The United Nations Inter Panel Committee on Climate Change recently released a report that paints a rather grim outlook for our future. We clearly cannot wait to act as climate-related floods, fires, storms and extreme weather grip our nation. Acting now for an individual, however, sounds daunting. After all, what can I do to change […]

So, Rep. Laurel Libby was going to leave the state if a certain measure was passed. It passed and she stayed. Hmmm. Now she says requiring masks and vaccinations “is war.” As far as I’m concerned, she is declaring war on my daughter. My daughter had a heart transplant and takes daily anti-rejection medicine to […]

Imagine the Red Sox win the World Series in a clean sweep. But the defeated team pressures Major League Baseball to change the rules and retroactively apply them. Under the new rules, the victory is overridden, and the other team declared the winner. But there is another twist — for all future games, the umpires […]

When I attended school in the ’50s and early ’60s I was taught how our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution and set up the basis for our government. I was not taught how they compromised on allowing slavery to continue. Nor did we have the context of how the government was formed to allow only […]

Your child wants to play catcher on the softball team, and the coach says a mask is required. Your daughter wants to be on the alpine ski team, and a helmet is required. Do you argue? Do you insist on double blind, placebo control research to confirm the wisdom of these measures? If your son […]

In rebuttal to recent letters critical of the president, to date Biden has: Disengaged, as initiated by former President Trump, our military from the longest, and probably most costly war in U.S. history. And yes, I think the withdrawal could have been done a lot better; Continued Trump-era efforts to level the playing field with […]

When I was 5 years old one of my playmates and I were “cooking stuff” in the back yard. I dug up a root to add to our stew, but Carol warned, “If you eat that you will die!” Two weeks later Carol was dead, killed by polio. I wasn’t sure what it meant to […]

According to the article in the Sun Journal on Aug. 19, Rep. Laurel Libby says that we are at war over the matter of “government force.” And, that mask mandates are a current battle in this war. Since when does government have the right to tell anyone they must wear a mask? For that matter, […]

I’m vaccinated, I work from home, and I don’t have school-aged children, so I’m reasonably well insulated from COVID-19–related problems. But like everyone else I’m at risk for breakthrough infection because not enough people are getting vaccinated and too many people are refusing to wear masks indoors. And like many others, I can’t visit a […]

Not much is new in Afghanistan: since pre-history, peace has been elusive. Afghanistan has epitomized instability for millennia, resisting occupiers: Greeks, Mongols, Turks, Arabs, British, Persians, Russians, and more recently, Americans. Even in the short term, neither colonialism nor democracy has taken root. Outliers, bloodied after countless incursions, have learned to leave it alone. Long […]