Let’s work together to connect all Pennsylvanians to broadband

July 1, 2023

In a world increasingly driven by digital connectivity, access to the internet is no longer a luxury – it is a fundamental necessity that allows Pennsylvanians to communicate, learn, work, socialize, and access essential services. The COVID-19 pandemic only magnified the challenges faced by those in our state who still lack access to high-speed internet. Thanks to $1.16 billion in federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funds, Pennsylvania has a once-in-a-generational opportunity to bridge the digital divide by deploying broadband to unserved and underserved areas. ...

Independence Day

June 30, 2023

What exactly is Independence Day? It is the day we celebrate our breaking away from being an English colony. If you travel in Massachusetts, you see many signs of what the struggles were for our independence. That is the sight of Paul Revere’s Ride. That is where Bunker Hill is located. Here I mention if you are not familiar with these terms you need to go back to our history and research them. I recall studying about the American Revolution in seventh grade. I had Mrs. Rotunda for a teacher. Each day she would put a part of the story on the blackboard with blanks for us to ...

Battling the bumbershoot

June 29, 2023

I have a love/hate relationship with umbrellas. Sure, I love having one with me when it rains, and I try to keep one in the car. But I hate it when I reach in the back seat and come up empty-handed. Oh no, not again. Then I sit, with the windshield wipers flapping, wondering where I left the last one. I say the last one because in my lifetime I’ve owned enough umbrellas to supply Mary Poppins in a tropical rain forest. I’ve just never owned them for long, I guess I started losing umbrellas in college, right around the time I was losing gloves at the same pace. I can still hear my ...

Dairy is a way of life

June 23, 2023

June is Dairy Month. For more than thirty years I was directly tied into the dairy industry. I married a dairy farmer who brought me to his home area. Everything was new to me except for what I learned while we were dating. I was not used to the long days and the interruptions at night. We began life as a couple in a trailer on the farm right beside his folks. Actually, when I had my first baby we were living in the main house because there had not been time to install the line for the oil for the furnace. The baby was born in October and it was cold by then. After his ...

The generations gathering together

June 22, 2023

Wild horses couldn’t have kept me away from our recent trip to New England. It was important. Rory, The Princess of Boston, was graduating from high school, and her brother Malcolm’s final concert of the year with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra was on the agenda. For the same weekend. Our far-flung family was gathering from both coasts. Richard and I were driving, with a planned overnight enroute. We had dinner reservations in Albany at our favorite on-the-road restaurant. As we loaded the car, and as the clocked ticked down, a mild panic was setting in. We hit the road ...

First Amendment can’t guarantee open minds

June 17, 2023

In 1925, John Scopes, a Dayton, Tenn., public school science teacher, thought evolution was a reality and that it should be discussed. However, he was arrested for not teaching the Bible’s creation. The result was the “Monkey Trial.” Scopes was found guilty and fined $100. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln, in a failed attempt to keep Tennessee in the Union, selected Tennessee Sen. Andrew Johnson as his vice presidential candidate. Tennessee was the last state to secede and join the CSA in the Confederate fight to maintain their social and economic slave based system. In 1865, ...