To Freeborn County donors to the Relay for Life.

Freeborn County ranked fourth in the nation in 2012 for funds raised per capita. That is super cool. It reflects what we already know: Our community sure is a giving community. We care about curing cancer, whether it is the Freeborn County Relay for Life, the Freeborn County Bike-A-Thon, the Geneva Cancer Auction or any of the other events that raise funds to support cancer patients and to afford research to beat this scourge. Keep it up, Freeborn County.

To talk of getting rid of the Pro Bowl.
Sure, the National Football League’s Pro Bowl not played all-out, but what all-star professional game is? Not in the National Basketball Association. Not in Major League Baseball. Not in the National Hockey League. The Pro Bowl retains value because it is an honor for the players to qualify for the game, and it is a thrill for the fans to see some of the greatest football players on the same field. And the Pro Bowl still gets more TV viewers than the World Series. Despite hollow threats from Commissioner Roger Goodell, the game will continue to exist. We don’t care if the contest is played in Honolulu, Hawaii, or Bangor, Maine, but it would be an error for the NFL to get rid of the game.

To lifting the ban on women serving in combat.
It’s about time. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta this past week called for the removal of the ban on women serving in designated combat units such as the infantry. It won’t mean that every woman soldier will be eligible to serve in combat units but not every man soldier is able to meet the requirements either. The decision to lift the ban comes after a decade of war where warfare changed. The fights weren’t taking place on the big-scale battlegrounds like the olden days — some fighting even was house to house, alley to alley. Many units not designated for direct combat ended up in combat. The military learned that many women could hold their own in those fights. And the special treatment for women in combat that many men thought would be a problem wasn’t much a problem at all. Soldiers are soldiers, and they are duty-bound first. Getting rid of the ban really was a foregone conclusion.