I am William McGonagle, a current teacher at La Grange High School. I teach Senior English and due to the threat ofAI, I am forcing all of my students to write their papers in-class and on pencil and paper. The students are truly thinking for themselves, so I figured I would share their perspectives throughout the school year from their Writer’s Notebooks.

Since 2020 I have been living with the knowledge that I have, and probably will have, skin cancer for the rest of my life. The skin cancer is a result of the way I lived prior.

The year was 1945. This is one of my earliest recollections in my early life.

The 100-degree days could be behind us for the year. It looks like we’ll see a couple of more weeks in the 90s. By the end of this month, the daytime highs should dip into the 80s with nighttime temperatures in the 60s.

I tend to wake up around 3 a.m. every day. I go out on my second story apartment balcony and love to look at the stars, look for airplanes. I’ve learned what a few of the planets are, and with my binoculars, I can see the Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters and I also try to look for strange anomalous lights.

I read recently about a woman who refuses to listen to or watch the news. No local news. No national news. No worldwide catastrophes delivered directly into her living room before breakfast. Her reasoning is simple. All that bad news is apt to drive a person a bit batty.

To the editor: At a time when millions of Americans are struggling to pay for groceries, housing, medical care, insurance and utilities, our billionaire president is calling the affordability issue a Democratic hoax. Yeah, Trump really said that.

To the editor: I was so pleased to read the profile on our county’s namesake, General Lafayette, in Friday’s issue. When I was a “tween,” I had the pleasure of living just outside of Paris for two years, (Dad was military.) One of our most memorable school field trips was to the cemetery where the General is buried.

To the editor: As I considered how to respond to Mr. Green’s recent accusations, three things came to mind: 1) My Aunt Lucille used to always say when someone stirred up conflict, “Bless their hearts, they can’t help it, they are who they are”; 2) Jack Nicholson’s line in the movie ‘A Few Good Men,’ “You can’t handle the truth; and finally, 3) from yesterday’s church service, “Everything we do in life depends on truth.” In this morning’s Bible lesson notes I was reminded “It’s no disgrace to be ignorant, but it’s a disgrace to stay ignorant.” The pastor’s reference was to ignorance of Bible truth.

To the editor: I certainly enjoyed reading the letter by Norma Bowman. It was true to form and honest.