More is coming from tonight's important sub-section and conference win, including video and photos. Right now I'm a little busy.
I truly appreciate the perspective and point of view that others have who understand how important it is that we stand behind our school district not just with the athletic teams but with ALL aspects of the school...academic, non-academic, extracurriculars, etc. We, the citizens of Jaguar Country, should look at the big picture. If we have, for example, a bullying problem in the school that affects enrollment, how does that help our athletic programs? I'm not saying we have a bullying problem, because in my opinion, we don't...I'm actually just starting to dig into that issue and hear what students have to say about it...but if we have X, Y, Z problems in the school perhaps they should be resolved? We all want this school to be here 10, 20 and yes, 50 years from now.
And a big component of a school district is anti-bullying programs. Part of fighting bullying is the fight against baseless gossip. Hurtful gossip. Gossip that hurts the less powerful in our world. We see baseless gossip running rampant in small towns all the time. It's nothing new, and honestly it's nothing to get excited about. However, when gossip hurts people (like the gossip of "It will cost $127,000 to run a police department in Brooten") that's when others have to intervene and put an end to it. Adults need to teach children that if they hear gossip that is hurtful to another student ("Did you hear about XXXX? Yeah, I hear she XXXXXX and that he XXXXXX and ....." ok you get my point) then other students need to intervene and put an end to it!
Just five days ago I heard gossip about Chief Bjork from a citizen of Belgrade who also happens to fervently wish that he was still one of their cops. It was related to his work as a police officer. The rumor was not as ugly as that November 3 text message that set the world on fire, but the rumor was based on pure lies. I snuffed it out. And I am hopeful the person I told the true record to will turn around and tell others in Belgrade the same thing. If you are wondering, the rumor was related to an incident at the Brooten airport in the summer of 2013 where the Department of Agriculture intervened on a chemical spill incident after Chief Bjork reported what happened. The MDA did their standard investigation, and the civil penalty was applied. Chief Bjork's work was conducted by the book.
To folks with evil intent in Belgrade or anywhere else: spreading lies or rumors with the intent to hurt someone is BULLYING (and my friend was not saying it to hurt Chief Bjork but rather to get the record straightened out). Last I checked, people of all walks of life are working very hard to snuff out bullying, whether it's in the workplace or in our schools.
I have much, much more to say about this bullying issue. Stay tuned.
By the way, I was thrilled to see Officer Klingfus on duty tonight at the girls' basketball game. If you haven't had a chance to visit with him, you are missing out. He is extremely friendly. (Assuming you are not breaking the law.) No one knows how long he and his fellow co-workers will be employees of the Belgrade police department. For now, they are filling in and doing the very Christian duty of helping out their neighbors. The entire B-B-E community should tip their collective hats to them.
By now you probably know that I am extremely in favor of police coverage in our small towns and our school district. I am guessing there are people out there who are sick of hearing me talk about that. Knowing how pro-cop I am, that's not to suggest I am a perfect person. I am anything but that. I have traffic tickets on my record. Nothing to be proud of. At the same time, I don't drink. And therefore, I don't drink and drive. Ask anyone who knows me. I literally don't know when I would find time to drink alcohol if I really wanted to. The last time I was truly "drunk" was a Tuesday night in January 2005 just one day after a Holstein bull killed my dad. That was a pretty crappy time in my life. Because I don't drink, I don't have to worry about driving around town or between towns while drunk trying to avoid the cops. I wish we had less drinking and driving in this world, but that's another crusade for another day. Personally, I'd rather see a cop and know they are keeping drivers in check and remaining close by in that rare moment where a medical call goes out for a person (usually elderly) who is in distress.
I could literally spend the rest of the night writing about how an adequate police presence in our small town of Brooten is important to me. It is VERY, very important to me. Before my newspaper prints this week I will try to properly explain how important it is for my editor's column.
Getting to my main point of all this: please take a chance to say "Hello" or give a friendly wave to any police officer you see patrolling the area. They are performing an extremely difficult job. Sure, bullets aren't flying every day in our towns...it's mostly pretty quiet and perhaps at times the biggest challenge for a small town police officer is the boredom. Nevertheless, I have to emphatically state that I appreciate their work in many, many ways. Please teach your children to respect and appreciate the work of police officers (regardless of how much you like them). I truly wish we saw more of that in our country today. What would it hurt for you to show some kindness towards a cop? You never know: maybe they may happen to have a bad day that could be turned around by a random member of the public saying a warm greeting, striking up small talk or just waving like you were waving to anyone else in a small town.
Another point: watching over small-town government is rarely enjoyable. It's either extremely boring or filled with extreme small-town drama / politics. It leads to many sleepless nights. So in case anyone was getting the wrong idea, no I do not enjoy this type of drama. I literally went close to four years seeing next to nothing for "drama" while covering Sauk Centre city council matters. Then I throw myself into this. Right now my challenge is to remember that I have to get my rest. I have an obligation to the Bonanza Valley-area and my subscribers to not get burnt out, which would lead to trouble for my newspaper.
What some forget about newspapers is that when they share an opinion (through blogging or in an opinion page column) that opinion is not endorsed by other employees of the newspaper and certainly not by the newspaper's advertisers. The opinion is from the person writing it. That's it. Sure, a co-worker or the owner of that newspaper may happen to agree with it. They may disagree with it.
I remember when I wrote a large column in 2010 telling how unfit I felt Mark Dayton was for governor, the owner of the Herman-Hoffman Tribune stressed that I label the column as my own editorial and not as an editorial that would be connected to him. He didn't edit what I said. He simply wanted to make sure it was viewed as my opinion and my opinion only.
It's time to relax and reflect on God's Word and ask Him for peace and guidance: