A rose to the New Hope Elementary School students who participated in an international robotics competition this week in Louisville, Kentucky. Fifth-graders Thomas Oglesby, Brady Hogan and Joshua Wilcox were among students from 30 countries who competed. While they did not place among the top teams, we applaud the students’ participation and the school’s support. Too often these days, the focus is placed on preparing for standardized tests at the expense of the arts, extra-curricular activities and even physical education. While we understand the pressures for a district to put an emphasis on testing, we venture to say these three students learned more from preparing for and competing in this project than any standard classroom work.
A rose to Volunteer Starkville and youngsters from Oktibbeha, Clay and Winston counties, for their efforts to brighten the days of our military serving far from home. Any soldier will tell you that letters from “home” are powerful medicine for the spirit and the simple, heart-felt offerings written by a child’s hand are especially powerful.
Volunteer Starkville has participated in this program, called “Operation Gratitude” since 2014. While people of all ages can participate, the project is particularly meaningful for kids as they learn about service to others. Last year, Volunteer Starkville contributed 1,600 letters during the week-long event, held in conjunction with National Volunteer Week, which ended Saturday. Officials expect to hit the 2,000-mark this year. Every one of those letters will be cherished by our men and women in uniform, we predict.
A thorn to the person or persons responsible for the billboard and website attacking Columbus mayoral candidate Selvain McQueen. While such negative advertising has become accepted practice in modern political campaigns, this effort is beyond the pale because those responsible have taken great efforts to conceal their identities. That, in itself, may be a violation of our election laws — the state attorney general’s office has made that ruling in cases similar to this one. Yet even if the website, billboard and fliers don’t violate any statutes, they violate the unwritten law of fair play. Anyone who is inclined to level serious charges such as those outlined on the website and alluded to in the billboard, should have the moral fortitude to stand behind them by providing their names. Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, whose office runs elections in the state, had no reservations on this subject. “Any group that doesn’t identify who they are are cowards, in my opinion,” he said. We agree.
A rose to the 14 Columbus Police Department recruits who will be headed for the state police academy in May. This is a major step in bolstering the city’s depleted staff. The 14 candidates, the largest group the city has ever sent to the academy, will increase CPD staffing to 60 officers, should all of them complete the course and continue their required training. That would leave the department just six officers short of its budgeted 66. Crime has been a significant issue in our city and numerous steps have been taken to address the matter — including hiring a consultant, beefing up patrols in some areas, asking some business owners to change their hours of operations and installing security cameras in some areas. But the best answer to this issue is proper staffing. We applaud these candidates and wish them every success. The citizens of Columbus are counting on you.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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