Looking back at the past 15 years

In July 2005 I reached out to Tim Marren, editor of the Lockport Union Sun and Journal at the time, and asked him if he needed a columnist. Lockport native and WNY media icon Clip Smith passed away 11 months earlier and without his contributions there were no local columnists. I told Tim I would follow in Clip’s shoes and write the column for free.

So, here I am 15 years – and over 750 columns – later, still writing for the Lockport paper and its sister publication, the Niagara Gazette. A few years ago, then-editor of the Daily News John Anderson invited me to share my contributions with the readers in Batavia, too.

Did I ever think I’d make it this far?

I’d like to think so.

It was always my goal to write as long as newspapers existed. Yes, there may have been a few times where I wondered if the well would go dry and I would have nothing to opine upon, but that never happened and never will: We live and work in New York…Albany will always serve up something for me.

And, you never know what will happen in this world. When I signed on did anyone think I’d be writing about something called the Great Recession and, then, not too many years later a global pandemic?

The world is a fluid place. It’s always changing. We’re always changing.

The newspaper industry is changing, too.

Over the past 15 years, the online presence of newspapers has in many communities across the country grown to be their bread-and-butter. That has become an economic model difficult to manage and sustain as consumers who abandoned subscriptions to print editions think they should have unfettered access to online content, never mind what it takes to keep the reporters covering everything from local sports to municipal corruption to neighborhood business to the accomplishments of high schoolers.

Because of those trends, two newspapers the column ran in -- the Medina Journal-Register and Tonawanda News – both folded.

Heartbreaking.

Communities need newspapers.

Our constitutional republic – or as some people call it our “democracy” – needs newspapers.

I can attest to their value in that regard. Not every one of my columns has been a victory (some actually stunk), but there have been enough to have a measurable impact and reinforce the importance of the press. For example…

In 2011, a column about the Obama Administration’s plan to exclude almost all minors from most agricultural work and all animal husbandry -- which would have destroyed farming’s future as well as 4-H and the FFA – went absolutely viral and became a critical cog in the machine that brought down the rules in the public comment period.

That same year, the federal government proposed that all farm workers get a commercial driver’s license (CDL) in order to drive farm equipment. This column brought that to light and we managed to beat that, too.

Last year, the state legislature passed a bill that would have prevented Boy Scouts from using the shooting ranges at summer camps. The sponsor of the bill admitted to the New York Times that my column changed her mind. She brought an amendment to the floor that passed.   

Then, during this COVID event I’ve scored two wins – the first being the suspension of unemployment’s waiting week during the crisis and the second being the development of COVID-19 Administrators for public schools.

Mixed among those columns and more were less traceable wins – those you can’t see in the legislative chambers but those that hopefully encouraged people to rethink the way they view the world and the people in it.

Through the years, this column has received responses and exposure from all over the world, and it’s exciting to wonder whose attention I might attract next. Rebuttals from Charles Schumer and Louise Slaughter have appeared in the paper. Staffers from the Reagan Administration spoke out about a column. I’ve appeared on radio shows across the country. Supermodel-turned-super-businesswoman Kathy Ireland and I shared a nice dialogue after she read one of my articles. The largest newspapers in Germany and China have quoted me. And, what really makes me proud, schools, colleges, and departments of education across the US and Canada have included my essays or quotes in their textbooks and curriculum.

I thank you, the reader, for being there, week in and week out. Over the years I’ve heard from hundreds, maybe thousands, of you. Some write me in agreement. Others respectfully disagree. And, a few have disrespectfully disagreed to the point of anonymously mailing me my column with expletives written all over it. Be it to the positive or negative, I love your feedback.

I’d also like to thank all the editors and publishers of these newspapers for allowing me to pursue my dream and share my ideas. Your support – and the weekly designation of space on the opinion page -- means a lot to me.  

15 years is a long time.

But, it’s not the end.

I’ll be here as long as you can all put up with me.

From the 27 July 2020 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News

Random thoughts on education in the Covid era

As school districts debate if, when and how to go back to classroom education a recurring sentiment from a fair percentage of parents across the country is that their kids won’t be wearing a mask all day (if at all).

  
I’m sorry, but if you think your kids will be going back to school and won't be required to wear masks at all times except eating and drinking you're kidding yourself. To eliminate subjectivity, manage risk and keep the focus on education it is guaranteed most if not all schools will require constant use.

They can’t count on kids to understand the nuances of social distancing and to remember to put the mask up whenever they are within two meters of another person (heck, outside of the school walls that’s asking a lot of adults). On top of that, children are natural germ spreaders – they don’t cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze and think nothing of projecting that spray in their peer’s or your face. Six feet won’t cut it. Masks will to a point.

If you’re still not sold on it, think about your pocketbook and the niceties you want your schools to have: If schools don’t enforce continuous mask usage they could expose themselves – which means we the taxpayers – to considerable legal liability if a kid took the virus home, got someone sick, and that person died.

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It’s been written in this column before about what kids are missing out on without the classroom experience. School shutdowns stink because students’ foundational years are when you want them exposed to different ideas, different cultures, and the teachers, coaches, and staff who can inspire and provide encouragement.

Kids needs the in-person experience.

But, some need it more than most – specifically the special needs students.

Even if mainstream students are denied that physical schooling, districts really have to figure out how to deliver on-site education to those who need a little extra help, support and love. Distance and virtual learning are both impractical and ineffectual to students with developmental and physical disabilities. We as a society are doing a great disservice to them if we deny them the incredible benefits that the human experience provides them.

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My 8-year old daughter did quite well with e-learning last semester but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a frustration.

We live in a neighborhood that is rural, but nowhere near remote. In a four minute drive I can make it into the hamlets of Gasport and Wright’s Corners, eight minutes gets me into downtown Lockport. Despite that, we literally have a third world internet connection.

Our internet bogs down and makes Zoom and Google Hangouts difficult if not impossible. Many times she got booted off virtual classes because of our connection. It was heartbreaking for her. Tears would flow from the frustration of not being able to learn, see her teacher or interact with her friends.

Mind you, just a couple years ago Cuomo’s office said we were leading the nation in high speed internet and 2018’s “last mile funding” would finally ensure high-speed internet access for all New Yorkers.

It hasn’t. Visit any rural town in WNY or the Adirondacks – families, students and businesses have only rudimentary connections if any at all.

What’s happening to my family – and thousands of more across the state -- should encourage Albany to immediately refocus and rethink its efforts with broadband infrastructure, whether over the air or through cables.

Will it happen? During the spring Governor Cuomo claimed to understand the internet woes faced by students but he’s the same guy who just 5 months earlier vetoed a bill that would have studied the feasibility of state-owned internet to provide it to underserved communities.

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The last 3 months of the 2019-2020 school year gave everyone a taste, just a taste, of homeschooling.

You have to admit it was difficult -- and that was with substantial resources provide by schools.

So, now, can we finally cast aside the insidious and unfounded stereotypes that traditionally-schooled families hold towards homeschool families?

The Covid crisis can help you understand the incredible investment of time, mind, money, and patience that homeschool parents invest in their kids. It’s not easy.

Through the years, in Scouting and various plant tours at Confer Plastics I’ve interacted with many homeschoolers. All of them have been incredible students with high levels of inquisitiveness, focus and discipline. I even had a college professor tell me that he knows when he has a homeschooled student in his class because of that student’s brilliance.

I think we can now all agree that homeschoolers really are “different”…but “different” in very good ways.

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If in-person education is not a thing in the coming school year, superintendents and schools boards have to be ready to quell a revolt.

It’s common water cooler and social media talk that taxpayers will be enraged if they don’t get a refund on their taxes. They have a point – no busing, sports, arts, full food service, maximum use of HVAC, general maintenance and so much more.

Districts will have to be ready to explain if that budgeted money is coming back and, if not, what it is being used for – whether it’s “a rainy day fund” or it’s being reinvested in the physical plant of the campus to be ready for Covid protocols.

From the 20 July 2020 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News

In defense of the COVID mask

I wear a handgun to protect myself and others.

I wear a mask to do the same.

In both cases a little bit of insurance – lightweight, portable, and effective – goes a long way in keeping threats under control.

I will never understand those who are vehemently opposed to either means of defense for in my liberty based world view, you’re welcome to do what you want to do as long as you don’t infringe upon the rights of others. At the same time, you have to be prepared protect your rights – and those of others -- from those who don’t respect them.

What are these rights?

As the Declaration of Independence so succinctly put it, we are endowed with “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Notice that first among those rights is life.

Life.

We have to protect life, ours and that of others in all forms – the unborn, children, men, women, black, white, the aged. They all matter.

Thus, it makes sense that we use the tools available to each of us as individuals.

Given that heavy and important responsibility for self and for others, why have masks become, like guns, a divisive political issue?

When you listen to the talking heads or navigate the wild world of social media it seems like conservatives are as dead set against mask usage as liberals are against private ownership of firearms.

It shouldn’t be that way.

If you wear a gun yet you find wearing a piece of cloth over your mouth and nose to potentially save someone’s life to be a hang-up you really need to reconsider how you perceive your obligations, written and unwritten, to others in all things you do.  

Consider why I wear a mask.

I wear a mask to protect myself. Given my physical condition I don’t expect to break a sweat if I get COVID. But, I also know that I’m no spring chicken. I’m middle aged. Anything can happen to a body that’s seen close to a half century on this earth.

I wear a mask to protect my family. My wife and I have a full house , with 4 children ages 1 to 8. Statistically, kids have been spared by coronavirus, but with twin toddlers only a year removed from arriving in this world 5 weeks early, there’s always a risk. Then, there’s my parents, in-laws, and our grandmothers to think about; we are blessed to still have them…why would I even chance bringing them something that takes them away from us prematurely?  

I wear a mask to protect my coworkers. My team deserves to come to a workplace that’s safe and healthy. We’ve been providing that for years with policies, procedures and controls for machinery and its usage, so it only makes sense to extend protections to the global health threat before us. I have 165 families to take care of, in so many ways, and a mask is a simple tool by which to do that.

I wear a mask to protect the community. I want my town, my world, and all those in it to flourish. As I go out and about in public I feel politely and naturally obligated to not spread COVID to workers and customers in the businesses I frequent and among the populations I serve. Do they or their partners have conditions that put them at risk, like diabetes, heart disease or cancer? Do they have immunocompromised children at home? Do they care for elderly loved ones? Are they pregnant? There are so many unanswered questions best served by simply donning some fabric.  

I wear a mask to protect the economy. If nearly-universal mask usage serves as a visual cue for policymakers to open all facets of our vast, inter-related economic engine, why wouldn’t I contribute that to the markets?

All that said, I wonder why there’s so much disdain for masks.

Is it because governments – local, state, and federal – have guidances in place about their usage?

Is it because businesses are telling you how to interact with them in their world?

Or is it because you don’t like the dirty looks you get when you take a cavalier approach to their use?

Realize those dirty looks are telling you something: Put a mask on. They did, in part, for you. You can for them.

If you value self-defense and defending others -- and ensuring the economy stays open and our kids can go back to school -- do your part, a simple part no less, to keep coronavirus at bay.

You actually can wear a mask and enjoy liberty, too.

From the 13 July 2020 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News