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Liking Small In A Big World

It has been the bane of my life to have lived through a world in which everything small became big. The grocery stores, the farms, the department stores, medical practices, pharmacies…everything, it seems, that I know, has become big. When I was a kid, there used to be some small grocery stores on the southside of Jamestown. I could ride my bike from the farm down to the store on Brown Street in less than ten minutes. Bob Bergman also had his Red & White grocery on the corner of Barker and Broadhead Streets. My Mom would send my sister there on her bike. Bob would have the ...

Local DMV Doesn’t Set Policy

It has been reported lately in the news that some people are upset with the regulations that require one to submit documentation to the DMV to prove that the name on a birth certificate was legally changed to the name being used today, in order to obtain a Real ID compliant driver’s license. In many cases, this is a marriage certificate that would prove a legal name change at the time of marriage. People married multiple times would need to produce multiple marriage certificates as well as divorce decrees. It has been argued that this is discrimination against women as men are ...

Keep The Focus On Going Forward

Debate about illegalities in the 2020 presidential election in particular – and American elections in general – needs to keep the focus. Some in government or in the press have repeatedly and publicly missed the focus. The House Republican Conference in the U.S. House of Representatives has just removed as its chair a person who has – repeatedly and publicly – not only missed the focus but also taken the debate off track. The now-former chair’s reason – whatever it may be – for these mistakes is irrelevant to the need for a new chair. Let’s get this back in ...

Stars Are Beginning To Align For GOP

It’s time for New York Republicans and Conservatives to consider whom to nominate for statewide offices next year. This is against this backdrop: ¯ Not since 2002 have Republicans or Conservatives won a statewide race in New York. ¯ Since then, New York Democrats’ enrollment advantage over New York Republicans has increased. ¯ The state’s Republican region — Western, Central, Northern, and Upstate New York — has a decreasing share of New York’s population. ¯ Meanwhile, the state’s Democrat region — New York City broadly understood as including Long Island, ...

Carbon Tax Will Speed Up Zero-Carbon Transition

Sometimes it seems like hell —or Texas— has to freeze over before climate action comes to the forefront of many politicians’ minds. Well, after recent severe weather events, the climate threat is clear as can be, and it’s time for Congress to act. On February 13, a winter storm began sweeping across the U.S. Within days, the frigid conditions and ensuing infrastructure challenges led to dozens of deaths, massive power outages, and millions without clean water. Texas came within minutes of catastrophic failures that would have caused months-long blackouts. Although we were ...

Requiring National Service Could Go A Long Way

I am a U.S. Navy Vietnam veteran, though not entirely by choice. One reason I joined the Navy is because I didn’t want to get drafted into the Army. From just before World War II until 1973, after the Vietnam War, every American male reaching the age of 18 was subject to the draft. That was the way we provided the manpower for our military. Had there had been no draft, I may never have chosen to enlist in the Navy. What the draft did was to throw together Americans from all regions and walks-of-life into the same basket. I had been raised here, in a relatively sheltered ...