First, I’d like to express my appreciation for the Huntley Area Public Library. With a library card, you can, of course, check out physical or e-books. What people may not realize is that you can stream videos for free on Kanopy and Hoopla through the library. It is a great benefit for users. There are popular films as well as educational films and documentaries.
I recently watched the documentary “Ghost Bird” on Kanopy. The film is about the extinct Ivory Billed Woodpecker and people who believe it may still exist. It is a classic case of “don’t it always seem to go, you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone?” The sad thing is that it was humans that brought the woodpecker as well as passenger pigeons, Carolina Parakeets and countless other species to extinction. Through indifference, greed and ignorance, it continues to happen around the world.
Even sadder is that, in a supposedly well-educated nation, we have a president who denies climate change, would like to exploit national parks for oil and minerals, while clearing woods for roads and, in the case of
Big Bend National Park, to build a border wall. This is a man who looks at the natural world as something to be exploited for profit. We can, and should do better. As individuals, we can support environmental organizations and make our concerns known to those who in authority.
To quote another song “oh, when will they ever learn?”
Richard J Quigley
Huntley resident
For those who may not be aware, Ralph Wehnes recently passed away. Some in our community knew Ralph as the long time Computer Club Board Member responsible for organizing and scheduling the Club’s classes. On behalf of the many members in the Club who had the pleasure of working with Ralph, I’d like to say a few words about our friend.
I would have to believe that every Computer Club member has participated in several of the club classes. And if you did, Ralph was probably the guy who worked to get it scheduled. I’m sure everyone in our community knows the challenges of putting together volunteer activities, right? We’ve either asked our friends and neighbors to be volunteers, or we’ve been asked—numerous times—to step up and volunteer. And we all know that finding the volunteers we need is not easy. But it is one of the key reasons our community is so great!
Ralph understood that. Through his determination and dedication to developing good class topics and finding instructors, he helped all of us enjoy a great selection of classes over the years — classes that helped us improve our tech skills, and in many ways, enhanced our lives! Now, I can’t tell you exactly when or how I started teaching the Android class, but I KNOW, Ralph had something to do with it!
Kidding aside, Ralph was a joy to work with. He would often sit in on my classes, and afterward we would talk about ideas on making the class even better. After a while, I realized, Ralph was having just as much trouble with his darn phone as the rest of us! There were times when he’d say, “Steve, I know you showed me this the last time, but I just can’t get it to work now!” And we’d laugh — and go through it again. He had a wonderfully contagious laugh. As I think about Ralph today, there is one comforting thought, Ralph and Susie, his beloved wife, are back together again. Ralph frequently spoke so affectionately of Susie, who also recently passed. What a wonderful couple they are!
And you know, I can just see them up there right now, talking with people and hearing things like, “Oh, you put together computer and phone classes? Well, I should’ve run into you earlier, once I said these darn things were going to be the death of me! And now, here I am!” Why, I bet Ralph is already working on putting some classes together up there! And I’m looking forward to the day when we can once again work on some classes together.
Until then, my friend.
Steve Klein
Sun City resident Rutland Township Trustee
