To the Editor
This last month Prairie students and athletes have been busy! It was nice to  see the girls track team bringing home another state championship, boys baseball team receive the academic champs, the softball team take second in state to up and coming Horseshoe Bend, HOSA and FFA doing well at state, and PHS being named School of Excellence was a nice way to wrap up the end of the year.  We are so fortunate for the teachers and community we have.
Jerry and Janet Richardson
 

Redneck Review!
No. 111 - 6/5/2017
Enough!  It is common experience that a time comes when discussing a certain topic reaches a saturation point, a "diminishing return" quality that demands it be dropped! Even a pleasant experience like over eating ice cream has such a disastrous moment!
So too its true with our treatment of economic systems which struggle hard to make the good things of life available to all, attempting to create a kind of utopia where wants and desires of all can be satisfied.  Such attempts have been given the name SOCIALISM both currently and in history.  And all who have kept up with events in our country this past year and over the past several decades know that a utopian socialism has gained a new popularity in our country, and dominates the economic departments of many of our colleges and universities today.  Thus it is not surprising that many of our college
grads are fans of the system and politicians like Bernie and Hillary!
But why?  It has been argued here that common sense tells us that a system cannot take from producers and give to non-producers for an extended period of time without major problems occurring.  Thinking about it tells us this is true!  And history of civilizations like Greece and Rome in the past, and the present state of countries like Venezuela confirm these common sense conclusions.
Is there some kind of an economic death wish found in socialism's supporters?  Older folks like myself, call us Red Necks if you wish, because we seem to be old fashioned, and out of touch with modern thinking, cannot help but remember what it was like back in the mid 1900's, when government efforts to level the economic status of all people were far less visible. True, a careful observer could see the beginnings in many little ways. But, federal aid to farmers was in its infancy, and federal aid to education was still only a dream in the minds of socialist thinkers.  Government debt was low at the time, most of it a result of WWII, and other smaller wars.  Families were more intact, and disasters striking a particular family were often resolved by helpful neighbors and local churches.
The differences between then and now are easy to see!  Private college years in the mid'50's normally cost less than $1000, and public universities and colleges cost even less. The small Hershey bar I impulsively bought at Walmart recently, advertised on sale at 75cents, was twice as large in my youth, and cost a single nickel.  Stamps at 49 cents now sold for decades for 3 cents. And on and on!  The new Ford or Chevy car sitting in the show room could be purchased for as little as $1700.
Yes, times have changed!  Today we have government telling us how to teach our schoolchildren, how to farm our ground, what prayers we can or cannot say, and where we can or cannot say them.  Our country which we were once taught was a "melting pot," a kind of stew in which all of the nationalities and ingredients tended to blend together to form a final product, an American who was patriotic and loved his country, and who tended to be oblivious to individual differences, has now become more like a "salad bowl" where each
ingredient retains its identity, and often refuses to accept its near neighbor.  Immigrants who come here are no longer expected to blend into the existing society, to learn our language and become citizens, but are often encouraged by government to maintain their foreign customs and identity, even where that difference is actually opposed and destructive to the way of life attracting them here in the first place!  So again, a person is inclined to ask, why would anyone want to throw away the old system and adopt the disastrous new?
Jake Wren

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