Howard Copelan, Publisher
Howard Copelan, Publisher

Nothing like a heart attack at 30,000 feet in the sky to give one a new perspective on life.

Considering that less than a week ago we were laying flat on our back in a Barcelona Hospital we have come a long way in a very short time.

First of all these are the thanks we owe to so many people.

First and foremost of course is our wife Corinne. She stayed by our side holding our hand and putting up with us the whole time. Then our son and daughter Shalom and Anna who from Israel arranged everything from getting kosher food for us (not a small task in Barcelona) to arranging our flight back to home. Many thanks are also due to Chabad of Barcelona and the Jewish Federation of Barcelona for not only delivering food but visiting us.

Words cannot also express the gratitude we have toward Dr. Elena Garcia and the entire staff of Hospital de Bellvitge who literally saved our life and a huge thank you to Michelle Giovo and the Giovo family for taking care of our son Lou those extra days and keeping him calm. Thanks also Jamey Brunner Richardson.

Also thank you all for your kind wishes. We are probably more aware than anyone else that this is our third brush with eternity in five years. We promise to be better.

We began covering the Ely Railroad 30 years ago.

To be honest back then there wasn’t much to cover, just an old steam engine that sometimes ran and sometimes did not.

The development of the project in these 30 years has been nothing less than astounding.

Barring any unforeseen evidence of criminality we can’t believe anyone on the current city council asked his or herself the big question: What comes next?

Sure getting rid of the hated good ol’ boys might provide some with satisfaction but at what price?

How long can anyone dance and make merry on ruins?

Sooner rather than later one should realize that destroying is much easier than building and once broken somethings cannot be repaired.

Winning is not everything and sometimes it is nothing.

The decline in the number of school children in West Wendover should be taken as a warning that all is not well in this little burg.

Coupled with the dismal numbers of businesses the drop in students indicates that long after the national and statewide recessions were declared over Wendover is still shrinking.

That is the cost of not doing business or rather creating a climate so hostile to small entrepreneurs that they never come, never hire new workers who never start new families who don’t go to school.

Apart from having a pristine city code, there is no upside to stagnation.

We would be remiss if we did not mark this September 11 as we have the 13 before it.

The attacks of 2001 profoundly changed this country and shaped and shaded the destinies of our families.

We used ponder what might have been had September 11, 2001 had just been an ordinary day.

Now with so much history behind us in so short a time that is just a waste of time.

Here is the one truth that unfortunately we seem to have to learn again: There are people out there dedicated with all their might and resources to killing us and nothing short of surrender or killing them will stop it.

The fault lies not with us but with them.

There is no finding accommodation with evil.