Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • A6

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5 p.m. Vol. 100, No. 8 Viewpoint 6 Last week, I had the privilege to serve as a judge for local high school students at the Lyon County Poetry Out Loud competition hosted by Yerington High School at the Jeanne Dini Cultural Center. One of my responsibilities as a judge was to review the three poems selected for presentation by each student before the event.

And I have to say that, in doing so, I was afforded hope for the future even before observing these young women give voice to both classic and contemporary poems. As part of the judging criteria that included such elements as voice and articula- tion, there was a category for of of the meaning of a recited poem, with highest marks afforded a student who masterfully interprets a poem for the audience, deftly revealing a meaning. Given the level of difficulty and content of the poems presented, including social commentary that was not necessarily lighthearted but instead delved into the darkest aspects of humanity, it was impressive to realize that these students, while not yet old enough to vote, held wisdom and compassion and understanding beyond their years. This was particularly evident with the first place winner, YHS 11th grader Gabrielle Hunt, who recited by C.K. Williams and Mortician in San by Ran- dall Mann about the assassination of San Francisco Mayor Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk in the 1970s.

Also competing in last regional competition were second- and third- place winners Sierra Kreamer, ahomeschooled 10th grader from Dayton, and YHS 11th grader Emily Bobrick, whose poems also included classics from Wordsworth and Longfellow. YHS ninth graders Haylie Mikkelson and Maison Sanderson competed for the first time, showing poise despite trepidation that surely must come from standing on a stage and speaking into a microphone to an audience at such a young age. For all of the contestants, accurate memorization is critical, yet it is quality of performance that determines how well you move an audience with the spoken word. All five girls are to be commended for bringing to our community the grace and gift of poetry. Poetry Out Loud is a national recitation competition for high school students created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation in partnership with U.S.

state art agencies. It is sponsored in Nevada by the Nevada Arts Council and NV Energy. Poetry Out Loud began in 2005 and has since reached more than 3 million students and 50,000 teachers in 10,000 schools nationwide. The competition begins in the classroom as students select poems to recite from the online Poetry Out Loud anthology of more than 900 classic and contemporary poems. After a classroom contest, winners partici- pate in a schoolwide competition and then move on to a regional or state competition that culminates in the national finals in Washington, D.C.

Overall, the program generates $50,000 in awards and school stipends. Kudos to YHS English teacher Amanda Aldridge for her efforts in supporting this event. Hunt will now move on to compete at the state level on March 11 in Reno. worked hard and has the passion it takes to succeed, so I suspect she just might find herself taking center stage in Washington, D.C. Never underestimate a gal from Yerington! Lauryne Wright is an author, public speaker and paper crafter who lives in Yerington.

Connect with her at On My Mind Poetry Out Loud brings inspiration to students, community LAURYNE WRIGHT While doing historical research recently, I read an article on Dayton history that was written by Mrs. Thurlow Douglas in the January 26 copy of the 1941 Nevada State Journal. Ihad not heard of Thurlow and wondered what her ties to earliest history were. Since married first names were not used then, I wanted to learn more about her, so I contacted my friend and Historical Society of Dayton Valley member, Karen Howe. Karen is doing extensive, detailed research and documentation of families buried at the Dayton Cemetery, and, sure enough, she had all kinds of info on Mrs.

Thurlow Douglas. It turns out that Mrs. Douglas was Ida Cooper and she was an infant when she arrived in Dayton in 1877 with her parents, Lauretta and Silas Cooper. One of eleven children, Ida grew up here, graduated from Dayton High School and first taught school at Mound House and Yerington, where she met her husband Thurlow. They had one child, a son, Willard.

Ida spent most of her adult life in Reno, where she taught school and was civic leader. She belonged to the Nevada Sagebrush Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, who sponsored the many articles she wrote for the Journal. (I met great uncles in 1998 when Iwrote a Lyon County Reflections story on the Cooper family.) Stagecoaches in early Dayton hauled people, mail In the 1941 article, Ida wrote that W.B. Harrub ran one of the earliest stages in 1866 between Dayton, Virginia City and Como. The stagecoaches were small, pulled by ateam of four horses and were usually jam-packed and some travellers rode on top amidst the luggage and hung on for dear life.

These stagecoaches also carried the mail after the Pony Express dissolved in 1861. (Dayton mail was delivered by stage at least as early as 1852 when stage lines began serving the folks travelling on the emigrant trails. This history is documented in letters that emigrant Lucy Cooke wrote to her sister when she stayed in Dayton at a way station and worked near the Carson River, while her husband, William, worked in the goldfields below the mouth of Gold By 1870, pioneer J. S. Dallas, the Lyon County clerk, owned the stage line but soon sold it to George Barton, who ran the stage for more than 40 years.

Later, in his old age, his wife Georgie handled the four-horse stage and even controlled the brakes like an experienced teamster! After the completion of the Railroad in 1870, pioneer Manly Johnson ran a stage and freight service to and from Mound House daily and the road started at Daney Canyon (on the north side of and at the bottom of Dayton Hill) and ran to the New York House, which was a large way station just west of Mound House. The did not come to Dayton and only ran from Carson to Mound House and onto Virginia City. Ida Douglas wrote many columns of Dayton history in a two- part series in the 1941 newspaper. (The Thurlow Douglas name is not related to the Douglass mining and milling entrepreneurs who were Dayton pioneers.) 1867: Murder near Dayton, Nev. When delving into the history of Dayton residents buried at the Dayton Cemetery, Karen Howe found the story of the murder of Cornelius A.

B. Hill in the April 10 edition of the Sacramento Union. Hill was the Superintendent of the Daney and Island mills and his brutal murder in 1867 shocked everyone. Hill was travelling home from Virginia City in his two- horse buggy through Spring Valley and was about a mile and ahalf from his home in Dayton, when he was murdered. After he did not make it home that night, and his horses came home without him the following Matters to Contemplate In research, old newspapers reveal earliest history LAURA TENNANT The protests put up at every point by the so- called liberals citizens are beginning to look like organized Democratic National Convention party terrorism.

After listening to Democratic complaints, Republicans were disrupting and obstructing the functioning of the then Obama administration for eight years; now, the Democrats are proving they are the masters of obstruction and discord. Only small people behave as the Democrats are doing. Iwould like the public to know inaction by the Carson River Subconservancy District board members is causing the loss of billions of gallons of water during this huge weather event. We pay a tax to see that this board is working to administer the water of the Carson River Basin in such a way as to meet the demands of its residents now and in the future. That has not happened and is not happening now.

The board is made up of three members from Douglas County, two from Carson City, two from Lyon County and two from Churchill County and I believe Alpine County is part of the board also. Be that as it may, there is no consensus as to an overall coordinated plan to utilize the water for the best possible utilization by all residents concerned. It would behoove the board mem- bers to begin to take their responsibilities seriously and start working toward a best-for- all management plan for the Carson River Basin instead of only looking out for themselves. It is kind of funny as the Churchill members of the board accuse the Paiute Indians of being selfish as the Paiute folks live at the end of the Truckee River system and want to be assured their lake does not dry up. That being said, it would appear the folks in Churchill County are of the same line of thinking about the Carson River system and are acting just like the Paiute.

The upstream folks be darned. Iwrote a little bit about the passage of the use of marijuana as a recreational drug last week, and I would like to elaborate a bit more for the education of those folks that are a little bit slow. Okay, so you think smoking can harm your lungs so you switch to using the drug in an edible form, smart move. Here is what happens when you ingest marijuana: Unlike smoking, ingested marijuana is processed by the liver before entering the bloodstream and it can take from 40 to 90 minutes before you feel any effects, which then can last six to 10 hours. The slower absorption rate can lead to overdosing because most people expect to feel effects immediately and, in the mistaken idea the effects should be immediate, consume dangerous amounts, believing doing so will speed up the process.

Marijuana is also fat-soluble, and this makes you more likely to fail a drug test. Meaning the possibility of losing your job and or your license. Some jerks will, as a joke, bring edible marijuana cookies, candy, etc. to a gathering putting everyone there unknowingly at risk for bad a test with no way of defending themselves. Another risk parents should be aware of is children will eat the seeming treats, which can be sometimes fatal if large amounts are consumed.

I guess some people really care and that is a shame because normal people can become victims of an accident caused by another irresponsible abuse of the drug. Iam so tired of the entertainment attitude they can get away with making any political statement they want with absolutely no responsibility for the repercussions resulting from those statements. The Grammys were no different. Maybe it is just me, but I am not going to listen to music or watch videos put out by any person or group that likes to indulge in political rhetoric. Speaking of the world, it seems just having tons of money is a goal of most of the population.

It is hard to understand why a person needs to have more money than they can possibly use. Making the list of billionaires is now because the new goal is getting to be a trillio- naire. Why? I admit it is nice to In My Opinion Current state of affairs in politics, legal pot, beyond CHARLES LAWSON.