Editorials

When people gather Monday for Memorial Day services, tributes will be directed to those veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice, but all military veterans will be recognized for their services to this country. Memorial Day services in this area in recent decades have drawn larger crowds of appreciative people of all ages.

The start of every legislative session is similar to the start of every baseball season — hope springs eternal.

The 32nd annual Downtown Washington Fine Art Fair and Winefest is happening this weekend.

President Barack Obama is coasting to retirement. He’s been “disengaged” as to the day to day happenings in the federal government. Perhaps he’s dwelling on his legacy and his retirement from government when his term runs out. He may be thinking about the fat pension and other benefits a past president is given. Undoubtedly, he will be on a speaking tour to add to the millions of dollars he already has.

All murders are repugnant. But the most nauseating are those that result in deaths of newborns in abortion clinics. In what may be the most sickening case ever of murder in an abortion clinic occurred in Philadelphia where a doctor sank to a new low in murder.

The Franklin County Commission has shelved its “pave every road in the county” program. That was an ambitious program started several years ago which encountered oversight and rework problems that were costly. The program also was controversial because of a lack of justification for paving some roads with little traffic and even some for which the property owners adjoining them really didn’t want a hard-surface road.

The IRS scandal that is engulfing Capitol Hill is going to burn for a long, long time.

The headline read: “GOP May Push Benghazi Attack Into 2016 Contest.” The terrorist attack that killed four people, including our ambassador to Libya, at the U. S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi last September, continues to be in the news, especially due to congressional hearings. It’s not going to go away.

Our military has a serious problem with sexual assaults and high ranking officers say they recognize it and are dealing with it. We hope so.

The announcement last week that free rides are available to military veterans who have hospital appointments in St. Louis certainly was well received. It’s a great service for the men and women who served their country in the military.

It was with sadness Sunday when we read in the Post-Dispatch that the Rev. Lawrence Biondi planned to retire as president of St. Louis University after more than 25 years in the lead chair. If you have been following the St. Louis U. story for some time, it is obvious that he was forced to retire by a rebellious faculty and students who joined in the ouster movement, undoubtedly influenced by some of their instructors.

We don’t know about you, our readers, but we are sick of political correctness nonsense. Our attention was directed to Washington, D.C., where the Redskins football team is under attack because the team’s nickname is offensive to Native Americans.

Words are inadequate to describe the life of Pastor Herman Otten of Trinity Lutheran Church in New Haven. This Sunday he will conduct his final service as the full-time, called pastor of Trinity Lutheran. He is stepping back from being a full-time pastor after 55 years of remarkable service to his church and congregation. He is 80 years old.

Franklin County had the first Honor Flight organization in Missouri. Tuesday it became the first to have as a guardian Miss Missouri, who is Tippe Emmott of Springfield.

The United States is being pressured to enter the civil war in Syria. It would be a mistake for this country to become involved in another conflict in that part of the world.

Mayor Sandy Lucy and members of the Washington Area Highway Transportation Committee were informed Monday of a plan by the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) to add wide shoulders to Highway 47 from the north end of the Washington bridge to Highway 94 at Dutzow. The mayor said it all: “This is really good news.”

We hate to blow a few holes (pun intended) in the manufactured controversy that is sucking up all of the oxygen in the state Legislature, but no one is going to take any one’s guns away in Missouri.

A new star has arrived in law enforcement. Surveillance cameras are not new, and their importance in fighting crime is hardly new, but after what happened in Boston, the manufacturers, distributors and sellers of these cameras should be headed for a boom in business.

We don’t agree with Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of legislation that would have imposed local sales taxes on vehicles bought from out-of-state dealers or through sales between private parties. It’s the second time in two years that the governor has turned his back on the General Assembly’s legislation to correct this unfairness to Missouri vehicle dealers and to counties and cities that are shortchanged in sales tax funds.

Why hasn’t this issue come up before? The inquiry is, Show me evidence that the massive infrastructure spending supports our mission in Afghanistan. The inquiry was by Sen. Claire McCaskill of the Show Me state.

The threat of bombings by terrorists will be with us forever. Whatever their causes, terrorists will use bombs to kill and injure people and to create fear in people. There is no 100 percent protection that is possible.

The physical plant at any high school includes the athletic facilities. The condition of them is important. The condition tells a story about the district.

One of the pleasures of working in community journalism is being able to share the stories that inspire and uplift.

The U.S. Postal Service has backed off its plan to eliminate most deliveries of mail on Saturdays — at least for now. The Postal Service’s board of governors was critical of Congress in announcing the dropping of plans to curb Saturday deliveries in what it called a cost-saving measure.