[This Commentary originally appeared in the September 6, 1990 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel.]
Over 1,500 years ago, the great Roman civilization succumbed to the barbarian forces of the north. As the Huns swept down, the monuments of the Roman Empire crumbled. The invaders destroyed ancient buildings, killed innocent women and children, looted Christian graves and promptly left when they got bored.
These men had more in common with Continue Reading “Saddam’s Savage State”
Welcome to the New Age of (Virtual) Exploration
Following the fall of Rome, the European continent went dark. Although the term “Dark Ages” has fallen out of favor, we have no problem referring to the nadir of that time – when the Bubonic Plague – decimated Europe’s population as “the Black Death.”
Shortly after this tragic pandemic, Europe finally emerged from its thousand-year cocoon. Today, we call this the “Renaissance,” and it is aptly named. Side-by-side with the flourishing arts and sciences was the advent of something greater, something that, without it, we would not exist.
It’s called the “Age of Exploration.”
It was a time when everything came together for Europe. It was a time we forever remember as a simple mental image of a dandily dressed mustachioed man in a shiny helmet planting his Continue Reading “Welcome to the New Age of (Virtual) Exploration”