Breaking News

Viewpoints

You’re A Grand Old Flag

One of my favorite projects that I had my students take part in. for maybe about the last ten years of my career, was our annual tribute to one of the symbols of our country, our Red, White and Blue, our Stars and Stripes, our Banner of Freedom, our American Flag. The idea of a Flag Day Celebration came about as a follow-up activity we started a couple years before our Flag Day Celebrations originated, when we began inviting Veterans to a luncheon on the day before or after Veterans’ Day, and had our students break bread with them, listen to their stories, which were not always as ...

Stillwater Church Marks 25 Years

​ Call it twenty-five years, two and a half decades, a quarter century or 9,132 days. Whatever you call it, the people of Koinonia Christian Fellowship are excited and ready to celebrate their church’s big anniversary in many ways. One of those ways is the creation of a cookbook. Church ...

Alito Has An ‘Obligation To Sit’

Congratulations to Chief Justice John Roberts, who responded to importuning Senators by letting Justice Samuel Alito respond for himself. Justice Alito’s reply on Wednesday: He has “an obligation to sit” on cases under the Supreme Court’s code of conduct. Sens. Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse, the bully boys of the Judiciary Committee, wrote the Chief Justice last week demanding a meeting and that Justice Alito recuse himself from hearing cases related to the 2020 election or Donald Trump. As the Senators know, the Court’s code stipulates that individual Justices make ...

Domestic Violence Is Not Just Physical

Domestic violence is no stranger to our society and especially not a stranger to our community here in Chautauqua County. The term “domestic violence”, however, has begun to take on a different meaning over the past few decades. As a society, through many awareness and advocacy efforts, we are starting to break down the stigma behind domestic violence. We are starting to have more and more conversations about this issue. The more we talk about it, the more we see that the way that we look at and understand domestic violence has changed significantly over time. When most people ...

If Heaven Is Joyous, Pets Will Be There

If Heaven is a happy place, then my dogs will be there with me. Last week, it became time to put down our quiet, dependable collie/beagle mix, Buddy. A year earlier, years, we had to bid farewell to Ralph, our loopy, goofy, Lab/Aussie mix, also age 12. Eventually, I will make that journey. If, as I hope, I get to Heaven, it won’t be heavenly without Buddy and Ralph. I have no idea how that will work. Heck, I have no idea how souls, angels, hell, devils, purgatory, Valhalla — any of that stuff works. I used to “know.” The kindly black-clad Benedictines of my childhood ...

I’ve Only Got Two Shoulders

Every time I start writing a column, I end up explaining how hard things have been lately. It seems like they’ve been just plain hard for eons. First, there was COVID, then there was more COVID, then there was politics, and division, and anger, and war. It gets a little heavy to hold up on two shoulders every now and again. However, I just realized that the Lord only gave me two shoulders that are of a somewhat reasonable size for a purpose. There’s only one burden meant for those shoulders - and it’s easy and light. As it says in Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to me, all who ...