As I sit here Monday morning, the Iranian hostage dilemma appears to be winding down to a conclusion after a year of fearful waiting. The 52 American hostages, including our own Sgt. Jimmy Lopez, may be coming home soon. I say “appears to be” and “may” because our hopes have been raised time and again in the past, only to be dashed by the Ayotollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to whom we have had to look for hope rather than to our own leader, President Carter.

As I have written in the past, no matter how it turns out, the Iranian hostage situation will constitute one of the darkest days in all of American history. Part of that darkness was the feeble and costly attempt, which was aborted, to rescue the hostages.

The greatest weakness in the entire sorry affair, other than lack of leadership, is that we have had and do have a complete void insofar as foreign policy is concerned – other than “human rights.”

I, for one, however, have thought and think that “human rights” also apply to hostages. That being the case, we should have secured their release in a matter of days, whatever the cost. At least by the time you read this I will have done my part to right the ship of state, by voting for Ronald Reagan and against President Carter.

In putting the wraps on the Fourth Annual Copper Valley Marathon and Second Annual 10K Run, I would observe that I think we did a pretty good job in giving credit for all the help we received  - both in words and pictures. I would, however, like to again thank members of the committee who worked on the planning for it over a period of several weeks.

They included Donna Anderson, manager of the Globe Chamber of Commerce; other ‘old reliables’ who work every year – Dave (Watashi) Crossett, general assistant to the chairman; Danny Michels, Sgt. Rich Levario, Coach Ben Marin, Dr. Lon Luty and Leroy Powers, who in addition to other activities gets all the printing done.

I was particularly pleased with the all-out help enthusiastically given by Dr. Luty, which ‘spilled over’ into much of the school system.

Crossett noted that “special recognition should be given to the GHS janitorial staff headed by Danny Macias, who not only did an excellent job but was ever so courteous to each and everyone working on the marathon committee; also, we should not forget our bus crews headed by Lyle Hughes.”

Crossett’s list of credits includes “Tina (Flash) Jonovich who coordinated the 11-member runner ‘pick up’ crew at the finish; Gene (Always on Time) Pearsall and the timing crew; the cleanup crew headed by Frank (Aluminum) Etheredge, and the safety chute crew of Dave Crossett Jr., Billy Rucker and Mike Hawkins.”

Crossett added: “Also, Mr. Editor, I think a special award should be presented to a merchant who reaped a harvest from the marathon, yet complained the most to our volunteers who were only doing their job.”

I would again like to thank the Gila County Board of Supervisors for their help, Ernie Lopez who coordinated it plus Johnny Navarro and Mike Golden, the two ‘workers in the field.’

Thanks, also, to McDonald’s for cups and backup ice, and to Jack In The Box for cups, coffee, and backup ice.

With all of the people who helped, I am sure we have forgotten some but it is surly unintentional.