PARTLY NONSENSE

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN JOEL KLAASSEN
I was very sorry to learn of the death of my friend and Burns postmaster Lou Anderson last week. His position as Burns postmaster is how I got to know him more than five years ago. He was passionate about the town of Burns and the well-being of its citizens.

He was extremely accommodating to the Free Press as well. Some people just want to help, and he was one of those people. He would come out of the office and carry the mailbags into the building. If we were running late he would call ahead for us so the next post office on our route would know we were still on our way.

I’m regretting now that I didn’t send him a card when I learned he recently had surgery. I just thought I would see him soon, but I learned all over again that nothing can be taken for granted in this life.

A cousin and his wife made a trip to Hillsboro this past Saturday so they could have their car repaired at one of our auto dealers and so she could shop for bargains at Nancy’s store while in town.

To kill a little time, he stopped by the office to catch up a bit. He seemed to be in a hurry to get back so his wife wouldn’t have too much time to spend money. At the same time, I was trying to keep him occupied longer so she would have more time to shop.

— I found an article from the Independent Media Institute to be quite interesting. It was titled, “The High Price of Wal-Mart.” This falls into the category of the “Big Picture” for me.

There isn’t room to include everything mentioned, but the article showed how a company with $250 billion in annual revenue actually comes with a price tag that state legislatures are beginning to address.

Because of Wal-Mart’s low wages and lack of benefits, many of its employees are forced to rely on government assistance for health care-costing state governments millions of dollars.

Of citizens receiving state assistance in Washington State, more work for Wal-Mart than anywhere else, according to the Seattle Times. Legislators in that state are now asking that big businesses such as Wal-Mart pony up and help pay for the state’s basic health-care assistance plans.

What this means to me is that shoppers who are supposedly “saving all of that money” can add some of the state taxes they pay right back onto the price tag of whatever it was they bought there.

As a believer in shopping with friends and neighbors, Wal-Mart and its practices have never appealed to me. I have no desire to spend my money there now or ever. In the long run, it can never be a better deal because the perception of saving money is just that-a perception.

Once the money goes to Wal-Mart it is gone-gone for good and never coming back. How can that help our local economy sustain itself or our quality of life?

Patient to doctor: My eye hurts every time I drink tea.

Doctor: Try taking the spoon out of the cup.

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