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Being bitten by travel bug

Of all the bugs I’ve known – from ants to aphids, from fleas to fruit flies – I like my travel bug the best. I was bitten early. After college, when I absolutely couldn’t decide what I wanted to do with my life, I embraced my travel bug and became a stewardess. It was the perfect solution. I realize how lucky I was to see a lot of this country and many other parts of the world. I never took it for granted. Recently, I was talking to a well-traveled friend about this, sharing some old experiences. We agreed that it’s truly the people you meet that make travel worthwhile, ...

Throwing the cures out the door

On April 29, the New York State Assembly passed the Medical Aid in Dying Act. This was followed by Senate passage on June 9 and as I write this the indications are that Gov. Kathy Hochul will soon sign the bill into law. If the bill becomes law New York will join Maine, Vermont, New Jersey, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, California, and the District of Columbia who already have assisted suicide laws. The legislation will permit a terminally ill adult age 21 or older and expected to live six months or less because of a terminal illness who also has the ...

Nuclear important facet of grid

Last month, Gov. Kathy Hochul directed the New York Power Authority to develop and execute a plan to build a “zero-emission advanced nuclear power plant” at a to-be-determined location in Upstate New York. I applaud this decision, and I am glad to see the governor finally acknowledging the need to bolster our grid’s reliability with nuclear energy, just as the Assembly Minority Conference has repeatedly called for since the passage of the deeply flawed Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). Per the governor’s announcement, “candidate locations will be ...

The separation of church and state

It was drilled into me at an early age that part of being an American was the belief in the separation of Church and State. Of course, the foundation of that belief goes back to the earliest history of the country when immigrants came here from Europe to escape religious persecution. That principle was codified in the Constitution of the United States with the words: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof....” Having said that, it worries me that today some are beginning to equate religious affiliation with ...

Twichell still standing for taxpayers

The OBSERVER is correct in pointing out in its June 26 View that the village of Fredonia is a leaky vessel. Where the OBSERVER’s comments fall astray is by taking a slap at Trustee Michelle Twichell for anything other than perhaps her choice of words. Time and time again, Trustee Twichell was the only trustee to stand in opposition to this current board’s out of control spending. Twichell has stood firm in her opposition to this board’s fiscal mismanagement, in spite of the nasty comments from her fellow board members regarding Fredonia’s budget and water issues. Perhaps ...

First year in Albany: New Assemblyman gets taste of gridlock

As we all know, the Legislature in our state is one of three co-equal branches of our government; its purpose is to make law. Laws can be good when they flow from the truth, but when “truth” is subjective (your truth or my truth), then laws can be quite destructive. The Legislature’s purpose is not to bow to the will of the executive branch, or to defer its law-making power to the judiciary, or to capitulate its power to a regulatory agency; rather, the elected members of the Legislature must represent their constituents by seeking the truth. In practice, this would require ...