Saturday was yard work.
Sunday, laundry and cooking.
And Monday, tackled the basement.
Ah, does this desk job feel good.
How many of you took Labor Day, literally?

AMERICANS are hard-working people as compared to other cultures. The American work ethic is often held as the gold standard.
On the flip side, we probably could use a break. Americans on average take two weeks of vacation compared to four to six weeks in Europe.
It’s the mind, as much as the body, which needs some space to rejuvenate.
Labor Day was established in recognition of the 1894 Pullman strike, which pitted railroad bosses against the striking railroad workers. The day recognizes the since-organized labor movement that gives workers rights, and just as important, their dignity.
This Labor Day, however, is also about those who want work but can’t find it. Across the country, more than 14 million men and women are seeking work. In Kansas, unemployment is at 6.8 percent.
The news today of Monarch’s possible shutdown – though temporary – is a reminder that we’re not out of the woods yet as far as a possible return to a recession. The shutdown will mean almost 90 workers idled, with a ripple effect that the rest of us will feel as fewer purchases are made.
Labor Day. If only we all could celebrate it.
— Susan Lynn

Dear Editor,
I am troubled by the story of Judy Brigham’s firing and am trying to understand it.  Here is the best analysis I can piece together from the newspaper reports:
An intelligent man new to the city’s systems made a logical but incorrect assumption about the state of the city’s finances. He went on public record saying that taxes could be saved. He was a short term hero in the 2011 mode, a renderer of lard from a Jack Spratt budget. Then his mistake was revealed. He was embarrassed.
The mistake was caused by a glitch in the city’s software, which presumably required budgeting money into a fund in hopes it could someday be deposited.  The experienced employees knew the $4 million dollars reported to be in the utility cash overflow account was never there, but this information was never conveyed to and/or taken in by the new councilman.
The misleading software program was replaced, but someone had to pay for his embarrassment. A long term employee was selected as the scapegoat and fired with no warning or regard for the impact on her life. 
Her crime was deficient mind-reading. She should have known the councilman’s faulty assumption and set him straight before he made a public declaration.  She had to be punished.
If my scenario bears any relation to truth, I am extremely disturbed by the precipitous injustice displayed by our city’s leaders. Those in the executive session imply that we still don’t know everything, but they are remarkably unwilling to inform us. 
Don’t we live in the U.S. where government should be conducted with openness and fairness?
For two years I waited patiently for a larger city council to represent our town more completely.  Now the only difference between our council and the foreign dictators my taxes pay so generously to depose is that at least Judy Brigham was not summarily executed. I am grateful for this crucial difference, since at least there is still a slim possibility of reversal. Barring that, I suppose we must hope the next manifestation of city government will more faithfully reflect the ideal of “by the people, for the people.”
Waiting impatiently,
Mary Ann Dvorachek

Dear Editor,
Just what is wrong with our community? Our county does nothing but argue amongst themselves. The Iola city councilmen act like they have a grudge to settle. And the ambulance service people are constantly fighting the city and the county. We can’t decide where to build a hospital? What goes? 
I have been in the professional world all of my life and have never seen anything like this before. (except in our present Congress). Firing a longtime employee two weeks prior to her retirement so she cannot receive her benefits? Just to save money on the budget? Give me a break. How cruel can a council get? I do not live inside the city limits, but, I ask the people that do, what were you thinking when you elected these councilmen?  
Iola is a big part of my life just as Allen County is. I shop there. I have family inside the city limits. And I have loved Iola — until just the past year or two when all of this blaming anyone in the line of fire for problems that can really be easily solved. 
To me it looks like a “power play” and I do not like it. It is time for you to come to your senses and give up the power play and do what is best for Iola and Allen County. It looks to me that you don’t care about that as long as you can say “I am a councilman” “I am mayor.” And that must mean “I am somebody” and the way to prove it is to be disagreeable and mean and to heck with what “we the people” think. You are reminding me too much of our present U.S. Congress and present administration and last but not least the Tea Party. How can you do this to our city and county?
Come off the high horse — get real — and do something constructive besides squabble. Put your noses to the grindstone instead of up in the air. Come down to the decent realistic people you used to be. We will all like you a whole lot better. 
Thank you, and signed by:
Carolyn S. Mynatt
LaHarpe, Kan.

Editor’s note:
The following comments were posted on the Register’s website, iolaregister.com. Not all are included here.
— Susan Lynn

I sure hope that all the people that voted to terminate Brigham took into consideration all the benefits that she might have lost for this act that sounds bogus, could they not have waited 2 more weeks after all the years she put in?
Jeff Cleaver

Well, it seems Bill Shirley got his way by firing Judy Brigham, community supporter and invaluable in getting federal funds for projects. Time for a recall of the mayor as well as the councilmen who aren’t representing the electorate.
B. Ellen Smith

What a shame that happened to Judy!  She served the community well for many years. Though it shouldn’t be much of a surprise; all one has to do is recall what happened at the fire department in the late ’90s. Unfortunately, in a small town that is what happens when you get on the wrong side of someone.
George W. Hayduke

Mr. Shirley’s quote of “they found a reason to let Judy go” tells me they were searching for an excuse to terminate her. I would highly suggest the employees of the city get a union in to represent them — it will be their only protection from management like this. An attorney once told me “there is not an employee out there who could not be fired for some reason every day.” Sound familiar Chuck?
Jerry Thompson

Judy Brigham has dedicated a lot of time, energy, and effort to make Iola a better place.  She has been a productive leader in getting grant money into Iola and is always the first to volunteer for any project that would benefit the citizens. After almost 32 years of service, this is how they treat her?!? As citizens of Iola, we should not stand for this. We, along with Judy, deserve an answer to this ridiculous termination less than two weeks before her retirement. If we can not trust the mayor or city council members to do what is just and fair, something needs to be done.
Amanda Thompson

What does this say about our city? Someone who has dedicated themselves to so many years and is boom, just fired! What a bunch of non-caring councilmen. All city employees, good luck on keeping your jobs close to retirement.
Marty Meadows

The only justifiable reason I can see for firing someone so close to retirement is if he/she has done something illegal. If Ms. Brigham has done something illegal then charges should be pressed. Otherwise it appears to be nothing but spite.
Connie Buller

I moved to Iola in 1996 and I attended Iola Middle School. Mr. Shirley, in my mind, was an awesome principal and I looked up to him.  It is now 2011 and due to recent failures in ethical, political decisions, I now know what it is like to have lost faith.  
How is it that a person who volunteers so much of her time, often missing out on family time, for the citizens of a small community can be treated in such an undignified, disgusting manner by a person that I held in such high regard?  In recent experiences, I have learned that Karma is a very unforgiving, realistic thing.
Once again, my life has been affected by this person who I once respected and I think now it is time to get registered to vote. We’ll see what happens come election time, Mr. Shirley.

Chris Belknap

Earlier this week U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins was in Pittsburg, where she was met by a frustrated audience, according to an article in the Joplin Globe.
Many had complaints about the United States’ continued involvement with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and called for its immediate withdrawals, now in their eighth and 11th years, respectively. Almost 4,500 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq; another 1,755 in Afghanistan.
Jenkins deferred responsibility for the wars to higher-ups saying she’s been told “to trust the military generals” who have the experience and expertise to make those decisions, as well as President Obama, “who you have to trust to visit with those folks and do oversight.”
Almost in the same breath, Jenkins then said she was “offended when President Obama went into Libya without Congressional oversight,” and she’ll “continue to hold his feet to the fire.”
Too late.
Just this week Moammar Gadhafi’s 42-year stranglehold over his country has been broken. Credit goes to Obama for pulling in European allies to wage massive air strikes that since March have debilitated Gadhafi’s troops and eventually convinced his cronies to switch sides.
Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, and President Obama ignored the naysayers, including Jenkins, about the value of the United Nations waging the war, claiming that Libya, and its 6.5 million citizens, was not worth saving.
The fact that the uprising was begun by Gadhafi’s own people and not some other country, gave credit to the effort to overthrow the tyrant, who has a human rights record of atrocities that rivals Uganda’s notorious Idi Amin.
Conservative columnist and commentator David Brooks said Republicans today can’t give Obama credit for the regime change in Libya — it’s called politics — “but in a couple of years, people will acknowledge this was a good thing.”

WHEN IT CAME to the economy, a brave soul in the Pittsburg audience said he was concerned about the debt limit increase and that he believes the “vast majority of Americans want a tax increase on the wealthy,” to help balance the budget.
“Are you willing to work with the Democrats to get that done?” the man asked.
Jenkins dodged the question by saying she believed a flat tax would be more effective. That is where all citizens are taxed at the same rate on their household income.
That would be fine — if we all earned about the same.
But for the poor, that 7 percent tax may very well be their undoing, while for the rich it would hardly be noticed.
An accountant by trade, Jenkins surely is aware of the inequality of such a formula.
Even more obvious is that lower- and middle-income wage earners are slim pickings when it comes to financing a campaign.

MORE and MORE I feel we’re being duped by politicians who think we’re too naive to understand their motives.
The infamous “death tax” is another example of a con job.
Today, those who inherit estates that exceed $3.5 million, or $7 million if a couple, are taxed on average 18.9 percent. Less than 10 years ago, estates that exceeded $1 million were taxed at 50 percent. That’s a huge loss to the country’s pocketbook.
Today, couples who inherit agricultural land, including farms, can get $9 million in exemptions.
Who benefits? The upper, upper tiers of society who stand to inherit multimillion dollar estates scot-free.
Yet for the most part it’s rural America that has cried foul, saying the farm will have to be sold to pay the “outrageous” tax. Even back in 2001, when the inheritance tax was much higher, the American Farm Bureau Federation acknowledged that it could not cite a single farm having to be sold to pay estate taxes.
I think it is fair to say there’s not a farm in Allen County that exceeds $9 million in value — though I’d love to be proven wrong.
As of 2009, only 1.6 percent of American farm estates were subject to any estate tax — and again, the family farm was kept intact.
Instead of relaxing the estate tax even more, farmers — just like the rest of us — would be better off if child tax credits and earned income tax credits were extended.
Those incentives keep families growing, and workers bringing home bigger paychecks.

THE BEST defense against rumors and misinformation is to read from a variety of sources, play like you’re Sherlock Holmes and be suspicious of easy answers, and, perhaps the most useful, go outside tonight and let your mind contemplate the stars.

Susan Lynn, Register editor