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Olympics Bring Back Memories Of Summer Sports

With the opening of Summer Olympics my mind went to some of the sports that will be featured. Yes, baseball is back. Other sports are making their debut. I watched a young man talk about skateboarding and the two divisions that will be part of the games. During the opening ceremony it became quite apparent that the U. S. is just a small part of the whole world picture. I listened to the commentators talk about the population of the various countries. I saw where they were located. There were countries represented that I truthfully had never heard of. It was truly a geography ...

What Are You Feeding Your Lake?

At the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy, we think about what we humans feed our lakes, streams and groundwaters. We all live in a watershed. What runs off our yards with and in precipitation, what we place on our yards, what drips out of our vehicles, what we put in our dishwashers, down our ...

Language Learning Begins At Birth

CHAUTAUQUA – When this columnist was a newspaper reporter, he did a 22-part series letting teachers of all sorts share their thoughts on, and approaches to, the profession. It was fun just to let teachers open up. In their own ways, they all did. A local reading teacher advised reading to children every day. Starting at birth. Yes, birth. Fast forward to this summer at Chautauqua Institution. The Chautauqua Women’s Club introduced Dr. Barbara Foorman as a professor at the Florida Center for Reading Research at Florida State University in Tallahassee. She was the ...

There Was Something Very Special About July Fourth

There was something “special” about the Fourth of July this year. It is hard to explain, but there was an “electricity” to it that was more than normal. There were more boats on the lake than I have ever seen. The bay at Long Point State Park was solid with them. Boats were anchored everywhere and people were jumping in for a swim. There were so many boats that we decided against trying to put ours in the water because of all of the wave action and traffic on the lake. It was like a “zoo” out there. It didn’t dampen our spirits though since we had plenty of ...

Borrello’s COVID Bills Appear To Pander

I am writing in response to the article “Sen. Borrello Introduces COVID Bills” that appeared in the July 2 issue. I am appalled that these bills, which seem to ignore everything that we have learned about public health over more than a century, have been introduced and I strongly encourage the state Senate to vote them down. Regarding Bill S.7268, which would prohibit a government entity from requiring individuals to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, Borrello states that “vaccines are a choice, and no one should ever be forced to be vaccinated.” With thinking like that, we would ...

Take Time To Try To Reimagine Your Town

Communities all across America have faced serious challenges during the pandemic. Unfortunately, many communities all around the world are still struggling. Some will come out of this thriving while others will continue to flounder or will fail altogether. This isn’t anything new. Communities rise and fall all the time and for many different reasons. Sometimes the demise of a community is caused by something dramatic like a natural disaster, a war, or the fall of an empire. More often, it’s simply due to the failure of the economic activity that once supported the area. ...