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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 ...

No one upset over Trump’s defunding

I think this time I will let the experts do most of the talking. They can best describe the dangerous situation that our country is in right now. We have been moving toward a coup of our established democratic republic – slowly for several decades and now Project 2025 and Trump’s insatiable desire to take control of everything is barreling us toward autocracy. No free and fair elections, no environmental regulations, no social services or safety nets, no healthcare, nothing for you unless you are in the most upper part of the upper class. No freedom of religion, no equality for ...

Bravo to Ellery, Lakewood leaders

Ellery, Lakewood Leaders Have Brains, Guts Ellery, Lakewood Leaders Have Brains, Guts To Fight Drive Sword Through Heart Of Wetlands Regulations Drive Sword Through Wetlands Regulations By Randy Elf CHAUTAUQUA LAKE—Humanity has devastated the natural state of Chautauqua Lake, thereby making weeds far worse than they otherwise would have been. This is primarily because of — what humanity dumped into Chautauqua Lake generations ago and — insufficiently constraining weeds in recent decades. A weed-clogged Chautauqua Lake is not—repeat, not—the natural state of ...

Late summer’s bounty – a corny story

This summer the corn has been especially yummy – worth waiting for. As I write those words, I realize that I have written a fair amount about our favorite golden vegetable in the last 21 years. Let’s just say I’m biased about the buttery, yummy stuff. My mother loved corn on the cob and she taught me how to eat it – old-fashioned typewriter style: Bite into 3 or 4 rows, work that stripe to the end, before returning to the beginning and another 4-row stripping of the luscious niblets. We joked about waiting for the bell to ring at the end of the cob before going back to the ...

‘Drums Along the Mohawk’ has a lot to tell

Is there a book that you return to time after time? I do. It’s a novel entitled “Drums Along the Mohawk” by Walter D Edmonds that was originally published in 1936. It remained on the best seller list for two years, second only to Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind.” Right now, I’ve embarked on my fifth or sixth reading of this classic. The exact number gets lost in my memory bank. I’ve now reached the point where each rereading is a way of renewing acquaintances with the characters who are now old friends. In 1939 the novel was adapted by Twentieth Century Fox ...