All of Butler County should feel a sense of pride regarding the accomplishment of the Moniteau High School Academic Decathlon team.

Last month, the team captured its first state title and now will represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Academic Decathlon national championship competition April 27 to 30 in Charlotte, N.C. Regardless of how the team fares — and there is great optimism that it will do very well — this county can be proud that it will be represented in such a prestigious educational event.

Meanwhile, the accomplishments of the team testify to the quality education available to Moniteau students.

Some people believe small school districts cannot provide the educational opportunities that are available in large school systems. Moniteau is proving those people wrong.

The Moniteau team consists of seniors Sarah Miller and John Klecha; juniors Tim Shearer, Clarissa Kimmey and John Cravenor; sophomores Amanda Mock, Angela Schandelmeier and Roman Weingartner; and freshman Jake Taciuch.

In addition to Butler County, Pennsylvania as a whole should be proud of having this team representing it.

Japan's massive earthquake and tsunami last month has triggered an outpouring of help and generosity from people young and old throughout the world.Members of Catholic churches in the Pittsburgh Diocese opened their wallets and pocketbooks for a special collection for Japan's victims during weekend Masses on March 26 and 27.And numerous other agencies, groups and churches, in their own special ways, have committed themselves to doing what they can to help lessen the suffering in that country, which still is dealing with a nuclear power plant crisis, in addition to the mass devastation and the task of locating the remains of disaster victims.Then there are young people like Nicole Lally and Abby Gloninger, sixth-graders in the Mars School District's Centennial School, who initiated the idea of a Jammies for Japan fundraiser that collected more than $2,500 to benefit the stricken nation.Students who brought in a donation on March 25 were allowed to wear their pajamas to school that day, with the money collected going to the Brother's Brother Foundation, a Pittsburgh-based international aid organization.It will take at least five years — probably more — for Japan to recover from last month's tragedy and the problems stemming from the initial powerful shock waves.Life for thousands of families there never again will be like it was before the earthquake — even those families that were fortunate not to experience any loss of life.For Japan, people like Nicole and Abby, those who contribute to churches' disaster fundraising, as well as those involved in groups' and agencies' relief efforts, will remain important to that struggling nation's emergence from its current plight.It's heartening that Butler County is part of the massive humanitiarian effort under way, and it's to be hoped that additional acts of generosity will be forthcoming.

The U.S. Postal Service, in its infinite wisdom, recently removed the ATM-style stamp vending machine from the lobby of Butler's post office on Main Street.The machine, which accepted debit cards, was a convenience for postal customers. It also helped limit the number of people waiting in line for a postal worker at the service counter.Buying stamps from the vending machine was a customer-friendly move by the postal service.At the time the vending machine was installed, staffing at the Butler post office was reduced by one person. That move made some sense, since the stamp machine took care of a certain percentage of people who would otherwise wait in line at the counter to buy stamps.When the stamp vending machine was removed, however, staffing at the post office did not return to the previous level.While it's well-known that the Postal Service has been suffering from decreased revenues due to more electronic commerce, emailed letters, online bill-paying and parcel delivery companies, the removal of the stamp machine was counterproductive. Increasing the hassle for post office customers by forcing more people to wait in line just to buy a booklet of stamps will only encourage more people to take measures to avoid the Postal Service as much as possible.Nationally, closing post offices in very small towns or where there is another post office nearby makes sense, even if it's controversial, as it was in Harmony. Also, reducing delivery to five days a week, which has been discussed in recent years, might make sense as a way to keep the Postal Service solvent.But removal of the stamp machine from Butler's post office, which was by all reports a welcome and well-used customer convenience, did not make sense.With the Postal Service losing billions of dollars and seeing more of its business drain away to the Internet, it doesn't seem wise to drive away customers by making it more inconvenient to use post offices' services.