Commentary

The Kiwanis club is very grateful for all the people who contributed to our Boston Butt Scholarship lunch held Monday, April 3rd. Jimmy Dale Zimmerman and Autumn Leaves Nursing Home provided the potato salad, Sheriff Cranford Jordan and Don Reading at the Winn Detention Center provided the green beans, Mac’s Fresh Market provided the bread and Kiwanis President Kim Futrell provided the cakes. Those seasoning the meat and doing the cooking were Jim Nicols, Dr. Bill Gaddis, Lamar Tarver, Joe Evans, Dylan Womack, Ronnie Dubois, and Troy Rogers. Many Kiwanis members and friends were available to put the plates together and deliver those that were delivered. Thanks to our wonderful community for supporting our fundraiser that provides scholarships for 2 seniors in the parish and also a scholarship to the Technical College.

Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers improving the world one child and one community at a time.

Winnfield Kiwanis Club

April marks the end of Winter and the beginning of yet another season, leading us into the long days of Summer. Many of us will try to spend as much time as we can in the coming months enjoying the outdoors - whether that be on our patios, one of Louisiana’s waterways, or a favorite vacation spot.

In reality, that’s the Gospel Message: “It may be Friday now: but Sunday’s coming!!”

Anymore, it seems like every day’s Friday. . .like a real-life version of the moving “Groundhog Day”. . .where it’s the same day. . .over and over again.

Yes, anymore, every day is “Bad News Friday”: where our dreams are dashed on the hard rocks of reality and adversity and it’s “Every man for himself,” while “Doom, despair and agony on me” is playing on the radio: *The killing of innocent children in a Christian school by one whose heart and mind were dark, depraved and demonic *The terror of tornadoes, leaving massive destruction, devastation, deaths and despair in their wake *The deepening divide politically, financially, socially and spiritually in our nation and world, etc.

Time is one of our most valuable commodities. There are 24 hours in each day, which equals out to 1,440 minutes. We aren’t guaranteed a certain amount of time to live, so we need to make each minute count.

Yes, in order to survive, we have to work to produce an income. In addition to our job, we also have homes to maintain, yards to mow, errands to run, and still find time to eat and sleep.

What we fail to remember is we also need time to pursue other fun activities. In order to maintain a healthy physical and mental life, we need time to play, relax, and enjoy life. That’s when a Time Budget may come in handy.

A Time Budget works similar to a financial budget. It can show us at a quick glance where we are ‘spending’ our time.

I would like to congratulate our 11-12 year old boys baseball team “Jones Family Farm” on an amazing opening day game. We were able to walk away with a 7-0 win thanks to a phenomenal no hitter pitched by Cyrus Mockosher followed up with 4 RBIs by Cooper Gardner, and a great effort from everyone else on the field as well! Looking forward to a great baseball season this year and seeing what else our boys can do! Huge thank you to all parties involved in Dixie Youth for making this all possible. We would like to encourage everyone to come out and watch any and all ages play some ball at the Winnfield Recreational Center!

Logan Jones

The Louisiana Right to Life RV is making its way through the entire State of Louisiana educating and encouraging the general public about keeping Louisiana a pro-life state. The tour was focused on helping moms from conception to birth and throughout the process of either adoption or caring for their newborn. Louisiana Right to Life focuses on being a voice for the unborn child. Additionally the education was to offer support to all moms through the help of pregnancy centers and women’s resource centers to help with the needs that come with having a child.

The main goal of Louisiana Right to Life is protecting life from the womb to the tomb with no exceptions. During the tour we have been blessed with several testimonies from numerous individuals about their experience with either failed abortions, adoptions and the trauma that abortions cause for many years for the individual who chose terminating a pregnancy in lieu of carrying their unborn child to term.

We all love fresh produce from our gardens, but often we find we have a few space issues. We know we have to scale back, but still want as much of a variety as possible. One of the easiest ways I know to stretch my space is through companion planting.

Companion planting is a method of planting compatible plants next to, or in close proximity to each other. They benefit each other through pest control, shading and other means. In some cases, it is thought that companions also improve the flavor of each other.

For instance, Basil is best friends with tomatoes. Tomatoes shade the basil and helps keep it cool. Basil in turn protects the tomatoes from insects and diseases. It is said that the basil helps to improve the flavor of the tomatoes.

The Death of Academic Freedom Through DIE Movement: Diversity, Inclusion, Equity

It’s interesting to view modern events in the context of history. When we do, we are often surprised by the irony in some of the changes.

In the 1960’s in America, it was college campuses that were at the heart of the battle for free speech and academic freedom. College students regularly protested, picketed and engaged in “sit ins” on their college campuses demanding the right to be heard. One historic example is student protests regarding the Vietnam War. As a result, colleges and university administrations were often forced to compromise to meet these demands.

The exact opposite is occurring on college and university campuses today.

I have to confess – my eyes and desires are much, much bigger than my farm. If I planted every vegetable, herb, fruit and flower that catches my attention, I would have to move everyone out of the state of Louisiana just to have enough room.

Unfortunately, I really don’t believe my neighbors would appreciate that, so I have to rein myself in. Instead, I start in January, planning my garden. First, I think about what we love to eat most. Since Gumbo is usually on the menu at some point, I know I need to plant okra and parsley.

We love to grill, so that means I need a few sides to go along with the chicken, steak, or hamburgers. For that, my favorite sides are either a Pasta or Potato salad, and some squash pickles. The salads need pickle relish, and the squash pickles need bell peppers and squash.

It gets hot during the summer, so we love having just a cool meal from time to time. We often stir up a bowl of Bruschetta, which means I need tomatoes and basil.

Times were hard in 1941. Willie E. Godman, son of a Terry, Mississippi, farmer, knew there were no job chances for him after graduation so he started going to the Trade School in Hattisburg. Then came Pearl Harbor.

“They needed workers in the defense plants up north so I went to Fairfield, CT, where I was hired by Alcoa Aluminum.” Godman, known simply as “Bill” to all who knew him, worked in the area for about two years before being called up back in Mississippi.

“They gave us a choice,” Godman smiled. “I weighed only 119 pounds at the time and was not about to go into the Army. So I chose the Navy.” He went through boot camp in Bainbridge, MD. Though he doesn’t recall much of that experience, he concluded it wasn’t bad. “They didn’t yell at you and carry on, like in the Marines.”