Antigo Times to begin accepting letters to the editor
From the Editor
The Antigo Times will be accepting letters to the editor for the first time starting next week. With impending decisions to be made by the school board, city council, and county board as well as election-oriented opinions and facts, we would love to hear what the community has to say about the important issues that face all of us in Langlade County.
With that, there are a few guidelines for submissions. Letters should be approximately 500 words or less and written in a manner that is not libelous or vulgar in any way. Submissions should convey a coherent opinion on a local matter concerning the readership area – letters from outside that area will not be accepted.
Letters will be printed in a timely manner. The Antigo Times’ deadline for the next issue’s print (delivered that coming Monday) is Thursday at noon, however letters must be submitted by no later than Wednesday at 12 p.m. for the upcoming edition. All accepted and approved letters will also be posted digitally on our website – antigotimes.com – in a timely fashion as well.
Letters must also be signed by the original author. The writer’s name, address, and phone number must also be provided even though the address and phone number will not be printed. Political letters intended to procure votes are constituted as advertising and should be handled by the candidate or party appropriately as such.
The Antigo Times has the right to shorten, edit, or refuse any submission to the editor. We hope to hear from you soon and we appreciate both your readership and concern for our community. Please submit letters either to [email protected] or mailed c/o EDITOR, Antigo Times, 616 Fifth Avenue, Antigo, WI, 54409.
Public schools have come a long way from my, “View From the White Pine”
I am sometimes called a Jack Pine Savage, now and then a Kentuck. In the ’30s and 40’s many Northern Wisconsinites came from Kentucky, some of my ancestors included. Most are still proud of the nicknames. As a child born in a log cabin near Pearson and later lived in a tarpaper shack on a knoll surrounded by swamps, I earned both of the nicknames. But it was the consolidated public schools that drove me to hide in the top of that pine tree and the reason I named that hosta, “Kwick’s White Pine View.”
Peering out of the branches of that pine tree I hid and watched as the school bus left with the lineup of my brothers and sisters. Seventy-plus years ago, the school was; sit down shut up, and do your three Rs. Thankfully, public schools have come a long way. Today’s Public Schools are oriented around the physical, emotional, and intellectual needs of students and those needs are rapidly expanding. Now, public schools address both the cognitive and physical gamut from handicapped to gifted, and they do it well.
Free and equal; public education is a great part of the glue that holds our democracy together. Going back those seventy-plus years, I wonder; without public education, where would we Kentucks and Jack Pine Savages be?
There are a lot of reasons we have to get out and vote. A woman’s right to choose combined with the assault on public education is important. The Republicans want to defund public education, where would smaller communities in Wisconsin be without public education? If it had cost a nickel to go to school, I wouldn’t have been able to attend.
To quote retired Eau Claire Superintendent of Schools, Marv Lansing, “The greatest program ever for homeless and problem children is the elementary teacher.” I would expand on that and include all public school educators. Today’s public schools would find that little boy hiding in that white pine and welcome him with open arms. The teachers would take him under their wings, nurture him and teach him that he is an important part of the world.
Society has a lot to be thankful for in public education. Vote!
Charlie Kwick, retired educator and hosta hybridizer.