Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Sorted by date Results 601 - 625 of 1143
Good grief. It surprised me how sad I was that "A Charlie Brown Christmas" would no longer air on broadcast television. I felt like I'd lost a chunk of my childhood. In October, Apple TV+ acquired the rights to all "Peanuts" holiday specials including "A Charlie Brown Christmas." A great hue and cry resulted. An online petition went viral., And Apple TV+ agreed to let PBS broadcast the beloved special this Christmas season. Thank goodness for that, because in this nutty year, every one of us...
People might get tired of stories about my father Ted and his summer in Mississippi. They might roll their eyes when I, once again, write about how he faced hostility and the KKK during his time in the places that have become legendary for their ferocious efforts at silencing Black voices and votes. There are many out there who never heard of my father, but who are doing their damndest to make sure that people like him are silenced and forgotten. They are doing this because they have fallen...
As challenging a year as 2020 has been, we still should be thankful that it has been the best year in human history to be alive. Consider: In 1920, according to the book “Enlightenment Now,” the average person spent 11.5 hours each week doing laundry. By 2014, he or she was completing laundry chores in less than an hour and a half. Or, in my case, five minutes – which is how long it takes me to drop off my laundry at the laundry-cleaning shop. Right now, humans are living longer, more produ...
Be careful what you ask for! At least that's what they say. A couple of weeks ago we at the Transcript asked if any folks who had been infected with COVID-19 would be interested in sharing their story. There was no reply to our request, only crickets. So, we have watched the numbers from day to day and week to week. One new positive, six new positives, 13. Then a stop. Then on to 12 new positives, then nine, and 37. Eventually, I became one of those statistics. Now that I have recovered, I'm...
It's over. Despite the last bit of unseemly flailing about by the administration, the election is over, and when the last votes are counted in what will prove to be the most transparent election in history – despite the propaganda suggesting otherwise – Joe Biden will be the 46th president of the United States with 306 electoral votes, the same number Donald Trump got in 2016. The results of the election absolutely should be verified and confidence in the foundation of American democracy, the electoral process, should be affirmed despite an...
COVID-19 is real, and it's affected all of us. I've been at the forefront of the state and local response to coronavirus since day one. I've written numerous articles on the testing, the tracing, the precautions and the statistics. I've also heard from real people who have been impacted by this virus. Then I became one of "those people." You know, the ones who test positive for COVID-19. It all happened so fast, enough to make my head spin and my temperature rise (literally). One day I was...
“It’s a miracle!” said the doctor. “You’ve just awakened from a coma after a terrible accident in October 2016, but you’re doing well, all things considered!” “I’ve been out for more than four years?” said the patient. “That’s right,” said the doctor. “You must have several questions?” “You bet, Doc! I remember when America elected President Obama, a time of great healing and hope and change. Americans are surely getting along better than ever now?” “It’s best that we come back to that one later...
I usually avoid discussing politics in my columns, mainly because I would rather not be disowned by family members, unfriended by friends, or doused with milkshakes and other beverages by complete strangers at the local Whataburger. This time, though, I just can’t help getting out my big ol’ stir-up-sumpin’ stick. I’ll begin by announcing that I recently cast (as in chucked, lobbed or hurled) my vote for President of the United States of ‘Merica. I decided to vote early so I could avoid the airborne particles of other humans on Election...
Did you realize that commercial radio got its start on November 2, 1920 when legendary KDKA in Pittsburgh broadcast the results of the Harding-Cox presidential race? Almost overnight, radio transitioned from domination by ham operators to an actual business with schedules, programming and sponsors. Now the world has experienced an entire CENTURY peppered with FDR’s “Fireside Chats,” serialized “Captain Midnight” adventures, the original soap operas, traffic and weather reports, Top 40 countdown...
They did it in 1918, we can do it now The words of Dr. Deborah Birx were stark. On a visit to North Dakota last week, Birx, the White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator, laid it on the line: “. . . in your grocery stores and in your restaurants and frankly even in your hotels, this is the least use of masks that we have seen in retail establishments of any place we have been.” She’s criss-crossed the country, and we’re the worst. Perhaps it’s time to learn a lesson from our ancestors. More than a hundred years ago, the world and the n...
As of late October, the political modelers at FiveThirtyEight gave Democrats a 72% chance of pulling off the trifecta -- winning the White House and majorities in both Houses of Congress -- on November 3. My visceral response to that possibility is negative. Excluding outlier possibilities like a Libertarian landslide, I've always considered divided government the best outcome. Gridlock, in theory, is good. If an opposition party controls either the White House or one house of Congress, that...
At this stage of the political campaigns, the votes are all determined so we should be able to discuss the COVID-19 without all of its political rhetoric. We have nothing to lose if we are open and civil about the subject. First, Governor, I have not cultivated a political hostility toward you. I enjoyed spending an hour calmly talking with you about North Dakota's culture and resultant governmental system. Your Main Street initiative was much to my liking. We have many main streets in North Dak...
To the Voters: The first step in solving a problem is to clearly identify it. In recent years, the right to initiate changes to the state’s Constitution has been co-opted by out-of-state interests that flood the state with money in support of their pet agenda, most often catching the local people uninformed, unprepared, disorganized and without money or a platform to respond before the big money has propagandized its project into general acceptance, and - Slam, Dunk! - the ill-informed public thinks it “sounds good” and votes it into our Const...
I remember growing up in the 1980s when our neighbors’ political affiliation was a complete mystery. At least it was to me, a teenager who was more interested in finding a local sandlot game or pickup basketball game at one of the courts in my very pleasant, lower-middle to middle class, Northeastern Kentucky neighborhood. Those were the days before America’s political parties drew the lines so sharply. The days before opinion programs on 24-hour news channels pitted Americans against each other. The days before social media ripped the dec...
I check my temperature at least three times a day. Maybe this is because I am a woman in my late 30s who runs a bit warm anyway. Far more times than not, the thermometer gives a normal reading. If anyone is nearby, I will proudly announce, “It says I’m normal!” Then I laugh wildly because I know what a joke that is. 227 days have passed since the novel coronavirus altered our sense of reality and put a proverbial collar on our lives. We have adjusted and readjusted our outlooks as well as our priorities and behaviors. Nothing is normal, but eve...
The media is not the enemy. Law enforcement officers are not the enemy. Christians are not the enemy. President Trump is also not the enemy, nor is he some special kind of brave politician fighting for America. He fights for the people who support him, not for his enemies. Biden is much the same. I have heard from Americans on all ends of the political spectrum who are plugging their noses while they fill out their ballots this election season. While it seems that people think that 2020 is "the...
You've probably noticed that there are a lot of scary movies available on streaming services as we approach Halloween. Doesn't Halloween seem a little redundant this year? It seems like it should be the official holiday of 2020. Well, I've never been more enthused about masks... You won't catch me watching any horror flicks this season— or any season for that matter. I'll admit I'm a cinema coward. I've never understood why people would pay to be scared out of their wits, especially when you can just turn on the news for free. If I want a h...
Q: Congratulations, Mr. Fly. You won the vice presidential debate Thursday night. You are America's Insect. How do you feel today? A: Just like the president, I feel great. I felt it was my solemn duty to participate. Q: Why? What compelled you to go sit on the vice president's head for so long? Have you always been interested in politics? A: Not until Thursday night. I was always content to zip here and there, nobody telling me what to do. I did like when the vice president talked about...
I am really worried about the direction our political arenas are going both on the state and national levels. I wonder what this world is going to look like in the future. I feel sorry for my grand kids and really wonder what they have ahead of them! I believe we could do better in a lot of areas. When I look at our state, I hear from the people in power that they may have to cut down on spending. One of the reasons for that is that the income tax in this state has been cut in half in the last 12 years. Nobody talks about that because everyone...
Growing up, I always had October 12 off from school in honor of Columbus Day. I remember because it offered a school free day just in time to appreciate the feeling of autumn. It had no other real meaning to me than that. Still, I was taking part in an annual celebration of colonization— even in 1992, when my class held a party honoring the 500 years that had passed since “Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” The worst part was, I didn’t know any better. It’s not an excuse. It’s a confession. For a good portion of my childhood, I didn’t even...
Feeling emotionally fatigued? Imagine how players in the NBA playoffs must've felt last month. Following another police shooting of an unarmed Black man, players were faced with a difficult choice: protest the death of Jacob Blake, or play as scheduled. Many chose to protest– a decision viewed by some as an empty gesture of the entitled, and by others as a courageous stand of the outraged. Regardless, as a behavioral scientist, I can tell you that these athletes – alongside many of us – are f...
The constitutional rights of the people of North Dakota are under attack. Politicians and big corporate donors placed Measure 2 on the ballot to take away the right of the people to participate in their government. It is an egotistical power grab by the very people that are supposed to protect the constitution. The initiated measure that created the oil extraction tax angered the big oil barons. It was the beginning of the end for the initiated measure process. The measure that established the much-needed Ethics Commission was the next insult...
My electronic key fob is putting more mileage on ME than on the car. For the past several months, I have tried to build up the nerve to do a thorough search of the contents of my trunk. I am hoping against hope that an overly sensitive trunk-release button on the fob HASN’T left several of my childhood keepsakes strewn along the roadside. Granted, a neighborhood raccoon has already done a PARTIAL job of searching through the trunk (kindly forcing me to scoop up scattered belongings from the driv...
Chairperson Ork Dorken hadn't even rapped his Coke bottle on the table when Old Sievert burst into the community ZCBJ hall to join the town's 13 other electors for a meeting of the Community Homeland Committee. Pulling his mask down below his chin, he cursed in a string of 4-letter words that no family newspaper would print. "I've had it with this dang pandemonium," he barked. "Pandemic. Pandemic." Chief Security Officer Garvey Erfald corrected. "Pandemonium is confusion where nobody knows...
Why Trump will leave office if he loses the election There is widespread concern that President Trump won’t leave office if he loses the election. This angst is understandable. Trump has, after all, refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. But if Trump loses he will leave. Not, of course, because he wouldn't want to seize power and stay in office. But because he couldn't get away with it if he tried. A fight about the election would ultimately go to the Supreme Court— just like it did in 2000. Trump won't stay in the White House if...
