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Carnivals of the past: Showcase of strange loses luster

“Freaks,” produced in 1932 by Tod Browning, is a movie about a traveling circus. It is a work of fiction, but features real people with various disabilities, malformities, and other abnormal conditions. They were misfits, aberrations, even abominations by some standards of the time. But they were also actors, playing characters in a story of greed and duplicity, a theme not confined to any specific group of people. Maybe it was a kind of between-World Wars-decadence – a period of social numbness and cynicism in which existentialism displaced faith and gave birth to grotesque art ...

Democracy keeps dripping away

Once again I lead with stories of Starvation in Gaza. An adult can live 50 to 60 days without food. The Israelis’ have allowed very little food into Gaza and people are dying of starvation. Hundreds of Palestinian people have been shot while trying to get food from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. An agency set up by us. They have been forcing people to these sites and shooting at them. We are complicit. The President Donald Trump administration has jailed people for speaking out against the killing in Gaza. They have chosen vulnerable people, foreign students and journalists to ...

Loyalty matters in economy

It has come to my attention that we live in a society that outsources goods and services and that loyalty has been displaced. I understand that in these difficult economic times we have to economize, but to what end. In light of the fiscal problems that face both Dunkirk and Fredonia, patronizing our hometown has been forgotten. As the owner of Lake Erie Roof & Siding Co. for almost 40 years now the influx of out of town contractors doing local roof is alarming. I realize that the public has a choice. I would much rather see one of our local companies contract roofs over ...

Sacred song service a note of comfort

CHAUTAUQUA—If you haven’t read John Whittaker’s page-one story on Chautauqua Institution in the July 19-20 edition of this newspaper, please pull it out of your recyclables. This well-written story is worth reading. Twice, maybe thrice. Chautauqua Institution is an extraordinary place. People from all over come to Chautauqua Institution during the nine-week summer season, and we’re fortunate to have the institution in our backyard. Yet Chautauqua Institution has challenges to meet. What’s striking about the Whittaker story is that Kyle Keogh, the institution’s ...

Caterwauling in the great outdoors

Finian, our Maine Coon cat, longs to be outdoors. He sits in the windows staring at the birds, the occasional chipmunk, and the resident bunny family. He paces, his huge furry tail swishing with urgency – the same swishing he displays as mealtime approaches. We have to work at keeping him safely indoors. Finian is not a warm and fuzzy personality. He’s loyal, just not cozy. He wants to be where I am, just not on me. When I head to the kitchen to prepare dinner, he follows. He follows me to bed at night, requiring five minutes of head and neck scratching before curling up behind my ...

Simple arithmetic with Education Department

Throughout the campaign and since his reelection President Donald Trump has made plain his intention to close or drastically shrink the size of the Department of Education. Teachers unions are vehemently opposed to the potential closure. They view such actions as detrimental to students. Teachers unions such as the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) have strongly criticized the Trump administration’s actions to date that include mass layoffs and executive orders aimed at reducing the department’s size and ...