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How aware are you post-9/11?

How prepared were we for the surprise attack on the morning of September 11, 2001? Neither was America prepared for it on December 7, 1941. Today it’s not like it was in 1966, 25 years after Pearl Harbor. Imperial Japan was defeated and its threat ended. Is Islam defeated or even in retreat? Are you aware that since 9/11, nearly 50,000 acts of Islamic terror have struck worldwide? In 1966 roughly 300 mosques were in America. Are you aware that nearly 3000 mosques occupy America in 2026? “Death to America” isn’t just heard from the Middle East; it’s being shouted from ...

Of What Use is a Fine House?

Chautauqua County and much of the rest of Western New York is blessed with beautiful, healthy natural resources. Things aren’t perfect, there are scars, but overall our forests, fields, streams, and lakes are a huge asset. It was Henry Thoreau who said, “Of what use is a fine house if you haven’t a tolerable planet to put it on?” Thoreau is questioning the value of human material possessions, like a luxurious house, if the natural environment around us is ruined. A local example is the fine houses surrounding Chautauqua Lake that are suffering the consequences of past and current ...

Joseph Hernandez understands rough waters, rip currents

SUNSET BAY—It’s a gorgeous late summer day on the shore of Lake Erie. As a Buffalo Bills’ game is on television, the sun is bright, the air is warm, and wispy clouds fill the blue sky. This is the kind of day that postcards are made of. It’s that much fun. It’s a bit windy ...

The matter of population decline

The facts are clear and not much in dispute that Chautauqua County has over the past few decades been experiencing population decline. Some of this is related to government policies (or lack thereof,) and some of it by the fact that we are not in a growth area of the country. Since World War II, the air conditioner has made living and working in the South a viable option. Southern states also tend to have lower regulatory standards, and, as “right to work” states, employers in these states do not have as many labor issues to deal with. The result has been a shift in population ...

When cutting red tape puts patients at risk

I was three years old when I was diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, called juvenile rheumatoid or “little people’s arthritis” back in 1985. My parents were floored by the diagnosis because I did not look like my grandparents’ arthritis. I looked like a 3‑year‑old who did not like to be touched and then stopped walking. Before I even learned to read, I learned what it meant to live in a body that could suddenly turn on itself, and what it meant to depend on powerful medicines, often at adult doses, just to get through the day. Biologic drugs have transformed ...

Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)

**Note – Today’s narrative from the Bullpen is a rewritten version of one printed in the second week of September 11, 2011, ten years after the tragic occurrences which happened on September 11, 2001, twenty-five years ago yesterday. The title words above were penned by Country singer ...