Opinion

I made my annual jaunt down to Southwest High School a couple times last week for the Annual Holiday Tournament, where I ran into none other than Announcr-DJ-Showman Jared Lankford. Southwest has enjoyed his services for the last many years, playing music, crowd games and announcing all three days of the annual event.

Christmas and the New Year have come and gone, and in between those days, we at the Cassville Democrat were in the giving spirit. In April 2023, we announced a new campaign for the Democrat called “Back 2 You,” wherein we planned to portion off 2 percent of all special project sales throughout the year and donate that amount to correlating organizations in our community.

Every year, everyone has one big resolution that they are going to achieve. How many of you have gone through with your goal? I have never been able to finish anything I have wanted to do.

In medical school they taught us very little about self-care. We were taught how to care for other people, but not ourselves.

Do you just have belief in a God? Or do you believe what God says? It is a matter of will and faith. Can you completely commit yourself to God and not yourself? In your life today, how much is what you want and believe, and how much comes from what God wants? Once you and God settle the issue, He is forever on your side.

I was assigned to take photos at the reindeer games assembly at Cassville High School on Friday, and I as surprised to see the Student Council was thrusting teachers into the action this year. Here, Coach Tinker Kinser has all the grace of a baby seal as he keeps his arms up for Coach Matthew Allen to push him to the tic tac toe board, a game the pair won against their also teacher opponents. Through the assembly, we learned a lot about the newest teachers at Cassville High School, including which ones had been sent to the principal’s office as a student (both of these guys were), and how hard it is to knock over water bottles using a tennis ball in a pair of panty hose strapped to your head. There was only a little cheating. The assembly was a great final assignment for 2023.

A mere 365 days ago, I sat my office full of anticipation and the weight of opportunity as Jordan and I were only days away from officially owning the Cassville Democrat.

Getting lost down a rabbit hole of history can be very easy around the Barry County Museum. With the combination of resources from the Fields’ Photo Archives and genealogy material in our reference room, combined with modern electric resources on the internet, looking up information on one subject can quickly detour into unexpected avenues.

The purpose of the Commentary page is to provide a forum of various opinions, and we highly encourage letters to the editor. The opinions of columnists are not necessarily shared by the Cassville Democrat or its staff. If you have an opinion, send a letter to Kyle Troutman, Cassville Democrat, P.O. Box 486, Cassville, MO 65625, or by email to ktroutman@cassville-democrat.com.