Opinion: Letter to Editor: Everyone shooting from hip recently

To the Editor:

I followed with amazement and interest the verbal gunfight between your editor and a local doctor concerning selection of medical personnel for Mitchell. It appears that Editor feels local people get undue preference and the good doctor thinks that might actually be a good idea.

So? Not worth getting hot behind the collar.

Kathleen Norris is a South Dakota author who returned from the east to settle in Lemmon where she wrote "Dakota: A Spiritual Geography" (1993). She speaks to the issue at hand, noting that "outsiders" are viewed with suspicion because if they really were worth anything, why would they come here? As for "locals" who get professional training, then return home -- why would they come back here instead of going to New York or someplace better?

Hey! Mitchell is a good place to come home to. And it's also a hospitable place for those who want to avoid the metropolitan "rat race."

I think Editor first raised the argument, then everybody began shooting from the hip, including hospital personnel.

Nice town!

Harlan Stensaas, Ph.D, Mitchell