The bell tolls
Two stones in Lewis-Clark State College's academic tower, once held in place by academic talent and mortar, gracefully fell from the roster of retired LCSC faculty members.
Dr. Hilda Strong and Wayne "Ed" Steerman, victims of debilitating illnesses, left us, and we are comforted by the memories of their career heights and personal strengths.
Strong, even in her final days of confusion, could spout lines from Shelley, Keats and Lord Byron. She knew Dante's Inferno better than any of us know our cell phone numbers. Author and professor, she had the knowledge and logic to challenge us and spunk enough to question those who didn't want to be questioned. Now, the British war bride, blessed with loyal children and husband, has found a new peace.
Steerman brought the vitality of an enthusiast for antique guns, muzzle loading fervor, mountain man lore and the art of collecting (even butterflies) from Ohio to LCSC (later to Lewiston schools as the strings instructor). All those interests hid behind his public life as a music instructor, his crystal-clear tenor voice, his string instruments in area bands and at the Civic Theatre, his arranging capabilities and his resonating laughter - even when his limbs lay frozen to a mattress on the floor, void of mobility. ...
Hilda and Ed, in Donne's words, truly "no man is an island." The bell in LCSC's towers have tolled for each of you and for us - each man's joy is joy for us, and each man's pain is our own.
Dennis W.
Ohrtman
Lewiston
Right vs ought
Reading the recent letter from Jake Wren, it struck a right chord with me about what the difference between the right to do what one wants being trumped by what one ought to do.
Many individuals, from politicians to the president, could do a lot better to follow that advice. They often believe they are supreme over the rest of us. Sometimes it's to the point of being obnoxious individuals.
The current tax "reform" bill being rammed through Congress should be revamped for the good of all our citizens and nation as a whole, not the wealthy and corporations.
President Trump and Congress must be so excited to be the Grinch and steal money to fill their coffers with millions of dollars and the country be damned.
The whole Republican strategy is to add trillions of dollars of debt in the possibility that corporations will be so enamored with their tax reductions, they will go on a spending spree in expanding businesses to add thousands of jobs.
If they don't, the Republicans are willing to gamble that Democrats will join with them to reduce Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid since those programs are large expenditures. This has been a dream of core Republicans, who have been after such for more than 40 years since it was a Democratic administration that put the programs into effect.
Quite a gamble, you'd think. Even if they lose, they gain huge amounts of money personally to comfort them in old age.
Right versus ought.
Mike Petrusky
Clarkston
