I would like to pause a moment to praise the people whose “Here’s the Thing” essays are on Page 5 of the News-Banner each Wednesday.
As now constituted, the group is LaNae Abnet, Ken Ballinger, Billy Kreigh, Kathy Schwartz, and Anna Spalding. Kriegh and Spalding have been with the program since its first essay on Aug. 28, 2019; the other three of the original five were Jean Harper and the late Marlyn Koons and Amy Leeson.
It’s been my privilege to serve as the line editor for HTT, the shorthand I use to designate it each Wednesday. I wasn’t very good at first while we worked through details on the names and the presentation. Finally I asked them to provide me photos and we put together a column logo and a special display of each writer’s names. Things settled down after that.
What’s significant here is that they are about to reach the landmark of 200 essays written. They’ll hit that number with the essay written on July 19. In the interim, Schwartz will have some comment on Page 5 this Wednesday about being annoying (which is well worth reading) and Abnet will write on July 12 about homelessness.
Of the writers over the nearly four years HTT has been published, Spalding has written 50 and Kreigh has written 47. Marianne Darr-Norman wrote 26, and Harper, who has had two stints among the writers, has written 24. Ballinger is next at 20, with Leeson at 17, Koons at seven, and Abnet and Schwartz at four each.
I get these statistics from Spalding. Her list highlights the topics each essay was about. They’ve covered societal and individual ills. (It should be noted that Leeson and Koons both died of cancer, in March and April of 2021, respectively.) They’ve written things that have been provocative, which is in line with what their goals have been. As it says in the tagline we use each Wednesday, “their intent is to spur discussions at the dinner table and elsewhere,” which is followed by an invitation to write a letter to the editor if you so desire.
The “Here’s the Thing” writers are all former teachers. When I was in elementary school, I had several teachers whom I disliked strongly and I felt they disliked me even more. I can’t pinpoint exactly where the train went off the tracks regarding how my teachers and I felt about each other, but the rift was never repaired. However, when I got to junior high, things improved for the better. In high school, they were terrific. I remember my sophomore biology teacher, Mr. Bill Benner, said he was OK if we referred to him as Sweet Old Bill, but don’t use the initials. Mrs. Petina Tarr and Mr. Charles Alkire created a class, American Humanities, that seemed to have me in mind. I flourished under their instruction. It was so cool.
So it’s with those people in mind that I work with the retired teachers for HTT. I have no doubt that their former students appreciate hearing from them. I know I do.
daves@news-banner.com
