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Local Commentaries

Our endangered democracy

I am increasingly worried about the state of our precious American democracy (and yes, I am aware that it is actually a constitutionally-limited democratic republic, but will use the term “democracy” here to simplify things) given the ongoing efforts by one of our two major political ...

Inside the melting pot, a family view

America is justly known as a “melting pot” where immigrants from a host of countries mingled and intermarried Thus, when I was growing up in Erie, I had a good number of acquaintances who were products of these unions. While Southwest Erie, where I lived, was an area of mixed ...

View from Hickory Heights: An anniversary

It was twenty-eight years ago that my first column appeared in the Jamestown Post-Journal. The column is actually a little older than that. Prior to the publishing by the newspaper, I wrote a column for a small giveaway magazine and did a Search-a-Word puzzle for that. As I began working ...

A passion for the hog

A Hell’s Angel wouldn’t be my first choice in a life partner, but I never met one I didn’t like. I think I have figured out why. They’re happy. They are doing what a lot of us wish we could – put our cares away, hop on our Harley Davidsons … and GO! Noisy wanderlust. Every one of ...

Think about our farmers

The fields around here are being cleaned off and the hay is being stored. Each load of hay requires at least three trips around the field or more. Couple that with the price of gasoline, and you have a major expense. Farmers are not saying much about that cost, but it is certainly there. I ...

Unexpected arrival calls for helping hands

The small dump truck delivered two yards of black mulch in our side yard last Saturday. The resulting dark pyramid was w-a-a-a-y bigger than I thought it would be. The driver dropped the mulch in the dead center of the blue tarpaulins I had spread on the ground. “You’ve done this ...