Comments on: Laugh, Cry, Carry On! Mining NWTRCC’s Archives

By: Ed Hedemann

Ed Hedemann — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 13:47:06 +0000

Wonderful stories and tidbits! And this is just a tiny fraction of NWTRCC’s fascinating history.

By: Donald D. Kaufman

Donald D. Kaufman — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 20:43:29 +0000

Today I took time to read several newspapers at the Bethel College library in North Newton, KS. This proved to be helpful to me because I learned that Kansas has had difficulties with election results simply because
“four counties, including Sedgwick” have had had commissioners “who are paid out of county money — not state money.” These commissioners have one job instead of county clerks in the other 101 counties, who conduct elections along with other duties. (The Wichita Eagle, August 15, 2018, Page 11 A).

This prompted me to reflect on the comments of a man from Taiwan who said that he has no desire to vote in USA elections because of the “Electoral College.” Why is it that this requirement refutes the possibility of many low population states being penalized against the rule which maintains that every person “has only one vote”? In other words the majority rules!

By: Ruth

Ruth — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 20:25:06 +0000

Dave has a point. I admit that I find it a little hard to let go of the boxes and files. On the other hand I know that doing more with these would end up on my already long “I’ll get to that” list. If only I was a focused as Dave! Anyway I will certainly look at the link and try to figure out what is possible….

By: David Gross

David Gross — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 17:13:33 +0000

I wonder if it might be possible to route some of the old newsletters (Peacemakers, CMTC, pre-digitalization NWTRCC newsletters) through the Internet Archive before they go to Swarthmore so that they can be scanned in and added to their free, online digital library.

I’m currently in a project of going back through 150 years’ or so worth of old Mennonite periodicals that have all been scanned in & made somewhat searchable through optical-character-recognition via the Internet Archive and it’s been a real boon to my research. (https://archive.org/)

I worry that if they go straight to Swarthmore they’ll just end up sitting in a box somewhere and won’t really be useful to anyone who doesn’t have the time and resources to go on-site and sift through them by hand.

By: LarryBassett

LarryBassett — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 16:50:56 +0000

I love this reflective looking back and thinking of the long run look at NWTRCC in the work that we are doing. This organization began in 1982 and was built on prior work. And it will likely go on for many years into the future. So it is important that we take a large and long view Because the problem we are struggling with will not go away anytime soon.

By: Michael Hughes

Michael Hughes — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 16:08:34 +0000

Thanks to Ruth and Lincoln for what must have been a very tedious but rewarding delve into the archives !