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It was a lonely vigil.
And by “vigil” I mean Easter Vigil on Saturday night.
And by “lonely” I mean I was by myself, all alone in a church I never went to before. Betsy was staying with her recovering father and Peter was not feeling well.
Only I wasn’t alone. Parishioners packed St. James (aptly named because it’s in the City of Continue Reading “Thoughts On Trains, Natural Gas, And The Interstate Highway System”
A very good and kind friend of mine from New York City once came to visit. As we were sitting casually in the sun overlooking my front yard, he turns to me and says, “Chris, that open space is a terrible waste of good space. You should pave it for more parking, maybe put up a shed or two. You’ll get more use out of it.”
I tried to explain the fine nuance of local zoning laws, the joys of smelling freshly cut grass, and the pleasant soft coolness an expansive lawn offers, especially on hot summer days.
He would have none of these arguments. He saw only the sterile utility of the land, not the Continue Reading “Are We Losing Our Independence?”
You’ve probably read the headlines about Kathy Hochul “making history” by becoming the first woman to hold the position of New York State Governor.
If you’re like me, you cringe every time you see the appellation “first” applied to anyone. With the clear exception of sporting events, landing on the moon, and a few others, the term “first” seems more like a back-handed compliment. In today’s world of woke, it makes people wonder if “token” wouldn’t be a better description.
And that’s not fair.
I know. I’ve lived with this designation. The “first” Italian-American to do this… The “first” Catholic to do that… The “first” graduate of Gates-Chili high school to…
Each time, despite the apparent good intentions of various speakers of those words, it always felt condescending.
While I’m proud of my heritage, I didn’t want to be remembered merely as an Italian-Continue Reading “The Real News About Kathy Hochul Being New York State Governor”
A while back I ran across a reporter’s query. It seemed this journalist wanted to know if the “right-wing” is decentralizing the Internet. That struck me as an odd thing to ask given most feel it is the “left-wing” that kicked the “right-wing” out of the clubhouse.
But, hey, if you want to sow division, this is the way to do it.
In 1894, five years before he became governor of New York State, Theodore Roosevelt wrote ever so eloquently of the need to come together as one nation and avoided the divide and conquer strategy that serves America’s enemies well:Continue Reading “Don’t Let Them Divide and Conquer Us”
Allow me to begin with this caveat: I am not a fan of Andrew Cuomo. I do not support the bulk of his policies. I do not condone what many call his “thuggish” behavior. Above all, I feel he is a discredit to all those Italian-Americans who have tried to live a life that transcends the Hollywood stereotype of our honored heritage.
If you doubt any of the above, then go back and reread some of my previous columns.
That being said, even I find it somewhat suspicious that this once-darling of the politically woke now finds himself dodging quite serious accusations against his policies, his administration, and his very character.
My first inclination might have been “couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” but the coincidences Continue Reading “Who’s Really Going After Cuomo?”
“I would long since for the time that no votes buy our cares;
For people that once possessed command, high civil office, legions and all else,
now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.”
– From Satire X, Juvenal, ca. 100 AD
When the Roman satirical poet Juvenal wrote these lines centuries ago, he meant it as an exposé of government corruption. It also represented a warning to a populace too eager to sacrifice freedom for immediate delights.
Unfortunately, rather than a cautionary alert, Juvenal’s “bread and circuses” has become a blueprint from which every dictator since has built his empire.
You can now add Andrew Cuomo to the long sorry list of power-mad rulers seeking to Continue Reading “We Need High-Speed Broadband, Now!”
And in that brief moment, its reign ended.
We don’t know how old it really was, but the centuries had exacted their toll. Despite the efforts of the valiant few, the rot that builds with age had eaten its way through the internal fabric that once supported its mighty infrastructure.
When that final gust rushed through, the great citadel had fallen. It had stood for so long that those closest to it, stunned by the fatal reality before their own eyes, could only muster an anemic disbelief.
All that incredulity could not suspend the finality that was. It was gone. Not really. But really.
* * *
The Seneca tribe was a fierce warrior tribe. They had to be. They guarded the “west gate” of the Iroquois Confederacy. From that position, they both protected one flank of their Continue Reading “Ode to a Once Mighty Oak”
“Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
– George Santayana in his 1905 series, The Life of Reason: the Phases of Human Progress.
It’s not new. It’s been with us since George Washington ended his second term as President. You might have heard it ended once and for all during the nadir of the American experiment.
But it’s still here. And for all its association with evil, the worst of our proud heritage, people continue to embrace it like a badge of honor.
Yet, it began with such promise…
No one ever questioned George Washington. He’s our first and probably last Continue Reading “Condemned to Repeat It: This 200+ Year Old Concept Rises Again in 2020”
Let’s get this disclosure out of the way first. We use Amazon. We’re Amazon Prime members. Our parent company, Pandamensional Solutions, Inc., uses Amazon print and distribution services for the books it publishes. In all, we spend a lot of money at Amazon and Amazon generates revenue for us. We have certainly benefited from Amazon.
That being said, we don’t think New York State taxpayers will benefit from Andrew Cuomo’s terrible deal to bring Amazon to his state. Enough was revealed when Amazon announced its decision to “split the baby in half” and create two “second headquarters” instead of one. The “lucky” winners were Long Island City in New York and Arlington in Virginia. Amazon promises to hire 25,000 employees at each location. In addition, the on-line retail behemoth also declared it would open a smaller regional hub in Nashville, Tennessee (where they will hire 5,000).
As we said last year (“This is How the Greater Western New York Region Should Respond If Amazon Picks Another Option,” Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel, October 26, 2017), bowing to Amazon’s extortion-like tactics was absolutely a terrible idea. We stand by our Continue Reading “Cuomo Courts Amazon with Our Money”
Did you ever have a dream you kept putting off? A place you always wanted to visit? A story you always wanted to tell?
So did I. (Notice the past tense.)
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The History Of Local Historians
James Sullivan, New York State Historian (1916-1922), source: New York State Archives
“The love of one’s locality and a commendable pride in its achievements lie at the basis of true patriotism. It is difficult, nevertheless, to love something about which you know nothing. One who knows the history of the place in which he is living is far more likely to venerate it than he who is entirely ignorant of its story. To preserve this history is the function of the local historian.”
Those words belong to James Sullivan, New York State Historian. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle published them (as part of a bigger article penned by Sullivan) on page 17 of the Sunday, March 26, 1922 edition of the paper.
Sullivan used the piece to explain the nature and purpose of a relatively new law. It was passed by the State Legislature and signed into law by New York Governor Al Smith on April 11, 1919. Technically Section 57.07 of the New York State Arts and Cultural Affairs Law, it’s known more familiarly as “Local Government Historian Law” or simply the “Local Historian” Law.
The first paragraph of the law states “A local historian shall be appointed, as provided in Continue Reading “The History Of Local Historians”