Praise for a good idea
Everything starts with an idea:
Life is good, and getting better; or circle the wagons, the end is near.
Our children are a burden; or our children are the future.
Taxes are always evil; or some things are worth paying for.
String enough good ideas together and good things happen; put one bad idea after another and you wind up with Washington, D.C.
There's a few hundred square miles in western Marion County that our ancestors thought would make good farm land. Prayerfully and with a sense of divine expectation, they settled here.
It was a good idea.
The collective wisdom of faithful people followed this good idea with more of the same, and from these fertile minds farmsteads, churches, and communities arose. Put enough good ideas together, and, brick by brick, communities become towns, such as Lehigh, Durham, and Hillsboro.
If we could follow all of the good ideas from back then up to now; if we could see how ideas became the places where we live and who we are today; we could see that ideas are the beginning, and the future, of everything.
And this brings us to Tuesday's special election in USD 410, which was approved by voters by a margin of 54 to 46 percent, or 465 yes votes to 404 no votes.
Because of the "Yes" vote, the future will be better for our children, and our children's children.
With the new circle drive and parking area, elementary school children will get to and from school more safely.
With a new cafeteria, school cooks will have a better place to prepare wholesome food, that for many children will be the best meals they eat growing up. Energy from these meals will build stronger bodies and brighter minds, from which will come more good thoughts and ideas, and a future that our ancestors could never have imagined.
Some children learn by hearing; some by seeing; and some learn by doing, which is why physical training is of some value. Sports are out of whack. Who knows where society would be today if all of the energy put into sports was put into more important things?
Whether professional sports has a place in society is a moot point. But we believe that athletics are important places for lessons to be learned. In the new weight training facility at the high school, dreams will be dreamed and dues will be paid. With proper guidance, teenagers will become more confident in themselves and learn the value of delayed gratification. Hormonal energy will be expressed in wholesome ways.
There will be a new biology and chemistry classroom with modern equipment from which future doctors, biologists, and chemical engineers will get the idea that preserving the planet, finding a cure, or creating a compound is their destiny.
On Friday nights and Saturday afternoons, the community will gather at a remodeled Reimer Field. Athletes who have worked so hard will have an opportunity to test themselves, pound for pound, thought for thought, against others on the track, and on the playing field.
There will be plenty to cheer about, as our children and children's children, wearing the team colors of an entire community, are inspired to do what they have dreamed.
On golden evenings in the spring, Reimer Field will become the setting for graduation ceremonies. Diplomas will be awarded, and degrees. The community will gather to watch unlimited potential, dressed in cap and gown, cross the platform from the present into a future, where good ideas, strung together, will create more of the same.
— GRANT OVERSTAKE
