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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 ...

Toward A More Perfect Union

The notion of America becoming a more perfect union is a fascinating idea. It is self-reflective and humble. It recognizes our nation’s basic good qualities, while also acknowledging that our past actions are not always ideal. We believe it is an attitude and perspective that can serve us well in this moment. Some of the readers here will know us. We grew up and knew each other at a young age, graduating from Frewsburg High School in 2006. Still, we have taken different paths over time and often see the world from differing perspectives. One of us went on to the military and ...

A Chemist Explains Why Scientists Write

Civics education, I’m told by experienced jurists like former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Jack Zouhary, a federal judge in Toledo, is in the dumpster in public schools. Citizens including a new US Senator graduate without knowing the branches of government (executive, legislative and judicial), the difference between the U.S. Senate and the state Senate, or which came first — the U.S. Constitution or the Declaration of Independence. Justice O’Connor, who went to school in Texas, said she got sick of hearing about Stephen F. Austin, but she still ...

Your Wedding Day Is Yours

Brides and grooms receive lots of advice. Some of it’s even good. Here are a few suggestions that brides and grooms can evaluate for themselves. ¯ During your life, you get few days that really are yours. A wedding day is one of them. It’s yours to dream of. yours to contemplate. It’s yours to plan. It’s yours to enjoy. And it’s yours to remember. Is it also others’ to dream of, contemplate, enjoy, remember, and, to the extent you invite them to do so, plan? Sure it is. Yet it’s really your day. Most, if not all, prospective guests will be ...