Starting a newspaper from scratch was something I had never done. I had been involved in several papers and had even managed or published both daily and weekly papers. I had my dad as a mentor and my customers who had trained me. But I had no operating manual, no rulebook and no experience in starting one from scratch.
Ron Cackler gave me a big lift.

What message did the voters of our community give our city government’s leadership through the recent charter election?
Although there may not be a definitive answer to this question, one could certainly draw several speculative conclusions.
Within the city limits of Cushing are 4,715 registered voters. Of those, 360 made the effort to make their vote count. As we reported in our Saturday issue, that’s 7.6 percent.

We recently read in the Citizen that Allied Waste was increasing the charge for dumping waste at the Luella location. The full impact didn’t register until the next occasion to experience it firsthand.

According to the Tulsa World, we’re out of step with the rest of the country. We’ll accept that compliment and that distinction with pride.
This distinction, intended by the World writer to be an insult, originated following the presidential election when each of Oklahoma’s 77 counties voted for John McCain.

City Hall proponents and members of a citizens advisory committee would have you vote “yes” on all eight of proposed charter changes without considering them critically. We suggest a critical look is healthy for an objective election outcome.

The Rotary Club of Cushing is arranging for funding for continuing education in infant mortality for the nursing staff at the Women’s Health Center at Cushing Regional Hospital.
Excellence has been a goal and a standard for Cushing Regional Hospital in all areas and continues to be a commitment. The hospital always has been supportive of investing in continuing education for staff to maintain the best possible level of care for patients and the best possible access to health care for the community and region.

“Cushing Rotary Club’s upcoming Grocery Grab is not just a fund-raiser,” Dr. Les White said. “It’s going to be a spectacle.”
Successes, reported by a Rotary friend from Louisiana, inspired Club President Dr. Mike Babb to engage the club’s help in launching the inaugural Cushing Rotary Club Grocery Grab. Until Nov. 20, Rotarians all over town are endeavoring to sell the maximum of 5,000 tickets for a buck each.

It seems like campaigning for the Nov. 4 general election has been going on for years. We don’t remember a campaign season lasting so long. Only 28 days from today we’ll know what the voters have to say about all these efforts to influence us one way or another.

Our U.S. House of Representatives voted down a bill that was Congress’ best effort to deal with the crisis of failing banks, mortgages and insurance companies. The result was a near-800 nosedive of the Dow, which gave more than half of that back on Tuesday.

In the short term it’s easier to argue the wisdom of our federal government spending upwards of $700 billion to bail out huge mortgage and mortgage insurance companies. Time will tell what the long-term effect will be. In any circumstance, this will be expensive to the taxpayers and expensive to generations to follow; as our generation doesn’t seem to be too concerned about reducing our nation’s debt that today stands at more than $9.7 trillion.