Viewpoint

My wife is on a Teen Mom 2 kick. It happens once or twice a year, and I tolerate the show because hey, happy wife, happy life, right? In her latest binge session over last weekend, I heard through my peripherals that one of the stars of the show, Jenelle Evans, recently had an abortion...

Dear Editor: In a time that we often hear of false election results, on behalf of the Lawrence County Democratic Committee, and I believe all voters, I want to thank Lawrence County Clerk, Tammy Riebe, the staff in her office, and the many volunteer election judges that keep our elections safe, provide accurate results, and protect the fundamental principal of voting rights in our democracy...

One consistent trend has hit Monett every May — flooding. In three of the last four years, the month that proverbially brings flowers from April’s rains instead brought more rain. On May 21, 2019, a 3.5-inch downpour caused Kelly Creek to break its banks, leaving a mess of mud and piles of branches across Broadway. In less than an hour, the creek went from flowing at the 4-foot mark to flowing down Sixth and Seventh streets into downtown, lasting more than three hours before receding...

Mrs. Bailey, Mrs. Flynn, Mr. Foster and Prof. Rhodes. These four and many more made an impact on me as a child. From neighbors to coaches and family friends, it takes a village to raise children, and a portion of that rearing is thanks to these four individuals — my teachers...

One of my most challenging assignments when I started my journalism career was a beat I had never explored before — the farm and ranch beat. Having absolutely zero clue what news farmers and cattlemen in White County, Ark., would want delivered to them, I sought some guidance at the local Extension Office...

A year and six days ago, I wrote in this column about how much of a snoozer the April General Municipal Election. I can’t do that this year. With multiple contested school board races, including two in Monett; a mayoral race in Pierce City; and a county sales tax on the ballot, there were plenty of reasons to show up to the polls on April 5...

The weight of the world seemingly dropped onto the Barry County Sheriff’s Office this week. On Saturday, videos began circulating depicting jailers engaging in activities that have led to the Missouri State Highway Patrol conducting an investigation into any wrongdoing...

As far as municipal elections go, this Tuesday’s may be one of the most impactful in a few years, especially for Monett voters. Those who live within the Monett school district will have two separate school board races to decide, offering the ability to vote in a quorum in a single election. There are two 3-year seats with three candidates and two 1-year seats with five candidates, races that will surely be close...

The Barry County Commission has been mulling solutions to the issues at the Sheriff’s Office and jail for years, and although a new 0.5-cent sales tax is a bitter pill to swallow, the proposal on the ballot on April 5 is one that truly needs to pass...

I have been waiting even longer than last time to write this piece, afraid I might upset the karmic universe, but it may be safe to say there’s a light at the end of the dark, two-year-long tunnel of COVID-19. It was March 23, 2020, when schools shut down for an apparently fast-moving virus spreading across the world, the novel Coronavirus...

Through my early adulthood, I did not put much emphasis on owning a home. Part of that was my still-adventurous spirit and not wanting to be tied down, but another part was something I’m sure many my age have felt at one point or another — it’s not possible...

Tuesday was easily the most eventful day of my career. It all started bright and early on Tuesday morning, when locals can faintly hear the trout whispering through the hills and hollers saying, “Catch me if you can.” This Opening Day, my eighth, was my second flying solo, not tagging behind the exuberant Murray Bishoff on March 1st mornings. Those who go to Opening Day every year know what I mean...

Part of the enjoyment of sports coverage is sharing in the excitement of a goal achieved of the despair of having a goal slip through your fingertips. Both of those scenarios occurred last Saturday at the 2022 MSHSAA Wrestling Championships in Columbia, and while the competitors change, the feeling generally stays the same...

Dear Editor: A thank you to Schreiber Foods, Inc., for providing a free meal on Valentine’s Day to those of us who ate the Monett Senior Citizens Center. Schreiber Foods was founded in 1945 and has 8,000-plus employees nationwide, including their plant in Monett...

There’s nothing worse than a rabbit hole of “contact us” pages, automated phone systems and brief holds — otherwise known as my Thursday. I am an early tax filer. My parents taught me how to navigate TurboTax, and I typically look forward to the end of January and being ready to file for my refund...

I had just turned 16, and after having my learner’s permit for two years, I was ready to take my driving test and get on the road. I drove my dad’s old 1999 Ford Expedition to the Arkansas State Highway Patrol building where tests were done, waited my expected time in line and was finally escorted by a trooper back to the car to get the show on the road...

Today’s kids are missing out. As a child, when wintry weather was forecast, my siblings and I would wake up with excitement, rushing to the TV to turn on the morning news. There, at the bottom, was the list of closings. It scrolled alphabetically and was longer than a pre-snowpocalypse grocery receipt. We had to pay close attention, because we went to different schools and had to make sure all were closed...

What if I told you I knew a place where you could get a free Krispy Kreme donut and soda or juice? If that sounds enticing to you, what if I told you that right before you got those goodies, you could take a small action that could save one, two, three or more lives?...

Dear Editor: Monett has a big problem. It’s there on fast food parking lots where starving animals search for bits of discarded food. It’s along highways where a confused dog is trotting, looking for her heartless owner who dumped her and her puppies beside the road, then sped away...

The frigid weeks of January can lead to some pretty cold news days in my industry — but not this year. The bustle of the last 14 days have provided numerous topics of conversation among readers, and even authors. For this reason, I am again resorting to a tactic used by the former owner of the Cassville Democrat, Bob Mitchell, and employing the “off the spike” technique of addressing multiple notes in one sitting...

School districts generally try to stay out of politics, but that has never stopped politics from finding its way into schools. Such was the case this week for the two largest school districts in Barry County — Monett and Cassville. At Monett, word began spreading of a book being deemed unfit for assigned reading. Sure enough, “Dear Martin” had been axed from the freshman English I assignment list, replaced with the ever-maligned “To Kill A Mockingbird.”...

In the past 22 months, I have heard more Greek alphabet talk than when I lived on-campus in my college days. As it stands, we are in the midst of the grasp of the COVID-19 pandemic’s 15th Greek letter variant — Omicron — with only nine letters left to Omega and the birth of a whole new naming system yet to be determined, according to the World Health Organization...

’Twas a week before Christmas, and at The Monett Times, Busy hand were a’typing requests for iPads and slime. Each year we ask second-graders their wishes from Santa, And while most requests are common, some make us say, my lanta! There are 456 letters on their way to Kris Kringle this year,...

There was a shake-up in the Barry County jail last week, and in the aftermath was a wake of complaints about the facility’s operation and abilities. For many years now, it has been common knowledge that the jail facility in downtown Cassville has needed to change. I have known of a number of issues with the building, but former Sgt. Walter Burrows II alerted me to more than I had thought...

From stocks to trading, supply chain and the availability of anything thicker than single-ply toilet paper, there has been an incredible amount of volatility in society over the last 20 months. One of the greatest areas of volatility is in the jobs market. During the shutdown last year, thousands across the country lost their jobs, as did many locally...

Through my pre-teen and teenage years, I had a handful of different soccer coaches depending on where I was playing at the time, and each left their own impact. My first long-time coach was name Geoff Thompson, a Brit and a die hard Newcastle United fan. He was the first to truly instill in me how hard you have to work to be good at something, how taking days off sets you back and how the reward is worth the effort...

The most filling four-day weekend is peeking around this week’s corner, and my scale will not appreciate it. Thanksgiving has come quite abruptly if you ask me, but I can’t turn away from our feastly traditions and enjoying extra time with family. This year will be different again at my abode. For many years after moving to Missouri, I served as the meeting point between my Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma family, so I got to play host...

On Thursday, we celebrated Veterans Day, honoring and remembering all those who have served or still are serving this great nation in our military. The day always hits home for me personally. My grandfather, uncle and cousin all instilled a great Navy tradition at our family gatherings, and I have a brother currently serving overseas in the Air Force...

Dear Editor: My name is John Howerton and I am a graduate of Monett High school, Class of 1966. I am also a Vietnam veteran of 1967-1968. I want to honor another Monett graduate of 1966. Howard Andrew Threet was born on Feb. 22, 1948, and enlisted in the U.S. Army shortly after graduation. He was a Corporal with the 101st Airborne, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry, A Company...

Dear Editor: Where are the parents? Where are the responsible, respectable and reasonable adults? My friend asks these questions, when he and others clean up the Monett South Park restrooms because someone has put pea gravel down the sink drains; because someone has thrown soap in the fountain; because someone has painted graffiti on the shelter walls; because someone has harmed the lake animals; because someone has broken the pool equipment; or because someone has not picked up their own trash...

Dear Editor: Thursday was is Veterans Day. I researched the number of American military lives lost in all of our nation’s wars. In the ten major wars plus the five operations in the Wars on Terror, we have lost 1,368,331 military lives. I frequently talk with both high school and college graduates that I meet around town, and I have found that very few know the most basic things about any of these wars, such as (1) the approximate time period in which they were fought. ...

It’s no question that winter is coming, evidenced by the chilly temperatures this week as November arrived. While I prefer the spring and fall to the dog days of summer and the icy bite of winter, the seasons come and go no matter how I feel, and if the midwest folklore is any indication, this winter may be icier than normal...

Halloween is nigh and the tricks and treats will be aplenty as youth flock to area trunk or treats, or participate in the time-old tradition of going door-to-door. When I was a kid, the anticipation of Halloween and choosing a costume was always the biggest joy for my siblings and me. In my younger years, my mother would craft our costumes. For some reason, we dressed up a lot as candy to get candy. Two outfits I distinctly remember were my brother and I going as M&Ms and Hershey’s kisses...

As much as we’d love to say we do, we don’t always get it right. Such is the case of Alvin Blake, former letter writer to The Monett Times that will not get any more space on this page. Why? Turns out, Mr. Blake, if that is his real name, does not appear to be a Monett resident as he purported to be...

Pierce City Leader-Journal Editor Paul Donley and I were talking before the Eagles football game a couple weeks ago and he told me his 50th wedding anniversary was this month. I’ve had plenty of people tell me their anniversaries are coming up, and I’ve celebrated the anniversaries of my parents and other extended family...

The color pink has many meanings and interpretations in society, but none are more significant than the color’s use in October each year, aimed at raising awareness for breast cancer. National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, started in 1985, is an international campaign that — largely thanks to all the pink — is probably the most visible of any health-related awareness day or month throughout the year. ...

A week ago, I sat in anticipation as my journalism colleagues throughout the state accepted their Better Newspaper Contest awards, itching to hear the winners of this year’s Gold Cups and if The Monett Times would win another one. Last year, we won our first in a strange year. ...

There’s no good way to report bad things. All too often, I am tasked with one of my least favorite job duties — writing a crime story where a child or children are the victims of alleged sexual abuse. These crimes are much more prevalent than you may think, and while not a scientific number, I’m confident in saying 95 percent of child sex crime cases I report involve children who know and trust the adults accused of the abuse...

If there’s one thing I have come to learn about people in southwest Missouri, it’s that they love a good festival. The season of festivals has been upon us for a few weeks now, and you don’t have to travel even an hour each weekend at this point to spend all your money on craft booths, spin your kids into vertigo or train yourself for Thanksgiving-level calorie intake...

It was another Tuesday. I got up, had breakfast, got ready, took the bus to school and played my morning pickup games of basketball with my friends at Dunbar Middle School in Little Rock, Ark. It was time to head in for class, so I made my way to my third floor, eighth-grade homeroom, Mrs. Flynn’s English class...

Most weeks, coming up with a topic for this column is fairly simple and straightforward, but sometimes, there are too many things to talk about but not enough about one thing to make it the star. In this situation, I am resorting to a tactic used by the former owner of the Cassville Democrat, Bob Mitchell, and employing the “off the spike” technique of addressing multiple notes in one sitting...

For the second year now, students have returned to classes in August with some abnormality. After classes were canceled entirely in the spring of 2020 due to COVID-19, robbing many seniors that year of prom, graduation and athletics seasons, our education system has not been the same since...

At 12:46 a.m. on Aug. 11, 2021, my life changed forever. About 15 hours prior, I was getting ready to go to the office for the day. I had a couple stories to still cobble together, as I was expecting to work that day and the day after, then my wife was set to be induced on the night of the 11th...

The family of Jack Henry and Jerry Hall would like to clear up some information that has come forth from a book written on the autobiography of Glen Garrett. Recently there was an article printed in The Monett Times focusing on the 90th birthday celebration of Glen Garrett titled “The man, the myth, the legend.” In the article some of the information was taken from the book which contains some errors and we wish to correct those errors...

Working in the media is a one-of-a-kind type of career. You have to have a different outlook on subjects, a sense of motivation that others do not possess, the ability to make a story out of a subject that others would not think twice about, and a very, very tough exterior...

Forty weeks and two days ago, something amazing happened. I couldn’t see it happen, had no idea it had happened and actually didn’t intend for it to happen when it did. I suppose that makes my wife’s pregnancy much like many others. Our daughter was due on Thursday, but also like 95 percent of other parents, she did not make her debut when predicted...

When I was a sophomore, I was strolling my way to class when something caught my eye — The Tiger school newspaper, made by students and for students. I picked one up and was enthralled. My parents got the Sunday paper at home, and I always thumbed through the sports section and, of course, the comics, but I had never given thought to the role actual news plays and what reporting it would entail...

For the first time since February, I was on a conference call this week that I did not want to be on and that the organizer would rather not have to set up. CoxHealth held COVID-19 calls in November, December and February, initially detailing the initial surge of cases and eventually highlighting the arrival of vaccines that everyone hoped would break the wave...

For almost half a decade, police forces across the country have started to see a steady dip in their ranks, and the Barry County Sheriff’s Office roster is becoming a prime example of how fewer employees can lead to larger issues. Right now, the county is at 67 percent of its normal staffing, and where the office is hurting the most is where the public is most likely to see them — the road...

A week ago, my wife, daughter and I sat down for lunch at a local Monett eatery, discussing the topics of the day as we waited for our meal to be delivered. We were discussing the COVID-19 vaccine rates and the latest news on the delta variant, specifically the Tweet from CoxHealth President Steve Edwards telling vaccine nay-sayers to “shut up.”...