Editorial: Thumbs

To Wind Down Wednesdays.

It’s good to see strong turnout for Albert Lea’s summertime-in-downtown get-together, even with construction prompting a change of location. A similar event in a neighboring city faltered due to lack of attendance and support. Many downtowns across America have pulled these off successfully, so it’s good to see Albert Lea headed on the right track. We look forward to the next Wind Down Wednesday on July 17.

 

To parents ignoring their children.

We would like to thank letter writer Char Butterfield for describing an incident she saw in a clinic waiting room where a mother was too busy with her cellphone to pay attention to her 5-year-old boy and repeatedly said: “Shut up and sit down or I’ll spank you.” People wonder how children grow up and become troublemakers, or worse, criminals. Ignoring them starting at young ages is a cause. It makes them feel unloved early on, when they dearly need love, lots of it, to build confidence and self-acceptance. Yes, parenting also means setting rules, but those rules shouldn’t mean treating them like they are inconveniences. Butterfield was right when she wrote: “They are little for such a short time. Soon they won’t want your attention.”

 

To our friends in northern Minnesota.

We love southern Minnesota, to be sure. But we cannot deny the joy people from our region get when they visit the North Woods and the North Shore in the summer to go biking, fishing, hiking or relaxing. Here are a few fun spots to visit if you are planning a trip this summer with children: Split Rock Lighthouse and Gooseberry Falls north of Two Harbors, the source of the Mississippi River at Itasca State Park, the rocky harbor at Grand Marais, the Lost Forty in the Chippewa National Forest, a boat ride across big Lake Mille Lacs, a tour of Soudan Underground Mine State Park, statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox in Bemidji and the Tall Ships Festival in Duluth.