was
held annually on October 31st to honor their dead.
"Samhain signifies "summers end" or Novem-
ber. Samhain was a harvest festival with huge sa-
cred bonfires, marking the end of the Celtic year and
beginning of a new one. Many of the practices in-
volved in this celebration were fed on superstition.
The Celts believed the souls of the dead roamed the
streets and villages at night. Since not all spirits
were thought to be friendly, gifts and treats were
left out to pacify the evil and ensure next years crops
would be plentiful. This custom evolved into trick-
or-treating."
So before folks begin changing dates to appease
a few. I encourage the powers that be to do their re-
search. I did mine at: http://www.halloween-website.
com/history.htm. There is nothing sadistic or harm-
ful about something so basic as honoring our dead
loved ones (it's actually quite religious) or celebrat-
ing the end of a fine harvest season and wonderful
autumn such as we've enjoyed this year.
Cammy Kretschmar
Powell
Do we have government by the Church?
Dear Editor,
After reading that the mayor
of Lovell proclaimed that he want-
ed Halloween celebrated on Satur-
day instead of Sunday I thought
maybe I would address the entan-
glement of Church and State that
exists within this area.
I will freely admit that I am
not someone who was born and
raised in this area and moved here
after visiting and falling in love
with the community. I also am not
a member of the Church but am
very aware of the Church and its
teachings.
Although I love this area and
the friendliness of those in the
community, the wholesome envi-
ronment that it provides for rais-
ing a family and the overall safety
that does not exist in the big city I
am often times very disturbed by
the power the Church has in the
community. I am aware that an
overwhelming majority of the pop-
ulation are members of the Church
but I still do not see this as 'an ex-
cuse. You do not know how many
times I have brought up a topic
and the answer has been related to
the Church or related to someone
being or not being a member as to
the outcome of the issue.
I can only wholeheartedly
agree with the questions raised
in a recent editorial regarding the
Halloween Proclamation by the
mayor of Lovell. This was not a de-
cision based on the best interest of
the children but was based more
on religion. We do not move Hal-
loween when it is on any other day
of the week, only when it is on a
Sunday. The towns of Byron and
Cowley also held their Halloween
activities on Saturday. Coinciden-
tally, Byron and Cowley also have
a high percentage of their popula-
tion being members of the Church.
What about those in the commu-
nity who may have alternative re-
ligions other then those of the ma-
jority of the population?
Halloween, also tied to All
Saints' Day (Nov. 1), is a time for
celebration and although Hallow-
een has become commercialized
with costumes and trick-or-treat-
ing it is in fact a national holiday
and as with other holidays such as
Christmas it has religious mean-
ing to others.
Thomas Jefferson believed so
much in the separation of Church
and State, even though he was re-
ligious, that he discontinued the
practice set forth by Presidents
Washington and Adams of declar-
ing days of fasting and Thanksgiv-
ing. I wonder what he would think
of the entanglement our communi-
ties have of Church and State and
the power the Church has in this
community?
What if we had an overwhelm-
ing population of another religion
that did not believe in Christmas
or some other holiday? Would we
then allow the local government
to make a proclamation that these
holidays be moved or maybe not
even celebrated at all?
I am sure that many of you
will be thinking that if I don't like
it then move back to the city and
actually when addressing anoth-
er issue with a recent candidate
for mayor in one of the towns I
was pretty much told just that. I
love this community and what it
has to offer and have no desire to
move back to the city. I just have
some concerns on what could hap-
pen if this trend continues.
Basically, as a matter of
speaking, being an outsider and
looking in, I see communities that
are being run by members of the
Church, according to the Church,
and reaching into many aspects
including local government and
the schools. It appears as though
city council meetings are not in re-
ality being held at the local town
hall but at the churches among
those that choose to be members
and decisions being made there
and then only due to necessity
and requirement being presented
at the respective "official" town
meetings.
Will it eventually come to the
point we do not even have a choice
of who will govern the towns and
ultimately there ill be no need
for local government because all
the decisions will be simply set
forth by the Church?
Cheri Abraham
Byron
Editor's note: This letter was
edited for length
Taking America back
Don't you love election time? We're sure
hearing a lot about the results determining
"control" of the House and Senate. The joke
is that none of them are in control. They
have totally lost control of the economy, the
war on terror, their spending and entitle-
ment programs.
The balance of power isn't the biggest
problem. It's the loss of the constitutional
balance between the three branches of gov-
ernment and the omission of the will of the
people in decision making. The Supreme
Court is legislating from the bench, the
Executive Branch is controlling the Legis-
lative Branch and the Legislative Branch
is making up the rules as it goes along in-
stead of representing the people.
Checks and balances? Or Czars and Emperors?
The pundits are claiming that this election will
determine control, but they are getting it all wrong. I
don't see much at all changing, regardless of whether
the seats are won by Democrats or Republicans. The
government has grown too big and has become too in-
trusive to relinquish any power at this point, and that's
true of either party. I held out hope for a return to our
foundation with the emergence of the Tea Party but it,
too, is now caught up in the process. Without a clear
idea of what they are trying to achieve they have, in too
many cases, split the vote and changed the mandate.
When he was a candidate, President Obama prom-
ised that he was going to "fundamentally change"
America. Thanks, Mr. President, for a campaign pledge
kept. Thanks for a crippling debt. At least I have some-
thing to pass down to my grandchildren. Thanks for
being so busy controlling every aspect of my personal
life that classified information leaked on the Internet
isn't even of interest to you. Thanks for putting me in
my place and telling me that I am a dumb American
who doesn't need to understand what's going on in my
government. And thanks for making it clear that I need
to depend upon the government for my life, my liberty,
and my pursuit of happiness. I grew up believing that
that was my responsibility. What was I thinking?
Oh, and thanks so much for Obama Care. I appre-
ciate being threatened by the 14,000 new IRS bulldogs
hired to penalize and tax us for not buying what you
consider approved insurance coverage - an example
of job creation at its finest. During the recent debates
in Delaware between Christine ODonnell and Chris
Coons, Ms. O'Donnell presented the best synopsis of
the health care bill I've heard yet. She said that the
bill didn't address health care at all. Nobody is going to
get better care or have better access to care. This bill is
all about insurance reform and government control, not
health care reform.
"In the course of the public debate over health care
reform," she said, "we've begun to confuse coverage
with care. Our goal should be to make health care more
affordable."
This bill doesn't come close to doing that but it's
Dianne Badget
View from the
soap box
now the law of the land. It will make a total
shambles out of our already dismal econo-
my.
Administrations dating back to the
turn of the previous century have all had
a hand in where we are right now. We can
trace the state of this nation to several ad-
ministrations. As citizens we just sat back
and let it happen because we were too busy
living our Norman Rockwell lives to get
involved. Prohibition probably resulted in
more American protests than any legisla-
tion, until now.
The current administration has sin-
gle-handedly done more to pull out the last
bricks from our foundation in a few short
months than any previous administration in history.
Under this administration we have men and women
who would once have been considered "enemies of the
state" serving in positions of authority without the
consent of Congress. A new bureau has recently been
formed to monitor our personal finances under the
guise of consumer protection. We are no longer per-
sonally responsible for paying our own bills. Unions
are openly telling the government what to do and get-
ting away with behavior that is quite literally crimi-
nal. I've said before that as long as the government is
providing for all our needs we will become so indebted
that we will be unable to separate responsible govern-
ing from arrogant rule.
I do, however, genuinely thank President Obama
for our great awakening. Americans who once just
went to work, paid the bills, and did their best to raise
solid families are now adding political awareness to
their lives. We are listening to what's being said and
figuring out what's being left unsaid. We are attend-
ing rallies and forums and town halls. We are writing
letters to editors, to each other, and to our represen-
tatives. Look at us! We are united in our deep need
to get back to the very fundamentals that Candidate
Obama pledged to change.
We are re-reading the Constitution and the Decla-
ration of Independence and trying to see where today's
political climate fits into the foresight of our earliest
Americans. We are taking a hard look at what outside
influences are changing our kids and doing our best to
make sure that our parental influence is stronger. We
are taking America out of the hands of career politi-
cians family by family, neighborhood by neighborhood
and town by town.
We know that it's wrong to allow non-citizens to
vote in our elections. We know that allowing unions
to bully Americans into following a specific party line
is wrong. We also know that the rights of individual
states are guaranteed in the Constitution. We are pre-
pared to remind those we elect that we will no lon-
ger sit back and let them decide what is best for us
without restriction. We are America. We will remain
America. And we will honor our personal commitment
to America one household at a time.
