Opinion

Dear Editor, As I sit in my living room on the north side of Avon, I see several wind turbines. The temperature is 8 and the furnace is going almost nonstop.

Do you know anyone who had influenza this past year? Chances are you do not. Sure, plenty of people had the “stomach flu” with vomiting and diarrhea, otherwise known as gastroenteritis. Some people had colds and others had COVID-19. But cases of influenza this season have been exceptionally low.

At the time of this writing, it appears that House bill 1140 will become law. It will “handcuff game wardens” according to my friend John Cooper, former GF&P Secretary from 1995 to January 2007. I believe John, and I believe the former GF&P people who have been critical of the bill.

Last summer we heard the prediction that by the end of 2020, we would have a safe, effective vaccine to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which had only been discovered, of course, in December 2019, before causing countless deaths and mayhem in the world as we knew it. I must admit, I was skeptical.

I’ve learned a lot from my patients over the years. Sometimes, the lessons are learned as I walk beside them through struggles, both medical and non-medical.

Last week’s column told of the low morale of the Sioux people in 1882 at the Standing Rock agency and Major James McLaughlin’s effort to improve the morale by instigating a buffalo hunt on the western edge of the Standing Rock. The following is a continuation of how that great hunt went.

Allow me to throw a little history at you today. It’s about what was unquestionably the greatest hunt ever in the history of the Dakota Territory.

No South Dakotan alive today shook the hand of our first governor, Arthur Mellette, or stood with Valentine McGillycuddy atop Black Elk Peak. But we can still gain insight into the men and women who helped shape our state through the people who study and portray them today as historical re-enactors.

Many people are familiar with the classic Abbott and Costello comedy skit “Who’s on First?

PSALM 139:1-14 "O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my down sittings and mine uprising, thou understandeth my thoughts afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.