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Voting no will ‘decimate’ district

What does it mean to vote no on a school budget? Voting no speaks volumes. It speaks to students in particular. Voting no tells students that programs that help them excel are excessive. We don’t need to provide options for students to explore different opportunities in high school. Music and the arts, clubs and intramural activities are “extras.” Sports teams don’t make a difference in students’ lives. Our accolades, scholarships, and celebrations of achievements in school activities, sports, honor roll, unified sports, community service, and academic awards are ...

Best of our leaders have smarts, empathy

I don’t know, maybe we are not as smart as we think we are. If we are so smart, why does our species keep trying to kill ourselves off? With the human history of violence and hatred, it’s a wonder we’re still here. Evolution takes a very long time, let’s hope humankind can survive long enough to evolve to a higher state where intelligence and kindness take over leadership, and stay there. I started thinking of our current politics in terms of evolution after watching a video of a commencement speech made by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in 2023. Pritzker made the correlation ...

Dunkirk baseball a winner on, off field

I grew up with baseball. My brothers and cousins played Little League and Babe Ruth together on the same teams. This is how I learned the game of baseball and came to know Frank Jagoda. As fate would have it, he was on the same teams in both leagues as well. There was never a time I wasn’t watching a game. I watched Babe Ruth games until I didn’t know anyone playing in the league. I was also a freshman in high school watching the high school varsity team. I knew some players, but this team was all upperclassmen with Frank playing his last year of high school ball. Fast ...

Other voices

Dallas Morning News: Trump Must See Standing With Ukraine Protects Democracy In a recent talk in Dallas, the former world chess champion turned democracy activist Garry Kasparov asked the audience to try to think of a single time President Donald Trump stood up to Russian strongman Vladimir Putin — to try to name any instance when Putin didn’t get what he wanted while Trump folded American, and democratic, interests. Is it any surprise then that Putin, once again, appears to be getting exactly what he wants, a brutal escalation of his murderous attack on Ukraine with naught but a ...

Nation has its fill of ‘think tanks’

It might be the 24-7 news cycle that’s the problem, but after a constant bombardment of news of wars, epidemics, deficits, trade wars, possible economic downturns, and naturally climate change I awoke one morning recently and asked myself, “How can we be having all these problems when we have ‘think tanks’ thinking about these and other issues?” Now, I know think tanks are not intellectual monasteries with scholars sitting in rooms thinking great thoughts and to tell the truth I have never given them much consideration until now. So, I did a little research. I found that ...

Delights of the old stomping grounds

This New England trip has definitely been adventuresome, eye opening, and fun. I’m writing from Lexington, Mass., home of the Minute Man, home of “the shot heard around the world,” home of my daughter and her family. My itinerary was packed: My grandson’s birthday dinner and his Spring Concert with a Boston area youth symphony. An afternoon visit with old friends and a weekend trip to Maine with really old friends. Our day trip to decorate the family graves along with a traditional stop for seafood at Plymouth harbor. An adventure-packed flick in a fancy cinema plus some ...