The Lost City Museum is open Thursday through Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission is $5; children and members enter free. The museum is located at 721 S. Moapa Valley Blvd. in Overton, Nevada on State Route 169 off I-15, exit #93 or via Lake Mead or the Valley of Fire.

The Lost City Museum actively engages people in understanding and celebrating Nevada’s natural and cultural heritage. The museum is one of seven managed by the Nevada Division of Museums and History, an agency of the Nevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs. Call (702) 397-2193 or visit the department’s website at www.TravelNevada.com for more information.

Moapa Valley Progress

Early Childhood Education students dance to “Twist” at the Perkins Spring Dance Festival held on the school playground last week. Photo by Stephanie Bunker.

The Perkins Elementary School playground in Moapa was crowded with parents and children on Friday night for the school’s annual Spring Dance Festival. Kids were running around excitedly advertising the school’s bake sale and selling water before the Festival began.

When it was time to begin, school principal Ken Paul welcomed the crowd. He recognized two teachers that would be retiring this year: Mary Hauver and Lori Flynn. Paul applauded the two teachers who have given much of their time and talents to the school over the years.

In this year’s festival, each teacher was in charge of putting the dance together for their class. Fourth grade teacher Carrie Leete was the organizer of the overall program.

A couple of groups are standing dance squads for the school and get together 30 minutes before school once a week to practice. These groups are the Show Group Flag Team, Patriot Rockers, Dynamite Dance Team, and Show Group Clinkers. Leslie May and Vince Dasal choreographed the dances and worked with the kids.

The Perkins Elementary School Show Group Tub Drummers beat in rhythm to “Dance”. Photo by Stephanie Bunker.

The Show Group Flag Team started the evening off on a Patriotic foot as they waved their flags to “Grand Ol’ Flag”.

The Patriot Rockers, directed and choreographed by Leslie May, then came out with baseball bats as props and did a routine to the song, “I Don’t Dance”.

The hearts of the audience melted when the Early Childhood Education Program children walked out onto the blacktop and grooved to the song “Twist.”

The Show Group Clinkers and Tub Drummers came out next to wow the audience with their sense of rhythm.

Perkins Kindergarteners showed the crowd how to count to 100 while doing work-out moves to the “Chicken Dance.”

The Kindergarten class at Perkins Elementary perform a workout dance to the “Chicken Dance”. Photo by Stephanie Bunker.

Then it was the Show Group Dynamite Dance Team’s turn. They danced to the song, “Dynamite.” The routine was choreographed by Perkins students Kali Romero and MaKae Pulsipher.

The school’s second graders could be spotted wherever they went in their gingham costumes. Susan Pulsipher did a great job again this year making each of her students’ costumes. They fit perfectly with the class’s square dance to, “Goin Down to Cairo.”

The 4th grade kids stuck with the tradition of Tinikling. They also tapped to the song, “Ya’ll Ready For This.” Natalie Staheli drilled them on the Tinikling.

The 1st graders danced to the “Hippy-Hippy Shake.”

Then came the poodle skirts and leather jackets on the 3rd graders who danced to “Happy Days.”

The Perkins Elementary Show Group Clinkers perform to the song, “Dance”. Photo by Stephanie Bunker.

The last performance was Braiding the May Pole with the 5th graders. After the 5th grade kids finished braiding, they invited their parents to come braid it with them. We’ll just say that the kids did a better job than the parents. But everyone had fun.

Moapa Valley Progress

Ruth Johnson is running as the Republican candidate for County Commission District B.

Over the past year, the political redistricting process in Nevada has brought a slight shift to Clark County Commission District B. While the district is still a majority Democratic district, the inclusion of all of the rural northeast in the district has narrowed that political gap. This has brought hope to a viable Republican candidate. Ruth Johnson has placed her name on the 2012 ballot to face off against Commissioner Tom Collins in November.

Unlike past Collins opponents, Johnson brings extensive experience in holding elected office and a strong base of support with her into the race. She served on the Clark County School District (CCSD) Board of Trustees for three terms from 1996 to 2008.

Johnson did file to run for the office for a fourth term in the 2008 elections. But after her filing, her candidacy, along with that of several other candidates, was called into question under the state’s term limit laws. The matter was taken to the State Supreme Court. The court finally decided that Johnson, and the others, were ineligible to run. So she had to withdraw from the race.

But by then it was too late to take her name off the ballot for the primary election. Without raising any money or posting any signs; and even with large notices at all the polling places announcing to voters that she was no longer eligible to run for the office; Johnson still won the primary election.

In a recent interview with the Progress, Ruth Johnson began by talking about her background and experience. She grew up in a small town in Arkansas.

“We had one four-way stop in our town,” Johnson said. “But I think that is only because it was the county seat.”

Johnson met her husband, Paul Johnson, while she was at college. Shortly after they were married, he took a job in the District Attorney’s office in Las Vegas. The newly married couple moved to southern Nevada and has lived in Las Vegas for the past 25 years, 20 of those years residing in Commission District B.

The Johnsons raised their four daughters in Las Vegas and sent them all to CCSD schools. The youngest daughter will be graduating from Legacy High School next month, Johnson said.

Johnson became involved in the school PTA when her children first started school. She was immediately drawn into the discussion of new school construction at that time.

“Back then our school was running year round and double session to accomodate all of the growth and the kids,” Johnson said. “And our trustee didn’t even know where the school was.”

When that trustee decided not to run again, Johnson went to work with her PTA president on interviewing the candidates who were running for the seat. Butthey didn’t find anyone who had a broad vision for the future of the CCSD, Johnson said.

“I had no intention then of running, myself,” Johnson said. “But the further we got, the more I realized that we didn’t have anyone who wanted to make the system better and to be more responsive to the community. So I talked to my husband and he agreed it would be a good thing to do. I had no idea what I was getting into.”

Johnson ran and won. She served twelve years as a trustee and three terms as President of the Board. With a $1.2 billion dollar budget and oversight of the largest employer in the state, Johnson was instrumental in building a program that produced an average of one new school per month during a decade that saw explosive growth in the region and the district.

In 2008, after she was term limited out, Johnson went to work volunteering in the community. She was elected to her Homeowner’s Association, she serves on the board of LDS Family Services, and she currently volunteers as the director of the career center at Legacy High School, a position she took when the school lost grant funding for a paid position at its career center.

“So, running for the county commission is really within my passion to work with communities and people,” Johnson said. “I have the opportunity to do that because my family is situated in such a way as to be able to have that privilege. I appreciate being in that position.”

Still, the decision to run was not immediate or easy. Johnson said she began receiving calls back in January from people urging her to run for county commission. She said that each call began by asking her to run, and ended by advising her that she had to switch political parties.

Johnson has always been affiliated with the Republican party. But because District B is weighted toward Democratic voters, supporters felt that she would stand a better chance if she made the switch. This idea was uncomfortable for Johnson.

“I was not convinced that I could change parties and even survive a primary,” Johnson said. “The campaign would be all about why I had changed parties and not about what I could bring to the County Commission.”

All of this nearly made Johnson decide not to run in the election at all.

Then she had an experience that convinced her to move forward with her candidacy. She saw a video of an interview that Commissioner Tom Collins had done at a new shooting park built in North Las Vegas. The reporter asked Collins what his response was to the people, living near the shooting park, who had raised concerns about it being close to neighborhoods in the area. Using rough language, Collins asserted that these folks had the option of packing up and moving out of the area.

“That response was so shockingly disappointing,” Johnson said. “I really took those comments as directed at me. I was his constituent and that is what he thought of me. He thought if I didn’t agree with what he wanted to do, then his opinion was that I should pack my bags and leave; move out of the state. That attitude came through so clearly; the attitude of ‘I don’t care about the things that are important to some people when it’s not important to me’. And that is when I thought, ‘You know, I need to run’.”

Johnson said that, if elected, her first priority would be to re-forge the “contituent connection’, especially in outlying areas like Moapa Valley.

“Local control is such a big issue for me,” she said. “Especially where you are an outlying community. I strongly believe that the best decisions are made closest to the issue. The more you have people separated from where the decisions are made, the less likely those decisions will reflect a solution to the problem.”

Johnson said that having a legitimate Town Advisory Board (TAB) is crucial to the idea of local control. She said that she had experienced great success with the Advisory Board model while serving on the school board. During that time she helped communities establish local Community Education Advisory Boards (CEAB) in the rural outlying areas of the district.

“It was basically creating a group of people who had the authority to carry the opinions of the community in such a way that they were communicated clearly to the school board,” Johnson said of the new CEABs. “It was an opportunity for everybody to be on the same page about what the values were held in the community and what was important. Those things are equally important when talking about the county and its town boards.”

But Johnson recognized all along that advisory boards are only valuable if they are listened to and heeded.

“If we put together the town board under whatever guidelines that the community agrees upon; deciding this is how they get elected or whatever; we end up with a group of people that represent this community,” Johnson said. “But it doesn’t do you any good to have that if you ignore or demean the voice that comes from them. Those things are important because they represent local control.”

“I think it is important for people to have representation where they know they have access and have an open door policy to their elected official,” Johnson added. “And it is not based on whether or not you are in someone’s good graces.”

In the realm of economic issues, Johnson admits that she does not have one big silver bullet to fix the region’s ailing economy. But she believes the cure more likely comes out of many small measures that would naturally spring from what she calls good government.

“I don’t think that governments should be responsible for creating jobs,” Johnson said. “I think that governments are responsible for creating a community that can support healthy businesses.”

Johnson said that her priority would be on eliminating regulatory barriers that stand between the people and what they need to do to make a living.

As an example, Johnson recalled a recent conversation she had with a real estate agent. The agent was trying to sell a home for a client. County regulations required the homeowner to install a second barrier to their backyard pool before the home could be sold. That meant that a locked fence around the yard wasn’t good enough. A second fence had to also be constructed around the pool only.

“With all the struggles in the real estate market, this would make it absolutely impossible to sell that home at a competitive price because the owners would have to add that cost into it,” Johnson said. “So they are just out of luck. They can’t sell their home.”

Johnson cited another instance involving a friend who had been unexpectedly placed in the situation of raising a young grandchild. To do this, she had hoped to move her business operations into her home so she’d be able to look after the child during the work day. But she had run up against so many restrictions in obtaining a county business licensing that she finally found it was impossible.

“Some of these regulations might have been justified in a time when things were booming in the region,” Johnson said. “But maybe right now, we should say that we are going to have a break from all of that; that we are not going to do it for a few years; because it would help small businesses to get a better start, let them get up and running so they can go back out and hire people again.”

Johnson said that she treasures the experiences she has had working with the Moapa Valley community while serving on the school board. Those experiences with small town folk kept her focused and capable of taking on big politics in the urban areas, she said.

“People here are so welcoming,” Johnson said. “Things were always put in terms of: ‘We want you to come, we want to work with you and we want you to leave here knowing that we care about what happens to us and where we are going from today.’ ”

During the growth boom years, Johnson said that she noted, with admiration, the way that the Moapa Valley community had faced the uncertainty of its future.

“Here was a small community that is so close knit, looking at a future that they didn’t know what it would look like,” Johnson said. “They didn’t know what their town was going to become; didn’t know what facilities would be built; what businesses would come. But they knew that whatever came was going to change them forever. I thought that it was handled so well. There was always an ability to keep an open mind and to say what’s in the best interest for the right reasons. This community does that so well. It was always such a godsend to have been assigned to represent places like this where things are still real.”

Moapa Valley Progress

The Moapa Valley Childrens Choir performed songs from Mary Poppins at the Community Talent Showcase held last week. Photo by Vernon Robison.

The Moapa Valley Performing Arts Council (MVPAC) Talent Showcase only scratched the surface of talent here in Moapa Valley. MVPAC Board member Vicki Willard pulled together some inspiring and entertaining acts for the community on Monday night, May 7 in the Ron Dalley Theatre at Moapa Valley High School.

“There was something for everyone,” Willard said after the show. “I was glad to not be given a theme this year, because we were able to have diversity. We wouldn’t have been able to have cowboy poetry otherwise!”

Willard heard about different acts through events that had been held in the community throughout the year. Two acts came from the series of Evening of Music events, put together by Gaye Nelson. Willard’s daughter, Lexie Hill, volunteered to choreograph a dance. Her other daughter Tibi, pointed out talented kids at the high school who ought to perform.

At the beginning of the program Gary and Kay Batchelor presented an award to Audrey Johnson on behalf of the MVPAC. On the plaque it stated “In Recognition of a lifetime of service, commitment, and dedication to the Arts Council Board and Community.”

A troupe of local dancers led and choreographed by Lexi Hill (left) performed an exciting dance routine at the Talent Showcase. Photo by Vernon Robison.

Those that have a willingness to contribute to the arts throughout the years have been given the award.

Johnson has been involved in the art of dance all of her life. She took tap and ballet classes as a young girl for .25 cents a class. Later when she returned home from college, Grant Bowler asked if she would teach the Debonettes, then the high school drill team. Johnson taught them off and on for the next decade. In the last six years, Johnson formed a group called the “Goldenettes”; a group of ladies that went to school in Moapa Valley and were a part of the Debonette dance team.

The evening’s talent show consisted of everything from Beethoven to cowboy poetry.

The evening began with the Moapa Valley Childrens Choir singing a medley of songs from Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins.

Ken Marshall recites cowboy poetry during the MVPAC community talent showcase. Photo by Vernon Robison.

The program featured two high school singer/songwriters in performances of their own music. McKay Wilson sang “Last NIght To Dream” with accompaniment from Austin Leavitt on the piano and Tanner James on the guitar. Ty Askeroth sang “Captured” while accompanying himself on the guitar.

Sam and Marquessa Aikele delighted the audience with a clever and virtuosic piano duet featuring variations on a theme of Chopsticks. And a local family trio consisting of Trent Robison (violin), Jessica Robison (cello) and Vernon Robison (piano) performed the first movement from Beethoven’s E-flat major Piano Trio.

Ken Marshall entertained the audience with yarns and tales set in irresistible cowboys poetry.

A talented troupe led by Lexie Hill performed a high octane dance to “The Race Is On” from Starlight Express. The group included Hallie Johnson, Jessie Vallet, Kaitlyn Oglesby, Kaylee Barlow, Mady Messer, Rachel Dalley and Skyler Simmons.

The final act of the evening was several dances performed by the young ballet pupils of the “Ballet Classique” school taught by Amber Leavitt.

The Zephyr Singers started in 2004 with only six singers. Over the years the group has grown to its current size of 28 members. The present musical director, Gaye Nelson, began leading the group in 2009. They have a varied repertoire of both sacred and secular works, some accompanied and some a cappella.

The Zephyr Consort, consisting of Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass recorders, was formed in 2001. Their unique blend and mellow sound is one not often heard today. They are the “warm-up group” and will provide a prelude for the evening, performing several selections from their Renaissance repertoire. Come a little early, before 7:00, if you would like to enjoy this special treat.

The Zephyr Strings is an ensemble recently organized and directed by Gaye Nelson. Its dozen or so members are all talented students and dedicated teacher/performers recruited from the Moapa Valley. Their sound is much fuller than one would expect from a group that size. In this case, the whole is somehow greater than the sum of its parts!

You will be delighted to hear Zephyr Singers and Zephyr Strings both individually and in combination. The capable talents of Floice Lund and Mary Lou Whitney, flutists, will add to the sparkle of the evening.

Zephyr Singers will perform an original arrangement of a Scottish hymn setting of “The Lord Is My Shepherd” written by founding musical director, Floice Lund.

Listeners may anticipate a spine tingling surge of patriotic feeling as the choir sings the deeply moving “Hymn to America” by Stephen Paulus. This will be accompanied by a projection of appropriate images for the audience’s visual enjoyment.

Also quite special in somewhat the same mood is “God So Loved the World” by Bob Chilcott.

Perhaps the highlight of the evening will be the performance of Gustav Holst’s rousing “Psalm 148” in which the Zephyr Strings, the Zephyr Singers and the chapel organ will join forces and do some rafter-raising. Sherrie Whitney and Linda Lyon will share their talents on the organ and piano.

In a happy contrast to all the above, the singers will give us John Rutter’s lilting and heart-lifting version of “All Things Bright and Beautiful,” accompanied by the strings, and in the same vein, Mack Wilberg’s dancing arrangement of “Morning Has Broken.”

Put Sunday, May 20 on your calendar now so you won’t miss this very special evening.

The expo will feature the Elite Sports Express, a rolling showroom consisting of a truck and trailer full of guns, ammo and equipment from all the top manufacturers on display. Customers and shooting enthusiasts are invited to examine and handle the products so they can see and feel the quality. Factory reps will be on hand to educate the consumer on specialized product information, as well as providing the safe handling of firearms. All sales will be conducted through Ace Hardware.

Mark Hopkins, owner/manager of Ace Hardware, stated that the Elite Sports Express making a stop in a place like Overton is fairly rare.

“They usually go to large chain stores in more populated areas, like “Fire, Feather and Fur” stores back east; stores that are operating on 60,000 square feet or so,” Hopkins said.

Hopkins explained that the local Ace had sent representatives to a firearms convention in January, as they do every year. They had asked to have the local store considered for the event. Consideration is based on the volume of firearm sales at the location.

“We were selected to have the event,” Hopkins said. “So I guess that means that we are on the radar. We were all pretty excited about it.”

The event will begin on Friday morning at 9:00 a.m. Experts will be available from manufacturers like Smith and Wesson, RCBS, Thompson/Center, Walther, Weaver and more. A dutch oven demonstration will be given by Logandale resident Rik Eide of Great Basin Cooking Company. Free samples from the demonstration will be served from 9:00 a.m. until noon. All are welcome.

“We’ve had a lot of candidates respond enthusiastically about this event,” said Carol Bishop, Chamber of Commerce President. “Many of them feel that they just don’t have enough opportunity to meet the Moapa Valley residents. They welcome this event as just such an opportunity.”

The evening is planned to be an informal meet-and-greet event. Candidates will not be involved in lengthy speeches or debates. Rather they will be available for Moapa Valley residents to shake hands with them, get to know them and ask them questions.

“We just wanted a local evening where valley residents could come and go as they pleased and, in the process, be able to get some face time with the candidates,” Bishop said. “The hope is that people will be able to familiarize themselves with the candidates’ positions on issues that are most important to them.”

No one asked me but… It is time to award another Gold Star. A couple of months ago I was sitting in my office, which is what I call the third bedroom of our home, when I received a call from the patriarch of our community, Glen Hardy. While Glen deserves a Gold Star in his own right, this one is not for him.

Glen called to ask about the status of the much needed physical education complex upgrade for the Moapa Valley High School campus. For those of you who are new to the valley, this is an issue the community has been working on for over fourteen years. It is a project we in the valley believe we were promised for supporting the 1998 Bond issue.

I explained to Glen that the issue was dead in the water. Glen informed me that he had spoken to Commissioner Tom Collins, and since the County Recreation Department has a joint use agreement with the Clark County School District, he offered to see what he could do about moving the project forward.

Suddenly the physical education complex upgrade took on a new life.

I am not sure why this surprised me when you review Commissioner Collins past efforts for the valley and the results thereof. A few years ago when the local equestrians sought the use of the arena at the fairgrounds and were rebuffed by those who control its use, it was Commissioner Collins who personally cut the lock on the arena gates, mounted a tractor, and reconditioned the ground for the first event. Since then our local horse enthusiast have been able to use the area on a nightly basis. Equestrian events are now held on a regular basis, by not only locals but also groups from outside the valley. These horse people come for the weekend and leave their money in the community.

When valley youngsters needed a soccer field and were told they could not use the grassed area of the fairgrounds, Commissioner Collins got that decision reversed. I must admit this is a project Mr. Collins and I disagreed on. It may have been my basic bias against soccer. I still find it hard to appreciate a sport where little or nothing happens for ninety minutes. However, the trees that were removed were replaced and it was a right call for the youngsters in our community.

The Logandale Cemetery Board applied for a $250,000 grant from the Clark County Commission for a major expansion. When the grant was turned down, the Board turned to Commissioner Collins who found the funds for the expansion. When the Old Logandale School Board’s original grant request for operational funds was denied by the County Commission Mr. Collins was able to have the funds awarded.

Glen Hardy indicated that Commissioner Collins was instrumental in the development of the livestock area of the fairgrounds. The cattle pavilion and pig barn are an integral part of the annual Junior Livestock Show. The new horse stalls and corrals help ensure that the world-class rodeo attached to our county fair will remain in Logandale. Tom’s position on the Las Vegas Convention Authority Board is invaluable in protecting the fair and rodeo for our community.

Interestingly enough, when the people of Overton applied for operational grants from the County Commission for Cappalappa, the program designed to support the needy of our community, the Old Overton Gym and the Moapa Valley Performing Arts Council, each organization was turned down. It was not their Commissioner, Steve Sisolak, they turned to for help it was Commissioner Collins. Even though the Commissioner did not represent Overton, he went to bat for them and acquired the funds needed for these organizations.

Once Commissioner Collins got involved in the physical education complex upgrade, things began to happen. Those in the community that had been working on the project were denied a hearing before the Bond Oversight Committee, the people who make the recommendation as to how the 1998 Bond money should be spent. After a few phone calls and face-to-face visits from Commissioner Collins, the community representatives received notice that they were on the agenda for a presentation of our community’s needs.

It was an interesting meeting. Nearly every one of Bond Oversight Committee, as well as the District personnel in attendance, indicated that they been contacted by Commissioner Collins in regard to the physical education complex.

While no decision was made at this meeting, as to support or non-support for the project, we were invited back to the next meeting to discuss the issue further.

When School Board Members, following the direction of the District’s legal department, refused to meet individually with our valley representatives on this issue, each Board Member was contacted by Commissioner Collins who explained the needs of the community.

I will not play the prophet here and try to predict the outcome of these efforts. However, it reminds me of the man who prayed to win the lottery and the Lord told him it would be much easier to answer his prayer if he at least bought a ticket. Well, we at least now have a ticket.

The love-hate or hate-hate relationship this valley has with our County Commissioner reminds me of the old Gunny Sergeant I served with in the Marine Corps many years ago. No one wanted to go on liberty with him, but when the situation was grave and things had to get done, we all flocked to the gunny.

While Principal Grant Hanevold and Vice Principal Hal Mortensen have a great presentation on the needs of the school and CCSD Trustee Chris Garvey has championed our cause, the man who got the wheels moving again was Commissioner Collins.

I love that classic scene in the Movie “A Christmas Story” where Ralphie, fed up with his bad day, unleashes his fury on the neighborhood bully and teaches him once and for all to leave him (and every other kid for that matter) alone. Having bullied myself as a child, I can easily relate to Ralphie’s frustration, fear and shame. I applaud him nearly every time I watch that iconic scene. I even cheer for Ralphie’s mother who stops him from going too far, but doesn’t lecture or punish him for taking a stand.

An anti-cyber bullying law in this country and this valley sound great…in theory. But I guess that depends on who you ask. Me personally, I think that dealing with a bully is a right of passage through adolescence; a chance to see what one is made of; a way to cut the “apron strings” and learn how to deal with mean people.

I suppose I am a little “old school” in that way of thinking, but I clearly remember the day I stood up to my sixth grade bully on the playground around a small crowd of onlookers. From that day on, she learned to respect me and she never, ever bothered me again. What a boost to my self esteem!

I still look back on that day with fondness, and would never trade it for having an adult reprimand her and take away my glory…Never!

Back in my day (I am a child of the 70’s), we didn’t have Facebook, and thank goodness. I can only imagine the ridiculous things I would have posted, the people I would have poked fun at, and yes, the mean things I would have said about my peers.

You know what though, I would have learned real quick that no one likes a nasty person, even if what they are saying isn’t directed at them. I would have learned that my friends and acquaintances would keep their distance, lest I direct my rude comments toward them. In essence, I eventually would have caught on that posting my negative feelings about someone usually yields increasingly negative comments toward me.

I already have learned this lesson as an adult as I have posted my own opinions about politicians. I no longer post anything even remotely controversial, and as a teenager, I can almost guarantee that I would have learned that same lesson the hard way.

My point to all of this is that I feel like we don’t need “big brother” or CCSD administrators to monitor our minors who are posting on social websites, in emails, or text messages in an effort to stop what they consider cyber bullying under a law that is so vague it is difficult to interpret exactly what it is. Stating negative opinions by students about fellow students is hardly “bullying” even if it is done in poor taste, and it certainly does not justify interference by CCSD staff and administrators. They do not need to be the Facebook police.

It is incredibly naive for us to think that this will somehow stop bullying. Yes, there are extreme cases where viable threats are being made, harassment is taking place, and lewd or obscene pictures are publicly being distributed or shared. However, those instances are few and far between.

Only in rare instances is it necessary for a CCSD teacher or administrator to interfere in a cyber-bullying case that is so extreme that it warrants intervention in order to prevent physical, sexual, or emotional harm.

When the government starts prohibiting any American, regardless of age, from his/her First Amendment right to speak and write freely, even under the notion that it is protecting children and teenagers from being cyber bullied by their peers, then we all have a problem. What they are telling us is that they know how to discipline and raise children better than the children’s parents, and that is imposing on every parents authority and discretion.

Our teens have the right to communicate and speak and/or write freely on their own time, in their own homes, and on their own electronic devices, and that right has been earned over centuries of war and violence in order the maintain our individual freedoms. They will learn life’s lessons about the ramifications of being rude, nasty, and mean to their peers all by themselves.

Please don’t make those sacrifices be in vain. Contact our local politicians and educators and tell them to respect our children’s First Amendment rights, and to leave the disciplining in the capable hands of their parents.

Some of the accomplishments included Alec Stump’s AWESOME research paper which was printed in the Progress last week and Joshua Omer’s unique Youtube video entitled “Get Educated” which he produced and posted on the internet.

On May 10, our entire group synergized in our culminating event, the annual Shakespeare play, performed at Old Logandale School. The actors were Teah and Chandler Stump, Summer Omer, Rebecca, Benjamin and Joseph Muhlestein, Jacob Hauver, Jessica and Jacob Lawter. I rejoice that each served and contributed individual strengths to provide the community, not only with a delightful hour of positive and edifying entertainment, but blasted the world with a powerful BURST of light and truth and wonderment! It was an amazing adventure!

I extend my personal, heart-felt gratitude to the Moapa Valley community members and local businesses who generously supported us.

I acknowledge the life changing efforts put forth by the Board Members and Mentors: Irene Hauver, Raina Stump, Beth Lawter, Rebecca Muhlestein, Laura Staley, Sierra Staley, Pennie Rumsey, Misti McDonald, and sincerely thank them for their hard work, inspiring example and friendship.

Thanks for American freedom to pursue a superior leadership education, to gain experience, to exhibit public virtue while developing a golden heart of private virtue! NorthStar Commonwealth is living proof of this principle of truth. I am humbly grateful to Providence for this alternative avenue of empowerment.

Lyndy Omer