S-N Editorial

A beautiful sight to behold

Hartley's new pool a welcome addition to City With a Heart

Hartley children have been able to enjoy something they haven't experienced in four years – a pool in town.

The ribbon was cut on the city's new aquatic center late last month following two years of delays. That saga is well known by now and there's no need to dwell on the details. Hartley finally has its pool, and residents in the City With a Heart can be grateful for that.

The facility has been well received and bustling with activity when the weather is nice. Local officials have kept admission prices and season passes reasonably low, too, which is a nice break from today's norm. The concession stand prices won't break your budget either.

Though the path to reaching opening day was arduous, it was worth it so long as the community got its new pool. In the end, that's better than a lot of cities Hartley's size can say.

The community owes a debt of gratitude to the pool taskforce committee members, city officials and employees for getting us here. Their hard work and perseverance were commendable in finally getting things over the finish line. The appreciation can be seen in the smiling faces and chorus of giggles coming from the pool each afternoon.

Nothing worth it is ever easy. Though everyone can agree it shouldn't have been this hard, Hartley can be proud – if not relieved – that it finally has a pool again.

The toilet keeps on swirling

Historical significance of Trump's conviction should not be ignored because of political tribalism

It's often said no one is above the law in America. Last week, that theory was put to the test.

Former President Donald Trump was convicted by a New York jury on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records during his 2016 presidential campaign. As you may well know by now, the smudged numbers were related to hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged affair between the two.

It should go without saying the verdict was unprecedented – no other president in U.S. history has earned the title of felon. That should mean something.

As expected, Republicans rushed to the former president's side to claim the case was a sham orchestrated by the Biden Administration. Never mind that it was a local case in New York pertaining to an incident that occurred before Biden was even thinking about running for president in 2020. Never mind that it was a jury of Trump's peers who decided his fate and not an appointed judge. Never mind the evidence was overwhelming, hence the unanimous decision.

American politics are such a mess that last week's verdict seems like a blip on the radar in the grand scheme of the last eight years. We never see beyond the political equation anymore and scurry to our corners no matter how seemingly insignificant an issue might be. A former president and frontrunner for the presidency being convicted of 34 felonies crosses that threshold of objective significance, however.

Again, this should mean something.

Even so, it will not mean a thing for those already planning to vote for Trump in five months. Our system allows a felon to be president no matter the number of convictions they hold, be it one or 34 or 100. If anything, this will be a big financial boon for Trump, because his three presidential campaigns have become the grifts that keep on giving – he's already raised millions of dollars since last week, because it's easy to make money in America.

Will this political toilet we've found ourselves swirling in ever get flushed? Who's to say, but it's doubtful. Our choices come November are between a bumbling octogenarian who's served five decades in Washington and a convicted felon focused solely on political vengeance.

What a sad state of affairs we've found ourselves in.