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Humanity, Untelevised

By Margot Russell Remember this? In the weeks after the flooding outside Asheville, something unexpected happened. The headlines were grim at first—washed-out roads, shuttered shops, homes caked in mud. Social media did what it does: circulated dramatic footage, assigned blame, predicted long recoveries. But on the ground, a quieter story began to unfold. Restaurants that had lost power cooked everything in their freezers and handed out meals for free. Breweries turned into supply depots. Church parking lots became distribution hubs. Contractors showed up with their own equipment ...

When Will It Ever Stop, Or Won’t It?

Back on December 15th after awakening at my usual 2 a.m.-ish time, I found an email on my phone from the New York Times (they are trying to recruit me as a subscriber), as I do about a dozen times a day. The first story they shared before all the popups thwarted my attempt to read more, was the sad story of the brutal murder of actor/director Rob Reiner and his wife. After I read what I could before cursing the popups, I’d read a few of the comments that followed the story. One of the first ones was a remark calling Reiner a brutal liberal Democrat who should have just kept his mouth ...

Lake Placid: Small Town, Large Triumphs

The tiny village was named after its tranquil little lake. My dictionary defines placid as serene, gentle, calm. Writing last week’s column about the 1980 Olympics brought back memories that were anything but peaceful. The downtown streets were loud, crowded and fun. It doesn’t seem possible that four and a half decades have slid by since easy-going Lake Placid played host. I was reminded of those many years as Scott Hamilton remarked about this year’s figure skating competition in Italy. When we saw his Olympic debut in Lake Placid, he was 21 years old and stood at his ...

Sometimes Doing Nothing Is Right

MAYVILLE—Sometimes the most forward-thinking among us are those first to realize they took a wrong turn, and then reverse course and take the right road. In that light, congratulations go to the Chautauqua County legislature. Let’s set the stage. During its regular meetings, the legislature has two privileges of the floor—times when anyone, including legislators themselves, can publicly address the legislature, subject to time limits and, of course, limits of decorum. Under current rules, the first privilege is at the beginning of the meeting. Then, comments must be ...

Resurrecting the Dunkirk Power Plant

Our State Senator, county officials and others have advocated that the old NRG power plant in Dunkirk be reopened as a natural gas/electric plant. It is a proposal that should be considered. I can still remember the day when then Governor Andrew Cuomo went to Dunkirk and promised a big crowd that the plant would be converted from coal to natural gas...a plan that never got off the ground. What you see now, still looming over the Dunkirk harbor, is the shell of the former coal/electric plant. It is doubtful that a natural gas plant would need be housed in such a big structure...but ...

Remain Connected To The Truth

Do your eyes lie or is it your mind struggling to erase what your eyes have seen? If you never saw the videos of Renee Good and Alex Pretti’s deaths, you could just accept the news that they were provocateurs and deserved to be shot. You could choose to believe what you hear. The operative word here is choose, but your mind can’t erase what your eyes saw, you don’t have a choice to unsee what you saw! That is a hard mental disconnect! Our pledge of allegiance says, “we believe in one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Justice begins with us ...