We currently spend 3.7 trillion dollars per year on healthcare in the U.S. Our total GDP is 21.5 trillion dollars. For every $6 spent in this country, one is spent on healthcare. We spend about twice as much per person as other developed countries. The problem is, we get average outcomes. We pay twice as much for average care. This is not sustainable. This is a huge drag on our … [Read more...]
How do we keep our democracy healthy?
Representative democracy is based on a simple premise. It’s that ordinary citizens can make satisfactory judgments on complex public policy and political issues — or at least grasp them well enough to decide who should be dealing with them. But the significance of that premise isn’t simple at all. It means that our country’s future depends on the quality of democratic … [Read more...]
We make progress when citizens tackle the small stuff
One of the not-so-small gifts of living in a representative democracy is that you can’t accomplish things alone. Whether you’re trying to get a stop sign put up on a dangerous corner or to change US policy on greenhouse gas emissions, you have to reach out to others. And learning how to persuade, motivate, and involve them — learning the skills of active citizenship, in other … [Read more...]
Exploring the origin of our choices
Many years ago I was walking along the canal in New Hope, Pa., on a warm summer’s evening with Glenn, who was my “buddy.” I never took our relationship seriously so I was startled, to say the least, when he asked me to marry him. I was even more surprised to hear myself say, “Yes,” without hesitating! I didn’t know until that moment that I was “in love” with him and wanted to … [Read more...]
One Moment, Please… A lot of things cookin’
This time of year seems to be super busy for all of us. At the Fillmore County Journal, we’re in the same boat. On Saturday, October 26, 2019, we hosted another Tasty Temptations cooking contest at the Preston Area Chamber of Commerce Fall Expo at Fillmore Central Schools in Preston, Minn. Thanks again to our taste testing judges. The Fountain Study Club provided some … [Read more...]
Candy capitalism
Inspiration can strike in the oddest places sometimes. I was sitting on my front porch on a chilly Halloween afternoon, waiting for the first few trick-or-treaters, worried I wouldn’t have a column ready in time for my next deadline. I was worried, dear readers, that I might phone it in. I put the laptop away (yes of course I took it out on the porch with me, because what … [Read more...]
Journal Writing Project Why trade schools and construction jobs should be talked about
By Corinna Wiemerslage College is being pushed and can be viewed as one of the only ways to be successful and make money in life. Because college is pushed so much and is viewed as a great opportunity to get a successful job, the statistics of how many students who graduate who will then go on to college are more than 50%. According to statistics reported by the Bureau of … [Read more...]
Human rights
To the Editor, Our long liberal democracy experiment that seeks to protect the interest of minorities is under assault. Two of Trump’s biggest supporting groups, white supremacists and white conservative evangelical Christians, are groups who seek male domination and would often prefer lesser civil rights not only for females, but also for LGBTQ, non-Christian, and other … [Read more...]
Celebrating a century of civic engagement
By Kay Spangler On September 8, 1919, the Minnesota Legislature voted YES to ratify the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, granting women the right to vote and ending the 72-year struggle for woman suffrage. The League of Women Voters Minnesota began with suffragist Ms. Clara Ueland as its first President to help carry out the new work of empowering voters and defending … [Read more...]
Trump was right
Opinions expressed here are those of the author and not of the Fillmore County Journal. The fundamental questions: 1) Why were U.S. forces in Syria? 2) What was their job? They were there to fight ISIS. That’s why they were there. That’s it. They were not there to get in the middle of ancient and ongoing contest between the Kurds and Turkey even though the Kurds … [Read more...]