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The truth of the quiet Golden Years

I always envisioned my retirement as the Golden Years. I somehow pictured days of sleeping in, reading after lunch, and playing tennis or an occasional bridge game. Oh – and not having too many obligations. I wanted to stop jumping through other people’s hoops. Fuggedaboudit. Besides, my tennis game left with the purchase of my new knees. And reading for pleasure during daytime hours still clobbers me with guilt. Maybe I’ll stick around long enough to outlive that. Of course, I never imagined having a computer and the possibility of falling down the internet rabbit hole each ...

Hegseth brings tough brand to military

As a former artillery officer who served in Vietnam, I consider Secretary of War Peter Hegseth the breath of fresh air that was needed at the Pentagon. Seen by some as just a television host, Hegseth was a graduate of the ROTC program at Princeton who commanded a platoon guarding detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Following a short return to civilian life he volunteered for the Iraq War as an infantry officer and was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment in the 101st Airborne Division. While there he also served as a civil affairs officer. In 2011 he was promoted to ...

Dems aim for blame in shutdown

Watching this government shutdown has shown me that the Democratic Party is not offering solutions to the common American anymore. Their stance is purely to oppose the current administration. Keep in mind – you can have your disagreements with the Trump administration. As an America First conservative, I have some. However, the minority party in Congress has taken their opposition to a whole new level. While many may try to brandish this failure of Congress on the Republicans, this is simply not the case if you look at the facts. This government shutdown has fallen squarely on ...

The Middle East, Trump and prize

It has been disconcerting to me that the President of the United States has been lobbying to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. If I were in his inner circle, I would advise him that this is an honor for which you are chosen—not one you lobby or campaign for. But, that aside, if he can pull off a solution to the current Israeli/Gazan War, perhaps he should be so honored. As the columnist Thomas Friedman recently wrote: “If Donald Trump is able to secure a cease-fire, Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, return of Israeli hostages, and it holds and paves the way for negotiations on the ...

Violence leaves too many victims

If you are a student of history, you know that violence has been with humanity since the day Cain slew Abel. Despite its tragic commonality, death always shocks us more when we can relate to the person lost. That shock echoes in our hearts and minds, pushing us to ask the same questions: how did this happen, why did it happen and how can we prevent it from happening again? It is natural to tune out the deaths we cannot relate to, after all, it would be unbearably heavy to think about death constantly. But make no mistake: there are people who must think about it every day. First ...

Fredonia water lawsuit: Board doing little to unite village

This is the statement I was planning to read at the last Village Board meeting on Tuesday. I decided against it for two reasons. The mayor right from the start seemed visibly annoyed and irritated so I didn’t want to provoke his anger because I felt that that would have been counterproductive. At the same time, I knew that had I spoken, I would have had to include in my statement my strong objection to the restrictions he had just imposed to our free speech. It is my opinion that in doing so he violated our First Amendment rights. To be clear; the “public portion” part of the ...