On Feb. 9, 1950, four Iola Junior College students debated the question: Resolved, that the U.S. government should provide free medical aid for all citizens of the United States.
Presenting the affirmative were Robert Freeman and Phyllis Colwell. Arguing the negative were Helen Handy and Wilford King. The debate was open to the public.
Universal health care provided by the federal government was a hot topic in the United States 60 years ago. President Harry Truman favored it. The Murray, Wagner, Dingell bill was introduced in Congress to provide it. Unsurprisingly, it was attacked by the special interests and defeated.
An interesting difference between now and then is that junior college and high school debates were social functions in Iola in 1950 — and long before that — and were well attended. They always focused on serious current issues. The students who participated learned a great deal, as did those who heard them in the high school auditorium.
Debate, an extracurricular activity, is still an important part of university life in our country, in England and, I suppose, many other nations. As would be assumed, many successful U.S. politicians, and attorneys without number, developed fact-finding and presentation skills on college debate squads.
Debates were judged at the university level on the basis of research done — points were lost for inaccurate statements and for failure to cite pertinent facts — as well as on the persuasiveness of the presentation and the extemporaneous skills displayed in rebuttals. They learned manners, too. No interruptions allowed.
Ah, for the good, old days.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

Yes! by three to one! Wow! Positive margins in almost every precinct. Wow!
There will be a sparkling new Allen County Hospital. Every family in the broad area that the hospital serves will get better care, have more access to the latest technology, have greater assurance that the medical community of the county will grow stronger rather than shrink.
Tuesday’s vote not only gave solid assurance that health care for Allen County’s families, from border to border, will be much stronger, much better, it also demonstrated confidence in the future of the Allen County economy and community.
Tuesday’s Yes! vote, coming in the wake of the Haldex closing as it did, brings new vigor to every business, every organization, every family wondering what the future holds.
This optimism would be a stretch if the vote had been close. Or even kinda close. It wasn’t — it was a great, exuberant “Bring it on!”

IN A CALMER voice, let’s use the momentum created by this expression of confidence in ourselves to move on from here. Let’s get serious about creating more jobs. Maybe it’s time to hire an economic development executive. Certainly it’s time to take a careful inventory of Allen County’s assets so that those assets can be displayed accurately and attractively to any potential business or enterprise.
Let’s let the excitement of this spectacular investment in Allen County’s future create energy in a hundred other enterprises in every corner of our country; in every community, in every civic organization, in every enterprise.
Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010 can go down in our annals as a turning point; a taking-off point.
Let’s make it happen.

— Emerson Lynn, Jr.

During the Farm-City celebration, I helped poll possible voters who had come to the square for Farm-City Days. I walked around the courthouse area from 8 o’clock to almost noon. As I walked, I asked folks if they were Allen County voters. I talked with hundreds of visitors that day and MANY of them were from outside of Allen County.  If the quarter-cent sales tax vote for a new hospital passes, next year all those visitors who come to Iola for Farm-City, ball tournaments, Bowlus events or for any reason, will be helping us pay for a new hospital.
The decision to build a new hospital has not come quickly nor has it been easy. To think that only means that you have not been there for the many, many hours of meetings and travel that have occurred. No one on the county commission, the city commission or the Hospital Facilities Commission thinks it has been easy or quick.  The decision to build a new hospital has been carefully considered and thought through. I believe it has been a job well done.
In my visits regarding the YES vote, I have talked with folks from all walks of life. Some have mentioned that those who can least afford the sales tax will be adversely affected.  I have talked with many of those folks. They want a new hospital as much as anybody.  They told me they couldn’t afford to go out of town for health care. Each trip out of town is a hardship and that’s if they can figure out how to go out of town. This hospital is for all of us!!
Recently I read a graduation speech in which the speaker said, “The negative voices always seem to be the loudest. Don’t you believe it.” Folks, we have a future right here in Allen County. You will never find a better bargain than 7 cents a day for a new hospital. We must invest in our future as our forefathers did for us. I ask you to vote YES for Allen County Healthcare TODAY.

Your friend,
Mary Kay Heard
Iola, Kan.

David and I wanted to write to thank the Farm/City Committee for selecting us as city marshals. Also, thanks to all of you who waved or called our names as we rode around the square. Bob Johnson said in his article that we love Iola and Allen County. On Saturday we could feel the love and friendship coming right back to us. It was a grand day.

Sincerely,
David and Mary Kay Heard
Iola, Kan.

An open microphone in Christine O’Donnell’s Dela-ware headquarters captured this Monday night ritual. The candidate’s voice was easy to identify. The other two we can only assume were her closest advisers. In the interests of accuracy (and pure jest), the Register has left in comments that will offend animal lovers and seem callous to others.

Christine: Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.
Adviser 1: Three and once, the hedge-pig whin’d.
Adviser 2: Harpier cries:  — ’tis time! ’tis time!
C. Round about the computer go: In the poison’d entrails throw. Toad, that under cold stone, days and nights has thirty-one; swelter’s venom sleeping got, boil thou first in the charmed pot!
All three: Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn, and website bubble.
Advisor 1: Fillet of a fenny snake, in the hard drive boil and bake; eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog, adder’s fork and blind-worms’s sting, lizards’s leg and owlet’s wing, — for a charm of powerful trouble, like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
All: Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and website bubble!
Adviser 2: Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf; witches’ mum-my; maw and gulf of the ravin’s salt-sea shark; root of hemlock, digged in the dark; liver of blaspheming Rove; gall of goat and slips of clove slivered in the moon’s eclipse; nose of Paul, O’Reilly’s lips; finger of birth-strangled Beck ditch-delivered by a witch — make the gruel thick and slab; add thereto a Foxy demon, for the ingredients of our cauldron.
All: Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn, and website bubble.
Adviser 2: Cool it with Time’s fresh blood; then the charm is firm and good. There, if that don’t do it, nothing could!
C. Omigod, who left this mike on?
With a nod of thanks to Shakespeare’s prescient witches.

Go vote. The polls stay open until 7. Yes, your vote matters. The greater the turnout, the clearer the decision.
On the other hand, don’t vote if you really don’t care. Or if you really haven’t thought about the hospital or the city commission or if you really don’t know anything of substance about the candidates. Ignorance magnified by numbers is ignorance compounded.
Do vote if you and a friend have talked about the ballot and made decisions.
Don’t vote to appease granddad’s prejudices.
Do vote to line up with a philosophy that strikes you as useful and convincing.
Don’t vote to get even with anyone or anything. Anger is a untrustworthy informant.
Do vote to build a stronger community, a better state, a better nation.
Do vote because the more the better is a good Election Day slogan.
Go vote.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.