To vaccinations.

Five players from the Minnesota Wild had the mumps recently, and they were among 20 from around the NHL. They remind us all that these childhood diseases are still around, and the outbreak reminds us all of the importance of vaccinations. Parents, please stay up to date on your children’s shots. Illnesses such as measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough do exist. Don’t think that vaccinations are unnecessary because of the success of several decades of vaccines. Mumps, known mostly for causing swollen saliva glands (and thus big cheeks), takes about two weeks to run its course before moving on. It also causes fever, headaches and body aches. There is no cure for mumps, so preventing it is the best bet. Get the shots.

 

To hype surrounding the Southeastern Conference in college football.

This thumbs down is our Big Ten and Big 12 bias coming out. We won’t deny it. But it’s good to see how the implementation of a playoff system in college football impacts the championship.

That’s because we feel like — pretty much every season — teams in the Big Ten have to slog it out all season long against rather tough competition, which made it more difficult to claim a stake in the old way of getting to the national title game thanks to its win-or-go-home means for picking the participants. That season-long tough competition would have readied the best Big Ten teams for postseason playoff action — if there had been one.

Meanwhile, it never has been a secret that the SEC has a slew of mediocre and lousy teams that each week get pummeled by that conference’s ordained powerhouses. Sports experts should judge a conference not by its best teams but by all the teams. After all, that’s what they seem to do in basketball. When the teams all beat each other, it’s called a good conference. If that happens in football, it’s a bad conference.

We would like go on record that the SEC was never the best conference in football. No conference can claim that. The SEC just had a setup that favored the controversial Bowl Championship System, giving it a seven-year title reign it wouldn’t have had under a playoff system. The college football playoffs will correct a lot of the speculation and hype. We even would be in favor of going to an eight-team setup, bringing in some of the other big bowl names (like Cotton and Peach) into the arrangement.

 

To Freeborn County 4th District Commissioner Christopher Shoff.

It’s one thing to be a county commissioner who stops in for a meeting every week, throws out some votes, comments on a few topics and goes home. It’s another thing altogether — a hallmark of leadership — to be a leader among your peers, to bring clout and respect to your community.

Shoff has proven this by becoming the president of the Association of Minnesota Counties for this year. He took over the gavel at a conference in December. He is proving to be a leader on key issues such as transportation and health care. He now leads an organization that represents more than 400 county commissioners and 38,000 county workers across Minnesota.

Thank you, 4th District commissioner, for stepping up to the plate, even though you never had to.