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Naming trend is going bit overboard

I was brought up in a tradition where normally things were named after national leaders posthumously, after history had time to judge and evaluate their contribution to society and to the country. For example, the Washington Monument wasn’t completed until sometime in the 1880’s, long after Washington had died. Similarly, the Lincoln Memorial wasn’t opened until 1922 — decades after Lincoln’s untimely assassination. Our current President apparently can’t wait for history to evaluate his impact on our history. Among other things, the Kennedy Center in Washington now bears ...

Governor runs into the walls of reality

Like the Coyote in a Roadrunner cartoon, our Governor has run smack into the walls of reality with Energy Policy and Tax Policy. Regarding energy policy: Gov. Kathy Hochul was forced to admit that the Net-Zero mandates in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019 (CLCPA) are impossible. Energy experts warned about this for seven years, but for political reasons she chose to ignore the warnings. But now an election is coming and people are noticing their electric bills. Using nonsensical climate catastrophe memes as an excuse, our governor and her predecessor ...

Bravo to wetlands law challengers

Let’s pick up where we left off on Labor Day weekend 2025. In the court battle over New York’s new wetlands law, Round 1 goes to the challengers. Bravo. ≤ ≤ ≤ You, faithful reader of this column, will recall how devastating the law can be for Chautauqua County, particularly because of the law’s impact on Chautauqua Lake. The law has the potential to turn the lake into a weed farm, hinder growth of lakefront-property values, and have the effect of driving up property taxes for those owning land not along Chautauqua Lake. You, faithful reader of this column, will ...

Continuing education in humor gets serious

Long car drives are good for sweeping out the sticky cobwebs. Lottsa time to think. On my way back from the writing conference I recently attended in Dayton, I had 375 highway miles to review the stimulating weekend, to relive many new stories. The conference’s real name is the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop. It is named for Erma, the housewife humorist and distinguished alumna of the University of Dayton, the conference venue. She began writing for her school newspaper in junior high school. And never quit. Dayton is a Catholic University. It was Brother Tom Price, Erma’s ...

Finding middle ground with politics in schools

In 2024 the liberal Brookings Institute did a national poll of students and adults to determine how they perceived the possible presence of political bias in our schools. Both groups were asked whether, in their view “public schools tend to promote: 1. Liberal political viewpoints, 2. Politically neutral and/or balanced viewpoints, or 3. Politically conservative viewpoints.” The results indicated most adults believe our public schools present neutral or balanced viewpoints. However, adult views on school political leanings are heavily influenced by party affiliation. Republicans ...

April’s importance to U.S. history

Looking closely at the month of April reaching all the way back to the beginning of this country and the many significant events bringing us to 2026. We find a great many events that were monumental to the United States of America. The first being the musket volley at Concord Bridge on April 19, 1775. This event was the very first in our country under the idea that we would be free from British rule. This moment was the actual first shot fired beginning the American Revolution. As years passed by and we grew into the country being envied by every other nation around the globe, certain ...