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Roses&Thorns

Thorns to the spate of criminal activities in our area. This includes meth lab busts and thefts that have to be related to drug abuse. A tip led agents to a meth lab on Third Street on Wednesday. How disgusting was it to learn that there were youngsters in that house? How pitiful too is it that someone would risk arrest to swipe a handful of coins out of a car’s cup holder — the kind of reports you often read in our police reports. We report drug-related news on our pages. Including all of the times when Narcan is administered, often to repeat abusers. Yes, go figure…. Roses for community members who alert police to suspicious activities. Such monitoring is another weapon against the never-ending fight against drugs and related crimes.

Roses for all the area high school students who surrender large parts of their waning summer vacations to devote themselves to football and other fall sports programs. This includes band members and cheerleaders. Working out and practicing in 90-plus heat index weather isn’t much fun but it produces dividends. The sweat equity is worth it. Among the biggest is developing a sense of self-satisfaction that comes with knowing you gutted it out: earning the privilege to wear your school’s team uniform on a football Friday night. Or during a big cross-country meet or volleyball or soccer match. You don’t have to be the star quarterback to feel great about making a commitment and following it through. That kind of work hard ethic will be a companion long after you step off a field for the final time. So will a repository of great memories. The best of luck to all of our fall sports participants.

Roses for those, including churches, distributing backpacks, school supplies and even outfits to local kids. This includes Church Women United of Salem which distributed vouchers for clothing and shoes in a child’s name to be utilized at Walmart. This takes some of the financial burden off parents. Including single-parent moms who actually work for a living instead of loafing around the house and sucking up all the government handout entitlements out there. Take advantage of it. There shouldn’t be any shame with accepting the kindness of fellow citizens wanting to help out you and your kids if you are truly deserving. And to those thinking otherwise: shame on you.

Roses for Hall of Famer Jim Brown. The legendary Cleveland Brown, now 82, was asked about players kneeling while the national anthem played. “I am not going to denigrate my flag and I’m going to stand for the national anthem,” he said. “I’m fighting with all of my strength to make it a better country, but I don’t think that’s the issue. Because what is the top side? Are you not going to stand up? This is our country, man.” Bravo, bravo. That coming from a big football name who turned activist post-NFL championing civil rights and fighting for social change and justice. He really gets it when it comes to being a true American. Like most of us do.

Roses for the Cleveland Indians doing what they have to do. They will win their division by 20 games or so. Disturbing is that through Thursday while the Indians are 35-16 in their division — which is the worst in all of baseball — they are just 29-34 outside of it. Which doesn’t bode well for the playoffs and a reputation for gagging and burning in closeout games. It’s hard to swing a bat and throw a ball while wearing a choke collar.

Thorns and a dunk in the ink vat for those pesky gremlins that plagued our press room while composing Thursday’s edition. Yep, a sports page from our sister newspaper in Lisbon nudged out our regular comics page in our print edition. The internet version of our Thursday edition was fine. But we certainly realize that many of our readers look forward to getting an early morning laugh from the comics. Many enjoy doing crossword puzzles. So we ran the missing comics page in our Friday edition. Roses for those readers understanding that mistakes do happen to all of us. And we certainly apologize profusely to those who never make mistakes but readily point out those by others. We admire if not outright envy your utter perfection.

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