Breaking News

Local Commentaries

Mental Health Is Also A Men’s Health Issue

When people talk about men’s health, the conversation usually centers on diet, exercise, or cholesterol numbers. What we don’t talk about nearly enough is mental health. For too long, men have been told to stay silent, to tough it out, to carry their struggles alone. That silence is killing us. I know because I lived it. Addiction shaped my life from childhood. My father’s drug use brought chaos and hardship into our home, and though my mother did everything she could to protect us, his addiction eventually claimed his life. Years later, I found myself in a marriage marked by ...

Defining 9/11 As Patriots Day

Twenty-four years have passed since the tragic events of 9/11. In that time, we have had the ability to mourn the deaths of thousands. We have heard the story of hero after hero from the days just after two planes crashed into the world trade center in New York City. We witnessed the bravery of those at the Pentagon as a third commercial jetliner slammed into the outside wall. A recount of the conversations had with passengers aboard a fourth plane as they planned to suppress their captors and in completing the task crashed outside all metropolitan areas in the rural lands of ...

In Civics, Clarify First And Then Reckon

“In a secular republic founded on freedom of conscience, religious doctrine should serve as a private compass, not a legislative cudgel,” wrote a local commentator (LC) in the PJ 8/9 entitled “A Civic Reckoning.” Before we reckon, we first need clarity. What does LC mean by “religious doctrine?” Such a broad term begs for clarification. Does LC think the doctrine of the sanctity of human life as in the commandment “You shall not murder” is just a “private compass” for religious people and irrelevant to the moral compass of the public? Probably ...

Never, Never Leave The Game Early

ORCHARD PARK—Let’s pick up where we left off on the 30th anniversary of the most thrilling game in Buffalo Bills’ history. Yes, you know which one that is. It’s the Jan. 3, 1993, playoff game against the Houston Oilers. The Bills were down 28-3 at halftime, and it quickly got worse. The Oilers opened the second half by making it 35-3. No National Football League team had ever won after being down by 32 points. But play by play, score by score, the Bills came roaring back and won on a field goal in overtime. The final score was 41-38. Van Miller, longtime voice of the ...

Ukraine: 42 Months of Assault By The Russian Bear

It is easy for Americans to ignore the ongoing war by Putin’s Russia against an independent, democratic Ukraine, desperate to be part of the West. Our cable tv news outlets feature almost everything other than the Russian war against Ukraine. We get extensive coverage of Jeffrey Epstein; Micah Parsons, the Dallas Cowboys holdout who was successful in getting traded to Green Bay for the highest salary ever for a non-quarterback, $188,000,000 over 4 years; National Guard troops assigned law enforcement duties in our Nation’s capital; a myriad of lawsuits challenging actions by the ...

Staying Interested In The Weather

It started with me at an early age. Our farm was located on top of a hill, and we could see the weather coming from the west and then view it to the east as it descended upon Frewsburg and then into the hills around Frew Run and Bone Run. Weather became even more a part of my life when I started flying. When you first start flying a plane, you can only fly when the weather is good...it takes time to earn an instrument ticket so that you can fly in clouds and in low visibility. Back then, we had just the beginnings of weather radar, and so the FAA Flight Service Stations across the ...