By JIM McKEEVER We are heartbroken. News reports, photos and video of the suffering in Ukraine, images of innocent families dead on the ground, have infuriated us, sparked us to act. We send money, food, supplies, weapons. We attend rallies to show solidarity with Ukraine and speak out against Vladimir Putin’s cruel war. America’s empathy …
By DENNIS HARROD “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.” — Isaiah, 11:16 We should be ashamed. Amanda Gorman wrote in the New York Times Jan. 20, …
By DENNIS HARROD A word has ignited a war of words on the letters to the editor page in The Sherburne News, a weekly newspaper in the next county over from where I live. The word that started the war begins with “F” and ends with “K.” It appears in very large letters on the …
By JIM McKEEVER On Jan. 7, the day after pro-Trump insurrectionists invaded the U.S. Capitol, my West Coast brother went on his regular shift driving for Meals on Wheels. The first client he spoke with, a man in his early 80s, asked how my brother was dealing with the shock of what had happened at …
By JIM McKEEVER As our book club sat around a cozy backyard fire one evening in the summer of COVID, a member used a metaphor that has stuck with me, and I think with the group as a whole. We were discussing ways of communicating with — and to be honest, persuading or convincing — …
By MIKE DONOHUE On the day Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election was announced, I saw a sad sight that affirmed something I’ve suspected for a long time. I was driving through the country and passed a large house. A man, the owner I presume, was up on a ladder, taking down an …
By DENNIS HARROD If I had a nickel for every house with at least one sign supporting Democrats or Black Lives Matter on Allen Street in Syracuse, I’d have at least $1.50. If I had a nickel for every house with a Trump sign, I’d have … well, a nickel. “Being a Republican around here,” …
Sense of Decency 