All over the world, people have been asked to stay home due to COVID-19, and everyone’s safety. The term “safety” in this case is in regards to health. Unfortunately for victims of domestic violence that request may be keeping them safe from the pandemic but is causing a dangerous ...
If you tell a big enough lie, and tell it often and loud enough, people will believe it is true. The Nazis and Soviets had it down to a science, with their propaganda ministers, like most totalitarian states. Modern day propagandists, however, are taking it to a whole new level. While it is ...
It appears that canning supplies are among the things that have been hit by the pandemic. I, personally, have not looked for lids or jars, but I noticed that some are being offered for sale through the classified. That tells me that they are of limited availability. Earlier when I was out ...
Charles “Chuck” Porpiglia had no peer in the Democratic Party of Chautauqua County over the past fifty years plus. He will never be replaced in the hearts and minds of those of us who were able to call him friend or mentor. Over Chuck’s half century span laboring for the party, there ...
Let us look at Chautauqua County as though it is a big yellow school bus. Driving the bus is the County Executive PJ Wendel and immediately behind him on the bus are his department heads, county legislators, various elected officials in all parts of the county, and in the rear of this bus are ...
There has been a lot of press recently about relatives being unable to visit their family members who are in nursing homes during this time of COVID-19. Much of the discourse revolves around how much people miss their parents or grandparents whom they have been unable to visit. To my mind, ...
You may be wondering — why is there no “pill” to stop the coronavirus? When we first realized there was a deadly virus threatening the entire world, many Americans assumed that there just had to be a pill for that. Once people heard that the symptoms were things like headache, shortness ...
In August of 2018, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a speech in Kentucky that “one of my proudest moments was when I looked Barack Obama in the eye and I said, ‘Mr. President, you will not fill the Supreme Court vacancy.’” In doing so, McConnell violated his oath of ...
We are all well aware of the “great divide” that separates northern and southern Chautauqua County — the Chautauqua Ridge that rises inland from the shores of Lake Erie separating the St. Lawrence and Allegheny/Ohio River watersheds. However, there also used to be an east/west barrier ...
Let’s not talk about whether to drink alcoholic beverages. Let’s consider instead how much is too much. Men are now told to limit ourselves to one alcoholic drink per day, according to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans. One drink usually does not kick us into the pleasantly ...
Experience has taught us this: addiction is not something you want to tackle alone. Group treatment, mutual aid fellowships, like Alcoholics Anonymous, and good-old supportive friends have long proven this principle. In recovery, together is better than alone. Finding strength in numbers is ...
At my age one of the pleasures of life is watching a storm. You can see it grow to the north and west, it comes from over the ridge along Lake Erie, then it sweeps down Chautauqua Lake and consumes you until the last rumble of thunder is gone and the rain trickles to a drizzle. I remember ...
The year 2020 has been a year of disruptions, disunity, and violence. The virus has done some damage, but worse by far is the economic pain and dislocation perpetrated by our own governments, as well as the ongoing riots that are supported and encouraged by certain politicians. Sickness and ...
What is ripping apart our social fabric? Is it the effects of the COVID lockdown? Is it political bitterness? Consider weddings and funerals. In years past, I thought about Social Security in terms of myself or my wife and immediate family. I never consciously thought about childhood ...
The second of three installments offered a touch more substantive insights into my client, Mason. He’s a retired nurse practitioner. He has siblings, children and grandchildren, and a few friends and acquaintances. He states that his energy is drained. He otherwise appears healthy. ...
The primary responsibility of the Chautauqua County Department of Health and the County Executive’s Office throughout the COVID-19 crisis is to protect the lives and health of all Chautauqua County residents. In response to the article printed in the Friday, Aug. 28, 2020, Post-Journal ...
It was my goal when I ran for Mayor to make city government more transparent and open to the public we serve. We started immediately after my inauguration by continuing the new practice of streaming City Council meetings online through the city website. Sometimes a crisis has a way of ...
Most Americans are generally familiar that there is a “pecking order” when it comes to government. The federal government sits at the top, then come the states followed by the counties, and then all of the various forms of local government from towns to cities to villages and then school ...
CHAUTAUQUA LAKE — Imagine the impression of Native Americans who, however long ago, first laid eyes on Chautauqua Lake. With all of their respect for the natural world, they must have thought this lake was a treasure. The first Europeans to encounter it, just over two centuries ago, must ...
Last Thursday was like last Wednesday, last Tuesday, and last Monday. They all featured beautiful summer mornings. Fluffy white clouds punctuated clear blue skies. Temperatures were in the balmy 60s in the mornings, near 80 in afternoons, with slight summer breezes for wind. Lovely. But we ...