EASTER SUNDAY SPECIAL Resurrection Guides Pastors’ Reflections On The Coronavirus Let Emergency’s Lessons Strengthen Our Humanity This disease has not been sent as a punishment from God. The sacred scriptures have shown us repeatedly that God, while not causing an event, can use an event to teach us, to bring us closer to God’s very self that we might experience God’s mercy and compassion. And might this lesson be found in a curious parallel in Matthew’s Passion? There are two…
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Columns - Page 124
THE VIEW FROM WEST DAVENPORT Oil Embargo’s Lesson Forgotten In 1973, the Organization for the Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) from the Middle East imposed an oil embargo on the United States. It had a crippling impact on our economy and on our way of life because we didn’t produce enough energy in this country to meet the demand. People waited in line for hours to buy a few gallons of gasoline and tempers flared. The same impact was felt on…
LIFE IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 The Elephant In The Room To me, there is no more important concept in The War Against COVID-19 than triage. Merriam-Webster.com defines this as “the sorting of and allocation of treatment to patients, and especially battle and disaster victims, according to a system of priorities designed to maximize the number of survivors.” So far, triage is being used to determine who is taken to, or just allowed to go to, hospital emergency rooms. EMTs…
WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER The Question Of Out-Of-Towners By LARRY BENNETT • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com FOR: First is the idea that all have the right to remove their family from a place of apparent danger to a place seen to be safer. Second is the economic idea that second-home owners have the absolute right to relocate to those homes, which they own and pay taxes on. Presumably that is also true if a city resident can afford to rent…
LIFE IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 Why Wasn’t More Done Sooner? By RICHARD STERNBERG • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com Over the last several days I reviewed a great deal of material regarding COVID-19 and the novel coronavirus. I looked at videos. I read scientific and lay papers. I scanned media reports. All to determine what to write about. It was like drinking from a fire hose. But the Monday, March 30, announcement by Dr. Deborah Birx, response coordinator for the White…
County Pastors Contemplate: WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Editor’s Note: The coronavirus has closed churches, but via the Internet and other means, pastors continue to preach. Over the next few weeks, we will share their words here. Out Of Pain, Grief, Find Understanding Ralph Waldo Emerson, a Transcendentalist Unitarian, wrote, “There is a crack in every thing God has made.” In 1992, Leonard Cohen, singer, musician, and song writer, sang in his song “Anthem”, “There is a crack, a crack, in…
FRONT PORCH PERSPECTIVE If Not For A Buttonhook By JIM ATWELL • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com Some years ago, I had dinner at Great-Grandpa’s house down in tidewater Maryland. It’s a handsome brick house with dormers, and it used to face a clear view across the fields to broad West River. But realtors overran the area, and the fields filled up with houses for commuters to Washington. And Great-Grandpa’s house is now a restaurant – a high-toned French one, mind you,…
VIEW FROM WEST DAVENPORT Did Anyone, Or Everyone Kill U.S. Pandemic Team? By MIKE ZAGATA • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com A friend of mine commented that he was upset with the president because he had eliminated the Pandemic Response Team (PRT). I didn’t know there was such a thing and I’m guessing that neither did the President. However, the fact that my friend was blaming the President for eliminating it, and then a year or so later having us face a…
LETTER FROM THE GOVERNOR Cuomo’s Daily Updates Show Much Being Done Editor’s Note: Here’s an example of Governor Cuomo’s daily email updates, which underscore how much is being done to combat coronavirus. Do yourself a favor: sign up at: https://now.ny.gov/page/s/coronavirus-updates March 23, 2020 Dear New Yorker, Amid this pandemic, we can’t underestimate the emotional trauma people are facing or underestimate the pain of isolation. It is real. This is not the human condition — not to be comforted, not to…
Front-Porch Perspective Avast, Maties! Editor’s Note: Only a partial version of Front Porch Perspective was published March 12-13. Here’s the full version. By JIM ATWELL • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com Nope, I’m still not sitting on my front porch, laptop frozen to my lap. Maybe after I spot a first crocus, I’ll try writing out there again. Hey, I’m old and a bit ditsy – but not nuts. Meanwhile, last week some whimsical friends did find a way to distract themselves…
