Opinions

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

Just as 2019 was ending, Chinese authorities reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) that a potentially new virus was circulating in the city of Wuhan. It was a respiratory virus causing pneumonia-like symptoms – congestion, shortness of breath and fever.

The next day, Jan. 1, the suspected source of the infections, the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, was closed. The fresh meat market was a place where animals and humans were in close contact with each other. Such markets have been the source of past viral disease outbreaks.
One week later on Jan. 7 Chinese authorities confirmed a new, or novel, coronavirus was infecting people in Wuhan and four days later, Jan, 11, it reported the first death from what is now labeled Covid-19.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

This is a bonding year in the Minnesota Legislature. It is a session that should fund plans to finance improvements in public buildings, our roads and bridges, and water and wastewater facilities. It is also a year for a host of proposals on how to spend the state’s $1.3 billion surplus.

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz has a $2.6 billion “Local Jobs and Projects Plan” proposal that focuses on early childhood programs, child care, affordable housing, infrastructure projects, public safety and higher education needs. It would be made up of $2.03 billion in general-obligation bonds and $571 million in cash from the general fund.

“I’ve said this often, budget documents are more than fiscal documents, they’re moral documents,” Walz said in framing the current budget battle. “This is an opportunity for folks to talk about what they value.”

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

Technology is changing the way Americans live, work, play and receive health care. And, it appears, the rate of change will only accelerate as almost magical innovations pile one on top of another. They will continue to shape, and reshape, every facet of our lives in ways hard to imagine.

Thrown into this cauldron of technological change is the vast uncertainty of how a warming climate will disrupt our communities, agriculture, and industry.

Through its American Roundtable project, the Architectural League of New York seeks to look at how communities are doing today and preparing for tomorrow. To gather information, it is asking for 10 proposals from editorial teams in small to medium size cities. With the help of a $10,000 grant, the teams are to produce reports over the coming months that address the challenges we face.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

Among the most fundamental of rights in our democracy is the right to a secret ballot. Minnesota’s current law upends that right. We have talked to a good number of people  who regularly vote in Minnesota’s elections who now say they won’t vote in the March 3 Presidential Nomination Primary.

Why won’t they vote? Because under state law, Minnesotans are required to identify the party in which they are voting and request either a Democratic Farmer Labor Party (DFL) or Republican ballot at their polling place. Who they vote for remains private, but their party preference goes to the state’s four major political parties: Republican Party of Minnesota, the DFL, the Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party, and Legal Marijuana Now Party.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew, upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.”
Lord George Gordon Byron
British Poet

Lord Byron’s quote was the inspiration for the name of our column. We are not so naïve as to believe our words will go beyond the small-town community newspapers in which they are published, but it is our local readers we value. It is our local readers with whom we seek a conversation that we hope will expand their view of the diverse community in which they live.

Many community newspapers in America no longer carry editorial pages because they fear losing subscribers or advertisers – the revenue is too precious to jeopardize by taking stands on sensitive, or for that matter, any issues.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

While liberal Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was touring what was then the Fibrominn power plant in Benson around 2008, 7th District U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson talked to her about rural Minnesota’s innovative spirit. The conservative Democrat also made the observation that highlighted the diversity of his party: “There is no way I could get elected in her (San Francisco) district and there is no way she could get elected in mine.”

Republicans, on the other hand, fit a template that is nearly interchangeable across America. A metropolitan Republican from Alabama could likely get elected in rural Minnesota and a rural Texas Republican elected in parts of the Twin Cities.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

Political letters policy

We are once again entering a political season when supporters of candidates and issues important to them will be writing us letters.

Letters to the editor provide readers with the chance to say how they feel about a candidate and the party that the candidate represents. We encourage our readers to write. The best editorial page is one on which our readers provide a wide variety of views.

Our newspaper provides a place for a civil conversation about the issues that are important to citizens and that will inform their decisions when it is time to cast a ballot. As we consider publishing the letters we receive, there are a few rules that we apply.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

It appears appalling. Former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden making a racist statement. With more than 1.4 million views on Twitter already, his alleged comments are spreading with the speed only the internet enables. There is just one big problem – the video of Biden’s remarks in New Hampshire were doctored.

His comments were made in response to a question on combating sexual violence. “Folks,” he said, “this is about changing the culture, our culture, our culture. It’s not imported from some African nation or some Asian nation. It’s our English jurisprudential culture, our European culture that says it’s alright.” However, the person who posted the edited version of Biden’s comments left out the “Folks this is about changing…”

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

When we look at the now vacant lot where the Benson Power electric generation facility once sat, it’s easy to think about the loss. A 12-year-old $230 million energy facility employing more than 45 people and paying $832,000 in real estate taxes to local governments has been dismantled.

But there is encouragement future in the words of the state’s leaders who came to Benson 12 years ago to celebrate the grand opening of what was then known as Fibrominn.

“There is a long tradition in this part of the world of progressive politics and progressive leaders. It is appropriate that this would be the place where we would have this kind of revolution,” U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson said at the grand opening.

 “Benson is a pretty remarkable town,” then U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman said. “Here in the heartland of western Minnesota, you are at the forefront of energy innovation.”

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

Our 7th Congressional District made the national news frequently this past week. As our readers are well aware, that attention was brought from the halls of the U.S. House in Washington, D.C., to the small towns and rural reaches of our district due to a couple votes of Rep. Collin Peterson. 

He was one of only two Democrats in the House to vote against impeaching President Donald Trump on the charge of abuse of power and one of only three to vote no on the charge of obstruction of justice. With the Democrats’ majority in the House, both motions passed, the president was impeached, and now we wait for the U.S. Senate to act.

Because of the historic nature of the House vote and Peterson’s role, we would be remiss not to comment on it. But first, let’s hear from Peterson in his own words.