We had a visitor this week.
Haley’s presence may be the precursor for an addition to the family. She’s a mid-size dog, quiet and well-behaved, belonging to wife Beverly’s brother, Monty. He was gone for a few days, which had us dog-sitting.
I had a black cocker spaniel when I was young, a one-boy dog who got in Dutch just about every time anyone came around. I never considered him mean, but he took his role as my protector a tad too seriously.
Blackie — named for the obvious — disappeared one night, must have pulled through his collar attached to a chain, my parents explained. Many years later I learned he was banished to a farmer friend’s to keep my parents from having to deal with distraught victims.
Several years ago I acquired a second dog by default — the fault being the previous owner didn’t want her. Rascal, as I called her, eventually joined my son’s family, and became a companion to his bird dog and much smaller house dog, with the unlikely name of Maverick.
Recently I’ve given thought to a third dog.
I think I’d like a small white one, similar to Maverick. One who’d like to go for rides, scamper about the yard and be very good about letting me know when it was time for a quick sortie outdoors.
Fine, says Beverly, just as soon as I’m willing to be responsible — although I’m sure she’d come around to taking her turns with nature breaks.
At the chamber’s Business EXPO, the Allen County Animal Rescue Facility had a couple of intriguing canines, one small like I think I want, but he (or she) wasn’t too friendly — doesn’t like men, I was told, apparently from previous mistreatment.
I suppose the right one eventually will come along.

Teenagers, typically, make for poor parents   in all senses of the word.
They lack the finances to adequately provide for their offspring. They lack the maturity to be good parents. They lack the education to get good jobs to be good providers. And they typically lack a good support network for when times get tough.
Even with those odds stacked against them, today’s teens are more sexually active than ever, with four of every five U.S. teens “playing around” before the age of 20.  The consequence, naturally, is young girls getting pregnant. Nationwide, 40 percent of all females under 20 have been pregnant — at least once.
It’s a problem in Allen County. Last year, the teen birth rate was 49 teens per every 1,000 women, more than double the national benchmark for such behaviors.
As a state, Kansas makes it very difficult to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy. Passage of even more restrictive abortion laws is imminent. The new laws will not allow victims of rape or incest access to abortion, nor if it were necessary to save the life of the mother.
Kansas also will regard a pregnancy to be a viable life at the moment of fertilization.

NO ONE wants to think of abortion as birth control. I’m willing to bet my bottom dollar abortion is seen only as a last-resort option for the hundreds of thousands of women who have had to experience the procedure.
Almost half of the women who have had abortions were currently using birth control methods that failed, according to the nonpartisan Guttmacher Institute. The other half did not use contraceptives on a basis consistent to their sex lives.
Both instances are strong arguments for wider use of the morning-after birth control pill. When used within a small window of time — up to five days after sexual intercourse — the hormone blocks the fertilization process. Nothing is killed.
Pregnancy doesn’t happen right after sex. That’s why it’s possible to prevent pregnancy even after the fact. It can take up to six days for the sperm and egg to hitch up.
For Kansans, think of it as Roundup as a female’s way to keep those pesky male “weeds” out.
Trouble is, even though the morning after pill has been available for more than 10 years, it’s still not available to the demographic that needs it most — young teens. By law, teens 16 and younger must have a doctor’s prescription to get the pill, despite the Food and Drug Administration’s recommendation to put it on the open market. Those backing the FDA include the American Medication Association, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Pediatrics — experts who deal intimately with teenage parents and their children.

THE GOOD news is nationwide, the rate of abortions has dropped from 26 percent of all pregnancies to 19.6 percent over the last 20 years. Of all U.S. abortions, teenagers receive a disproportional amount, 35 percent.
Today’s teens need to feel safe in what is a scary situation. Further demonizing their actions only backfires by unsafe practices and unwanted results.
We can help lower the teenage pregnancy rate by better sex education in our schools, better understanding in our faith families, and by making birth control, in all its forms, widely available.

You wouldn’t know it from the Legislature, but Kansans are willing to pay for public services.
Voters signaled their willingness to open their pocketbooks with the passage of several bond issues in Tuesday’s elections.
In Reno County, voters approved a half-cent increase in county sales tax by a three-to-one margin to go toward a new jail and improvements for other county offices. The $28.9 million project will include building a 250-bed jail.
In Lawrence, voters overwhelmingly approved a $92.5 million bond issue for the city’s schools. Another three-to-one margin proved voters regarded upgrades and renovations to 14 elementary schools and two high schools critical not only to their students, but also to the community as a whole. This is on top of an $18 million bond issue approved in 2010 to build a new public library.
In Oswego, voters passed a $3.25 million school bond issue for district 504.
In Garnett, voters agreed to an increase in property taxes to build a $25 million hospital.

ALL THESE results signify Kansans are willing to spend because they know it’s really more than that.  Such votes are made as an investment, meaning returns will be coming down the pike.
Already, the construction of the new Allen County Regional Hospital has meant higher occupancy rates at area hotels, more business at area restaurants and retailers — and this is before the darn thing has even opened.
Once in operation, the new hospital will attract more health care professionals eager to work in a state-of-the-art facility. The other shoe to drop will be a new medical office building where specialists from metropolitan areas will see patients.
Garnett’s new elementary school on its northern edge of town sends a message of a vibrant community that places education as a priority.
Same goes for Humboldt’s new sports complex currently in the works.

RENOVATIONS, updates, or entire new campuses such as in Chanute, show a commitment to future generations.
And no, don’t say what was good enough for me is good enough for today’s students, or patients, or clients. Because that’s simply not true.
Fifty-year-old buildings cannot be adapted to today’s technologies.
It’s heartening to see these communities embrace the future.
Hopefully, state leaders will take note.

— Susan Lynn