Four people died on Mt. Everest last Saturday. They were among 208 climbers on the mountain. A Nepalese mountaineering official called it a traffic jam. Climbers were stuck in what is called the death zone because it is a precipitous icy region with a low oxygen level.

Climbing Everest has become possible for the very fit and the very rich. From the records available, 316 have made it to the 29,035 foot summit this year. That compares to 91 a decade ago. 

It was first climbed by Sir Edmond Hillary, a New Zealand beekeeper, in 1953, well within the memory of today’s grandfathers.

But it was years after Hillary that technology and the mountaineering art advanced sufficiently to bring climbing Everest within the reach of hundreds.

Just as the best runners can now cover a mile in less than four minutes, crack mountaineers can reasonably aspire to top Everest.

Maybe climbing Everest is even more achievable than a Jim Ryun mile because Everest’s professional guide teams do so much of the planning, strategizing and, yes, the all-important work of carrying gear and supplies.

Money plays a huge part in the game. The average Everest climber spends about $51,000 on guides, porters and permits and another $5,000 to $10,000 on gear and travel. AMI Expeditions, the premier guide service on the mountain, charged clients $74,000 each this season.

Climbers also should expect to take a half year or more away from work and family. Perhaps they will invest double or triple the direct cost of the climb in getting ready for it.

Still, there are more lined up to make the effort than the guides can serve or — as Saturday sadly showed — the route up and down can safely hold on those few days in any year that weather allows the summit to be reached.

They are driven by a burning desire most can’t fathom. 

Walking up the trails of the Rocky Mountains, clambering over boulders, exalting in the satisfaction of standing on top of a peak at, say, 13,000 or even 14,000 feet has enriched our family with deep satisfactions. The prospect still brings the young among us back each summer. But if any of the clan ever yearned to add “I climbed Everest” to his or her obituary, they kept that death wish to themselves.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

Dear editor,

This is really a thank-you note to a lady whose name I do not know.

Thank you for taking the purse you found in your car into the Walmart service desk.

It seems we have twin cars. I foolishly put my purse in your car and drove away in my car. 

There are so many good people in the world and Iola, Kansas, has more than its share. 

Many thanks!

Jo Anne Betzen

Iola, Kan.

Dear editor,

We had several attend the inaugural Strides for Jordan. Our goal was to raise $500. Altogether we raised $1,100. What an amazing turnout.

All the money will be sent to Great Strides in Wichita.

Special thanks go to the city of Moran for use of the park, the Kiwanis club for donating time and money to offer train rides, to Lori Holman, the Marmaton Valley cheerleaders and dance team and to all the businesses in Allen County, and surrounding counties, for donations.

Thank you to all my family, friends, runners and walkers for coming and supporting our cause. 

A special thanks to the Roush family. Your daughters would be proud. 

This could not have been possible without everyone pulling together to help. It may bring us one stride closer for a cure.

Sincerely,

Hanna Hoffman

Jordan Yocham

Moran, Kan.

A Wednesday news bit reported graduates in pharmacology, geophysics, astronomy and actuarial science not only had jobs when they were handed their degrees, but also could choose where they went to work. 

The four graduates interviewed were above-average bright. They also were from families able to pay for above-average educations. The geophysicist, for example, did graduate work in Norway after learning that most physicists working in the energy field had advanced degrees.

It also was obvious they or someone they depended on had looked to see what fields offered job opportunities, were not overcrowded and could offer interesting, profitable careers.

This is the kind of information counselors offer students at every high school worth its salt. Not only can those graduating from Allen County high schools learn what jobs are in high demand, they also can tailor their college majors to match.

HERE’S THE REST of the story: 

A whole bunch of this year’s high school graduates have the cards stacked against them to become pharmacologists, geophysicists, astronomers or actuaries because they didn’t get serious about studying while they were in high school. Those are demanding academic courses. Those who succeed in them also took a lot of math and science in high school. 

Success usually begins early. 

The rest of these comments is directed first at parents, then at youngsters from age 10 up. Parents should put their kids on the right track by reading to them from fun books such as A. A. Milne’s Pooh stories or, a year or two later, Kipling’s “Just So Stories,” which explain how the rhinoceros got his skin, the leopard his spots and the elephant its trunk — and teach youngsters important words to know while they are being delighted.

Books should become important gifts.

Then they should set time aside for homework and offer to help. It doesn’t hurt to give small rewards for A’s on report cards because it reinforces the idea that achieving is good and learning is a goal.

The point of this lecturing is that success doesn’t come naturally. The kid who becomes a Harvard Ph.D. despite a lousy home life and lack of self discipline is as rare as an August freeze in Houston. And, bless Bess, the opposite is just as true: youngsters reared to love learning readily become geophysicists, actuaries, astronomers or move into a fine house on pharmacy row.

Mom and dad, you really have their world-to-be right in your hands.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

Dear editor,

I would like to respectfully disagree with the editor’s May 16 article on “Gay Marriage and the 2012 Campaign.” Mr. Lynn asks, “Why take the trouble to understand what only nerds worry about when it is more virtuous (and ever so much easier) to vote against sin?” 

My opinion is that the moral decay of our country is our greatest challenge and has the potential to be our demise. The fact that we have turned away from our Christian and biblical foundation is what has weakened our great land. I am also concerned about those other issues (“that only nerds worry about”), but most of those other problem issues stem from the fact that we have strayed from our country’s Judeo-Christian roots. We may choose to minimize, legitimize, and legalize immoral issues, but we will not have the power to choose or control the consequences that follow. 

Your article seems to say what’s the big deal, what’s the harm in legalizing gay marriage? This issue is far more reaching than most understand. I would like to give one example of many I have read. 

In Massachusetts (one of the states with legalized gay marriage) a judge recently made a disturbing ruling in my opinion. 

David Parker was upset when his kindergarten son brought home a book depicting families headed by same-sex couples. “Parker acknowledged the equal rights of gays but objected to ‘the out of the closet and into the kindergarten classroom mentality.’ In essence, Parker highlighted the difference between tolerance, which acknowledges someone’s right to make a choice, and acceptance, which is the personal validation of that choice.” (Foxnews.com) 

Parker requested his child’s school notify him when adults discuss homosexuality. At an April 27, 2005 meeting at the school, Parker refused to leave without an assurance that he would receive parental notification. Arrested for criminal trespassing, he spent the night in jail. Charges were later dropped. 

The next year the same Massachusetts school presented the book King and King to second- grade students. This book is about homosexual romances and marriage. At this time Parker and some other parents brought a lawsuit against the school claiming they violated state law by indoctrinating their children about a lifestyle the parents teach is immoral. A few days after filing the lawsuit, Parker’s son was beaten up at school by eight-10 kids. If this had been a child with same-sex parents, the national news would have been all over this, and rightly so. But why didn’t an act of violence to this little boy receive media attention? 

In 2007, U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf dismissed Parker’s lawsuit. The judge concluded that even allowing Christians to withdraw their children from classes or portions of classes where the religious beliefs were being violated wasn’t a reasonable expectation. He opined, “An exodus from class when issues of homosexuality or same-sex marriage are to be discussed could send the message that gays, lesbians, and the children of same-sex parents are inferior and, therefore, have a damaging effect on those students.” (Judge Orders Gay Agenda Taught to Christian Children by Bob Unruh, 2/24/07, WIN) 

Your article stated that there are some “. . . more likely to look backward for their values.” I am not against progress, but I do not see a lack of moral concern to be progress. I believe our founders’ belief in God and their respect of the Scriptures when establishing our governing documents are what made this country great. I am persuaded that a return to these basics is the only hope for our nation. 

Benjamin Franklin, signer of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, wrote: “I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that ‘except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages.” 

John Adams, signer of the Declaration of Independence and second president of the United States, wrote, “(W)e have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” 

When the vote was brought to the people, 31 states have refused to legalize gay marriage. Eight states have legalized it through their liberal judges or legislatures. As much as the liberal media, politicians, and Hollywood try to convince us otherwise, “everyone is not doing it.” 

Marriage is not an institution that was invented by man that can be used for social experiments. Marriage is God’s plan. It is sacred and good within the parameters He gives in the Bible. If we do not look to our Creator and His Word for our values, we are headed down a road of destruction. If we let “every individual decide what is right in his/her own eyes” we will soon be a nation gone under. 

Call me backward, uninformed, and even ignorant if you must. But I will unashamedly “vote against sin.” 

Rebecca Quinn,

Iola, Kan.

Dear editor,

In regards to Emerson Lynn’s editorial in Saturday’s paper about fear mongers:

For all those who live in “It can’t Happen Here. It can’t happen to us — Do Dah Land” — that’s what the Germans thought when they freely elected Hitler. Then came Mein Kampf, trying to exterminate the Jews, then World War II.

All the while they kept singing, “It can’t happen here, It can’t happen to us — Do Dah — Do Dah!”

The only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

Sharon McCauley,

Moran, Kan.

Gov. Sam Brownback loves snappy phrases. 

When he first ran for Congress from this district, he promised voters he would “get Uncle Sam off your back and out of your pockets.” Meaning, I guess, that he would lessen government regulation and cut taxes. 

This week his bon mot changed form, but not meaning: He said, “The 2012 legislative session came down to a simple question: Do we want to grow government or grow the economy? The resounding answer: We’re going to grow the economy.”

He deserves to be taken seriously. 

Gov. Brownback is saying a strong government and a strong economy are incompatibles. You can have one, but not both. In the governor’s philosophy, spending for government weakens the economy and is therefore injurious to the public welfare. Government is portrayed as an enemy of the people rather than their servant.

To be as kind as possible, this is not a traditional Republican value judgment. As Lincoln said, government is “of the people, by the people and for the people.” Government is the agency the people use to achieve the general good. It is, in fact, the only agency the people can use to work together as a community.

One needn’t go back to the founder of the Republican tradition to make the point. Kansas has had a string of productive Republican governors in its past. Most of today’s Register readers enjoyed Kansas while Bill Graves was governor. Gov. Graves presided over very productive years for Kansas highways, Kansas public schools, Kansas universities. His state government was strong. So was the Kansas economy.

To refresh your memory, dig back into history and read about the governorships of Alf Landon, Frank Carlson, Bill Avery, Mike Hayden and Bob Bennett. Our Democrat governors were achievers, too. Gov. Joan Finney was in the chair when Kansas moved to statewide funding of public education and gave property owners in poor counties like ours enormous relief. John Carlin greatly strengthened the state’s economic development machinery. 

Because of ambitious governors determined to take our state forward, Kansas is among the few states which has had three 10-year highway programs in a row and, as a consequence, is a national leader in highway quality.

BECAUSE KANSAS is a small state, population-wise, with only modest resources, Kansans should embrace and support ambitious leaders. We need governors, senators and representatives who stand out from among their cohorts and, working in harmony with the people, make Kansas stand out.

Like it or not, government — at all its levels, city, county, state and national — is the only agency leaders can use to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number. Those who attack government attack progress for the people and would leave the field to the predatory few.

Put that in your teapot and steep it.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.