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Traveling for friendship

How many miles do we travel for friendship? I had to ask myself that when the happy invitation arrived in the mail. For dear old friends, my thought is that no amount of miles is too far. In my heart, I certainly would take three flights to Patagonia, a 9-stop train ride, and walk the last five rocky miles. Uphill. Then, as I dream about a steadfast friendship, reality sets in. My pocketbook and my lower back hear that any invitation involves taking a trip, and they’re hoping the distance isn’t much beyond Jamestown. On a quiet, sunny day. This particular invite was for ...

Democrats continue unfair attacks on Trump

President Donald continues to be maligned at every opportunity by those infected with “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” a disease manifested in sufferers by an unthinking hate. A New York Times story, with the headline “Trump orders to strip union rights from nearly half a million workers” caught my attention recently. This was the result of an August 2025 federal appeals court ruling that lifted a preliminary injunction, allowing President Trump’s executive order to eliminate collective bargaining rights for a significant number of federal workers to move forward. This decision ...

Staying interested in the weather

It started with me at an early age. Our farm was located on top of a hill, and we could see the weather coming from the west and then view it to the east as it descended upon Frewsburg and then into the hills around Frew Run and Bone Run. Weather became even more a part of my life when I started flying. When you first start flying a plane, you can only fly when the weather is good...it takes time to earn an instrument ticket so that you can fly in clouds and in low visibility. Back then, we had just the beginnings of weather radar, and so the FAA Flight Service Stations across the ...

Defining 9/11 as Patriots Day

Twenty-four years have passed since the tragic events of 9/11. In that time, we have had the ability to mourn the deaths of thousands. We have heard the story of hero after hero from the days just after two planes crashed into the world trade center in New York City. We witnessed the bravery of those at the Pentagon as a third commercial jetliner slammed into the outside wall. A recount of the conversations had with passengers aboard a fourth plane as they planned to suppress their captors and in completing the task crashed outside all metropolitan areas in the rural lands of ...

Honor and support educators, pray for our children

I wish to share some thoughts as we come together once again to embrace, guide, and support our young people at the start of a new school year. Indeed, the education of our youth, and in the context of a faith community, remains among the most essential ministries of the Church, and the responsibility that each of us also accepts in our baptismal commitment to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to nurture the faith of others. We cannot help but be mindful of the unconscionable tragedy that the parish community of the Annunciation in Minneapolis experienced recently. It is beyond ...

Honor and privilege to work with immigrants

I read the Sept. 2 letter to the editor entitled “Settlers, not immigrants, built country” with considerable dismay. First, the writer extols the settlers to the U.S., as if they came to an uninhabited country. He then goes on to reference the “now” immigrants with the absurd generalization that “they come here hating this country.” I cannot go about my day without offering a counterpoint. I have been working with immigrants every day since 1991, when I started my first job as an administrative assistant with the International Legal Studies Program at The American ...