As we stumble along toward Election Day several things have attracted my attention. Probably enough for several columns.

I just finished a book entitled “The Little Ice Age” By Brian Fagan. Professor Fagan’s field of expertise is archaeology and anthropology and not meteorology but he makes an important point in his book that the cold and rainy conditions that existed between 1500 and 1850 accelerated improvements in agriculture with a change over from subsistence farming dependent primarily on grains marked by frequent famines to market based farming featuring the development of crop rotation, greater dependence on livestock, new crops that would thrive in existing conditions and new ways of reinvigorating soils.

Perhaps in a similar way, the current pandemic will accelerate ways to develop vaccines more quickly, and spur the further development of effective antivirals and of other forms of therapeutic treatments for viruses.

Again, on the Pandemic front, I have a lot of respect for Dr. Anthony Fauci. Like many he misjudged some aspects of the virus but his knowledge of viruses, vaccines and epidemiology is profound. However, after his remarks about celebrating Thanksgiving I’m not sure he understands the human animal. Dr. Fauci suggested in mid-October that families forgo family Thanksgiving celebrations to control the spread of the COVID-19 Virus.

I would tell the doctor that we’ve been social distancing, staying home, locking down for eight months and there is no way that I or any other normal person is going to sit home eating turkey loaf with boxed dressing that tastes like cardboard while wishing our children and grandchildren a happy Thanksgiving on Zoom.

Thanksgiving is our greatest family celebration. If someone wanted to begin the destruction of the American family doing this would be the place to start. So, let’s not start. Let’s go out and purchase those 25-pound turkeys to feed the entire family so families can become reacquainted after months of separation.

Remaining on the pandemic front, when President Trump returned to the White House from Walter Reed Hospital after being treated for the coronavirus, he made a statement that the national media alleged was advice for the public not to worry about the virus. He didn’t tell us not to worry but rather not to let it get us down and take control of our lives.

I recently saw a television spot that featured a young man born several months prematurely leaving him with muscular dystrophy. He said that he couldn’t run with the other kids but that he didn’t let the disease get him down or to use the Presidents words, not to let it control his life. Today that boy is a man who is a doctor and a pediatrician. That’s what the president meant.

On the campaign trail, Joe Biden is showing his age. He looks tired. He has done little campaigning and only before a limited number of voters and has not had to handle any tough questions from a compliant press. I not voting for him but I do feel sorry for him. I have had members of my own family who like Biden I saw developing dementia and I often ask myself why his wife and family are not more concerned about him.

President Trump made an amazingly quick recovery from COVID-19. Certainly, as President he has great medical care but still his recovery and recent vigor on the Campaign trail and in the recent debate show that at age 74, he is more than up to the demands of the presidency.

Switching gears, you have to wonder why Hunter Biden never went back to pick up his laptop, allegedly containing incriminating emails connecting both father and son to nefarious business deals in the Ukraine and China. I would like to feel sorry for them but because the Democrats have made life so terrible for President Trump and his family over the last four years with “Russia, Russia, Russia,” the Mueller investigation, impeachment by the House, a Senate Trial, and investigation of the Presidents business dealings by both state and federal courts I am at that stage where I have absolutely no sympathy for father or son.

Now I wonder why the FBI sat on the laptop since last December. Its time to take the FBI out of politics and make it the organization it once was.

On a totally different subject, baseball lost six Hall of Fame members this year. These included Al Kaline of the Detroit Tigers, Lou Brock and Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals, Joe Morgan of the Big Red Machine Cincinnati Reds and Whitey Ford of the Yankees. The loss that I felt the most was that of 12-time All-Star and three-time Cy Young Award winner New York Mets pitcher Tom Seaver who died of Lewy body Dementia on Aug. 31.

When Tom Seaver came to the Mets in 1967, he immediately made the worst team in the Major Leagues respectable, taking them to the World Series Championship in 1969. Until 1977 he was the heart of the Mets rotation, that is until General Manager M. Donald Grant a man who should be burning in baseball hell, refused to renegotiate Seaver’s contract and traded him to the Cincinnati Reds in an event called the “Midnight Massacre.” For Mets fans Tom Seaver was and will always be a Met because he was the “Franchise.”

Finally, don’t forget to vote. Vote early or by absentee ballot or like my wife and I, head for your local polling place next Tuesday to participate in our greatest celebration of democracy, Election Day.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com