Dear Foto News,
The Auxiliary to Merrill’s Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1638 would like to introduce you to our newest project, “Operation Thank You.” Kicked off in 2013, “Operation Thank You” is a community effort to recognize every veteran in our community by offering a simple “Thank You, Veteran!” card that will be displayed with your veteran’s name at one of our sponsored locations. The “Thank You” cards will be offered for a donation of any amount at a participating “Operation Thank You” sponsor.
In honor of your veteran, you are given a card that you can recognize a specific veteran, all veterans or sign your name as a proud American on the card. It is our goal to recognize every veteran by name in Lincoln County both past and present by Veterans Day and we cannot do this without the help of our community and our supporting businesses.
“Operation Thank You” will start Nov. 1 and run through the month of November with hopes to be in high gear by Veterans Day, Nov. 11. The Auxiliary of Post 1638 will use all monies raised by this project to support our veterans and their families. Last year, “Operation Thank You” raised $700 and was able to give cash grants to 15 veterans and family members who were in need.
We would like to thank the following businesses that supported Operation Thank You in 2014: Walmart, Dave’s County Market, River Valley Bank, Round-Up tavern, Chips, Church Mutual, Trophy Bar, VFW Post 1638, Avenue Bar, Bev & Tom’s Bar, First Street Coffee Station, The Eagles, both Holiday Stations, St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store, Beers & Cheers, Piggly Wiggly and Checkered Churn. Thank you to Reindl Printing for the card printing and Lois Goldbeck for the special design.
We are very excited about this opportunity to recognize the service and sacrifices of our veterans and would love to have everyone join us in this effort.
Thank you,
Tracy Jopek, chairperson “Operation Thank You”
Auxliary to Schmitt-Manecke-Donner VFW Post 1638
Editor,
For those of you who are not aware, the River Bend Trail has been funded entirely by grants and donations received by the River District Development Foundation of Merrill. The city of Merrill has recently designated the trail as a park, but the planning, construction and fund raising has all been done and continues to be done by the RDDF. No City of Merrill money or tax money has been used for the trail.
The RDDF was formed in 2006 to help develop our underused waterways. Our mission states: The RDDFF of Merrill provides resources, initially through the creation and upkeep of the River Bend Trail, that encourage residents and visitors to enjoy the natural beauty and precious spaces of the city’s river corridors.
The RDDF consists of local individuals who care about Merrill and the city’s future and are working to make our community a better place to live. To see a list of board members, visit our website at riverbendtrail.org.
Continuing with our plan for the River Bend Trail we will be raising money to go to the east of the Center Avenue Bridge along the Wisconsin River to Kyes Street and eventually to the Water Treatment Plant. Plans to go beyond that will be developed. In the future we will be able to hook up to the trails in Wausau and Tomahawk for a better biking experience. We will continue to try and locate grants, but donations will be necessary to make this a reality.
Please consider giving in any amount to the trail through the Merrill Chamber, 705 N. Center Ave., Merrill, WI 54452 (715-536-9474). We appreciate all the support our community gives us.
Sarah Williams
Merrill
To the Editor:
Halloween is coming fast. Originally it was set up as The Holy Evening, in which people would prepare for All Saints Day on Nov. 1. I think a good way to prepare would be to focus on the Saints and the many others who have made contributions to the welfare and happiness of people.
My own heroes of that type include St. Francis, M.L. King, M. Gahdhi and Albert Schweitzer. There are logs of others, too, as Dietrich Bonhoffer, the current Pope Francis, and the American lady know as Peace Pilgrim.
Spook houses spring up in many places during the season. These are good fun for the folks who set them up, as well as the people who enjoy having their wits scared out of them as they pass through. Also, these spooky places often raise money for very good causes. But, is this a proper way to prepare for All Saints Day?
I prefer to celebrate the Holy Evening by considering how perhaps my life could contribute to the welfare and happiness of others, following the examples of the Saints, and near-saints. Maybe I can interest some others in doing the same.
James A. Lewis
Town of Maine
To the Editor:
So far in 2015, twenty-three research papers were published reporting that the sun is a much larger factor influencing climate than the warming scaremongers attribute to it. A scientist reported he discovered a math error in the I.P.C.C.’s calculation of the warming sensitivity of the atmosphere to increases in carbon dioxide concentration, resulting in a 10-fold overestimation of that sensitivity. A headline reported “More Than 90% of Data Fed to Climate Models Falsified.” Previously, hacked emails of the scaremongers revealed they knew they were being fraudulent, such as this from Phil Wigley: “[…] there have been a number of dishonest presentations of model results by individual authors and by IPCC.” But you have heard all this from the news media already, right? WRONG!
Temperature measurements aren’t someone taking readings of “simple thermometers” either. They involve electronic recording devices. But most of the temperatures are adjusted by the scientists to account for many things such as a change in location of the monitoring station, construction of buildings and pavement around the station creating “heat islands,” and change-out of the electronic device. The scientists adjust the temperatures from the monitoring stations to account for these changes, but they don’t publish how they make those adjustments, which is a standard practice among honest scientists. And, surprise, surprise, their adjustments always show increasingly warmer temperatures than the raw data.
Sierra Club president Aaron Mair recently testified to Congress and had to rely on aides to answer almost every question. He eventually just responded to every question that he agrees with the consensus of 97 percent of scientists that man was causing dangerous warming.
The 97 percent consensus is from a study by Cook et. al., who examined close to 12,000 research reports on climate change. But this study is very fraudulent also. A reviewer found that only one-third of the authors of the published research papers Cook’s team examined expressed an opinion that the Cook team interpreted as either an implicit or explicit endorsement of man-caused warming. Some of those studies Cook’s team claimed expressed an opinion in support of man-caused warming made no such claim. Then he counted as support for man-made warming studies by scientists who are skeptics such as the prominent, vigorous skeptics Willie Soon, Craig Idso, Nicola Scafetta, Nir Shaviv, Nils-Axel Morner and Alan Carlin. A more extensive examination of the Cook study by the New American reported that out of the nearly 12,000 scientific papers Cook’s team evaluated, only 65 endorsed Cook’s alarmist position. That is less than 0.97 percent.
There have nine conferences of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change at which skeptic scientists present the latest research that doesn’t support dangerous man-caused warming. Scaremongering scientists are also invited to speak, but so far only one of them attended just one of these conferences. Have you seen or heard any news media reports about these conferences?
If the news media were honest, everyone would know that man is not causing dangerous global warming.
Lowell Howard
Merrill