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The Good Life: Quarantines, Then And Now — Yuck

Geezer columnists throughout the country are writing “I was quarantined as a child” columns. Some details might be relevant, even useful, to today’s younger readers. We have been told a lot about how to supposedly stay healthy during the lockdowns revolving around the COVID-19 coronavirus. But it is an entirely different matter to be confined within a house after someone becomes actively sick. The “Quarantined” sign went up on our front porch twice, as I recall. Once was yellow, for chicken pox. I had it. The other was orange or red, for the mumps. My father had that. A ...

Open Borders Dems Threaten U.S. Health Care System

Coronavirus will be the coup de grace of the Democratic Party, as sensible Americans of all backgrounds understand amidst a highly contagious global pandemic that the United States needs more border enforcement, not less. It simply makes no sense to permit millions of people from all over the world to pour into our country illegally, many of whom could be carrying the infectious virus and spreading it to Americans. So, contrary to the left’s talking points, border security and enforcement aren’t “xenophobic,” as Democratic presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden ...

When This Pandemic Ends

A favorite book I try never to be without is by the late Irish poet and priest John O’Donohue. It’s on my bedside table, on my Kindle and on the Kindle app on my phone. One needn’t be Catholic (I’m not) or Irish (I am, but I try not to brag) to appreciate O’Donohue’s calm and reassuring presence on every page of his book “To Bless the Space Between Us.” The book is divided into various sections, each one beginning with an essay that leads into a series of blessings. Under the section titled “Beginnings,” there are seven blessings, including “A Morning ...

Progressive Cities And Education

A recent report by Chris Stewart has shed new light on some of the educational problems faced by black youth. The report is titled “The Secret Shame: How America’s Most Progressive Cities Betray Their Commitment to Educational Opportunity for All.” Stewart is a self-described liberal and CEO of Brightbeam, a nonprofit network of education activists who want to hold progressive political leaders accountable. The report asks, “So how do we explain outstandingly poor educational results for minority children in San Francisco — which also happens to be one of the wealthiest ...

Not Wasting A Serious Crisis

My sainted mother was a public school teacher until she married my father and immediately, as a married woman, was forced by local Massachusetts rules then in force to leave the classroom. (My own grade school teachers included Miss Galvin, Miss Harrington, Miss Donahue, Miss Keohane, Miss Condrick, Miss Loud ... you get the picture.) One happy adult memory is a lunch with my then-90-year-old mother in the leading Italian restaurant in our hometown of Weymouth, Massachusetts. The world-weary expression on our waitress’s face, herself already a grandmother, brightened immediately when ...

Social Distancing Has Its Own Togetherness

As the coronavirus stops normal life, trapping more Americans in their homes, some have raised the specter of another health threat: loneliness. Before this crisis seized our anxieties, much discussion centered around the dangers of perceived social isolation and feeling cut off from others. A 2015 analysis by Brigham Young University found loneliness is a bigger cause of early death than obesity. And so we must ask: Is all this social distancing — staying away from other humans as a way to curb the virus’ spread — adding to loneliness? No, on the contrary. With everyone in ...