Opinions

Really, Time Magazine? 2020 is the “Worst Year Ever?” I will take this year over any year before penicillin, indoor plumbing, electricity and regular trash collection. We do not know what history will say of 2020.

Johnson County, Kan., was established by Kansas Territorial government on Aug. 25, 1855, in honor of the Rev. Thomas Johnson. Rev. Johnson and the Rev.

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town.

Back in May of this year, I wrote a story of Robert Poisal’s “lost summer.” Poisal was half Arapaho, from the sister of Chief Left Hand and a Kentucky-bred trader by the name of John Poisal. Robert was wagonmaster for a train that had lost its mules to a Cheyenne raiding party.

As Christmas draws closer, I can’t help but think of the many holiday traditions my family has generally followed over the years. Some are strange, some are widely shared, but they’re all unique markers of how we spend our time together marking the birth of Christ.

The headlines in a December edition of the 1917 Trench and Camp were all about the coming Christmas celebration at Camp Funston. “Big Day At Camp: and “Day At Funston,” as well as “Santa In Charge: graced the front page. The Trench and Camp was published at Fort Riley, Kan.

As Christmas draws closer, I can’t help but think of the many holiday traditions my family has generally followed over the years. Some are strange, some are widely shared, but they’re all unique markers of how we spend our time together marking the birth of Christ.

Tuesday marks a hidden holiday, as uncelebrated as it is unappreciated. It was 229 years ago on Dec. 15 that the United States ratified the Bill of Rights, ensuring unprecedented freedom for the people of an emerging nation. Bill of Rights Day has actually been a national holiday since Nov.

Seward County in southwest Kansas has been cattle country since drovers first moved their herds into its open grasslands 150 years ago. With settlement came farms and towns. Today the county boasts bountiful fields of wheat, corn, milo, alfalfa, and cotton. It wasn’t always so bountiful.

Kansans are known for making the best of an impossible situation. Even building a snowman!