The Sentinel

Photo of the Day - December 7, 2020

Champaign Dream's Kohlten Johnson, of St. Joseph, winds up for a pitch at the First Pitch Father's Day Hardball Tournament Saturday on June 14 in 2008. He and the 9-and-Under traveling baseball team went down swinging losing to Steffen Heating and Air Conditioning, 19-2. Eight years later, Johnson grew into a 6-foot-1, 170-pound, right-handed Spartan hitter that help the program to its first IHSA Baseball State Finals in 2016. He was also a member the St. Joseph-Ogden basketball team that brought home a Class 2A state title months earlier in March.
[Photo: PhotoNews/Clark Brooks]

Guest Commentary: The best part of Christmas is everyone coming together

By Glenn Mollette, Guest Commentator

Christmas has different beginning times for most everyone.

For some it's when you put up the Christmas tree and decorations. For others it's when you wrap some presents and put them under the tree. While for others it's about the Christmas music. When they first start hearing Christmas songs on the radio then Christmas has begun for them.

Christmas may begin for you when your family arrives home to share in your celebration. Or your Christmas celebration may really begin when your family finally leaves.

When I was a child Christmas started for me when everything came together. The big fresh tree was hewn down from the hillside. Once it was decorated, I started watching for Santa. But it still was 't Christmas until I came up with a big package of firecrackers, cherry bombs and other noisy fireworks. I always loved putting firecrackers and cherry bombs under cans to see how far they would fly through the air.

My mother would make cookies, cakes and pies. My dad would always buy a big box of apples and oranges. It seems like they lasted a week.

Christmas really began when family came home. When we all got together that's when it seemed Christmas really started. The excitement came by us all being together. Sharing gifts was fun and provided moments of laughter. Eating my mother's delicious meal was always a stable holiday treat we always enjoyed.

The best past part was everyone being together for a couple of days. With social distancing, this may be one element of Christmas that many will not get to enjoy in 2020.

So many thousands of people have died from Covid-19 and they will be missed at the Christmas table. If this is you please cling to the hope of life beyond this world and that you will see your loved one again.

I believe throughout our planet that seeing our sick friends get well would make Christmas for all of us.

Christmas is different this year. We must enter Christmas this year with hope. You have to have hope to live. Life without hope is like a car with no fuel. A vaccine for Covid-19 is coming. We are praying this will spare lives in 2021. We have hope that by next Christmas we can all get together and celebrate.

Keep in mind there has never been anything normal about Christmas. Mary and Joseph and the baby spent their first Christmas in a barn which was like a cave for animals. The baby was laid in a cow's trough for a bed. Christmas always has the potential of being very different.

Remember Christmas is in your heart and that's where your main celebration and hope lie. May hope and Christmas be bright and rekindled anew and afresh.

May you within your spirit hear the bells on Christmas day. And, may you hear the angels sing, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to all men on whom his favor rests."

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Dr. Glenn Mollette is a syndicated American columnist and author of American Issues, Every American Has An Opinion and ten other books. He is read in all 50 states. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily representative of any other group or organization.

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This article is the sole opinions of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of PhotoNews Media. We welcome comments and views from our readers.

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St. Joseph resident creates fund to help front-line, essential workers

A St. Joseph resident is on a mission to help others. Kelly Miller-Skinner, owner of Soul Care Urban Retreat Center in Urbana, has created a Pay It Forward Grant campaign on GoFundMe. Her goal is to raise at least $2,500 that will allow front line workers to spend to spend an hour in quiet rest or attend programs about spiritual wellness practices.

"I don't know about you, but during these last nine months, there have been numerous people who have helped me and my family and made sure that we have managed through this challenging time," Miller wrote in a post on Facebook. "All these folks pouring out of themselves day after day without hesitation. But they also have loads of extra stress and anxiety. And they don’t always have the money to do something to take care of themselves. They always put others first."

So far, donors have contributed $205 toward Miller-Skinner fundraising effort that will benefit educators, first responders, healthcare workers, civil servants, pastors and ministers, social workers, counselors and mental health providers, retail and restaurant workers.

"All these people are pouring out of themselves day after day without hesitation," she said. "Won’t you pay it forward by making a contribution?"

For more information contact Miller-Skinner at Soul Care Urban Retreat Center by phone at (217) 996-1752 or by email at info@soulcareexperience.com. Donations can be made online with GoFundMe at Pay It Forward Grants.

Photo of the Day - December 6, 2020

Matt Foreman, Mitchell Blair and Ryan Barnes hold championship plaque — Spartans win Leader Classic Title

St. Joseph-Ogden seniors Matt Foreman, Mitch Blair and Ryan Barnes hold the 2005 Leader Classic Holiday Basketball Tournament team award in 2005. The Spartans posted its third consecutive title after defeating Monticello at the annual basketball tournament sponsored by the weekly print newspaper published and owned by St. Joseph resident Scott Hunter. The name of the tournament changed after The News-Gazette, who purchased *The Leader* from Hunter, shuttered at the end of August in 2018. Not wanting to see the tournament's run end, Toyota of Danville stepped up to become the title sponsor. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

Photo of the Day - December 5, 2020

Rocket's Seth Gooch and Spartans' Evan Brummet

We have an obligation to our heroes

Op-Ed by Darren Bailey

More than two dozen Illinois veterans residing at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home have died from COVID-19. If this seems familiar, you are correct. We’ve been down this road before.

"The obligation we have to these heroes and to their families is sacred and to have that obligation so thoroughly neglected is an unconscionable moral failing. This is incompetence. It is gross mismanagement. This is what happens when a governor refuses to take charge."

This statement isn’t being made by me. It was made more than two years ago by J.B. Pritzker, who was commenting about then-Governor Bruce Rauner and the Legionnaire’s Disease outbreak at the Quincy Veterans’ Home.

To date, 30 veterans have died due to the COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home, with 89 percent of the residents infected. Apparently, state government hasn’t learned its lesson.

We have a moral obligation to our veterans and Governor Pritzker is failing to live up to that obligation. As J. B. previously pointed out, the buck stops at the Governor’s office.

Sentinel Op-Ed A recent report by the U.S. The Department of Veterans Affairs, cited by the online news site The Center Square, indicated the home’s problems included ventilation problems, ineffective hand sanitizer and a Halloween party staff reportedly attended. Where were Governor’s Pritzker’s mitigation rules?

According to media reports, staff who showed positive virus test results were also allowed to work in the home’s COVID wing. It’s also been reported, it took 12 days before the Illinois Department of Public Health responded to the LaSalle Veterans’ Home outbreak. Another media report by the Associated Press indicated the outbreak first began in late October when one staff member and a resident tested positive for COVID.

Given past experience with Legionnaire’s Disease, how quickly it spread at the Quincy Veterans Home, and the rapid increase in the number of positive COVID cases statewide, state government should have been on red alert.

In fact, it was known by late May that half of the COVID deaths were in nursing homes. If these congregate living arrangements would have been a priority, the elderly vets at LaSalle Veterans’ Home could have been better protected.

I join my legislative colleagues, Senators Sue Rezin whose district is home to the LaSalle Veterans’ Home and Paul Schimpf a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War, who are calling for additional legislative hearings to get to the bottom of this crisis that threatens the lives of our heroes. Lessons learned could help protect other Illinoisans at nursing homes around the state.

Our veterans deserve better than the failed leadership Pritzker has showed. Real leadership is more than just lecturing people, it is about real results.

"After fatally mismanaging the Quincy Veterans’ Home, @BruceRauner is letting persistent health issues jeopardize the wellbeing of our nation’s heroes. This is a shameful display of failed leadership." – J.B. Pritzker, March 30, 2018, Twitter

Governor Pritzker is bold enough to hand out advice, following it is apparently a different challenge.

Darren Bailey is an Illinois State Representative from the 109th District.