Opinion

Have you read any good books lately? I have given up rating films as someone always has a different opinion. However, books are another thing. I’m always looking for good books. “To Kill a Mocking Bird” or “The Yearling” are a couple of books...

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., spoke these profound words to an audience in Montgomery, Ala., back in 1957 — and they still ring true today. We all have the power to...

This week’s issue of the Valley newspapers hits the stands three days from Sept. 11, 2021: the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the Twin Towers, in lower Manhattan. Known colloquially as simply 9/11, it is a date etched...

One of the first lessons one learns in any writing class is writing about experience is more natural and gets the story (or moral or lesson) across to the reader better than research writing. With that lesson in mind, I should be able to...

What if they started a war and nobody showed up? These words went to a paper I wrote about 40 years ago while stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C. I was an instructor with the U.S. Army Institute for Military Assistance. I attended an evening...

One of the favorite questions posted on social media is “Who is the most famous person you have ever met?”; or some derivative thereof. Well, I have met many in my life, probably more than my share compared to the average life, but that’s...

Aren’t emotions the weirdest things? They can make you feel so good or bad depending on the situation. If you read my scribbling last week, you might remember that my two sons were going to take me out for a night on the town...

In my wanderings about the village, I get the occasional opportunity to get inside different buildings, some are older and designed for specific purposes as are the VFW hall, numerous SVF buildings and the MCDT studio. Many are older and re-designed from days of...

When Mee Memorial Hospital first opened its doors to South County residents in 1962, astronaut John Glenn had just become the first American to orbit the Earth. The Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at around 652, the average income was just more than $5,500,...

I was very pleased with myself after hammering out a column well before the deadline with only one more proofreading before I sent it off to Ryan well in time for him to do his magic to make it ready for Wednesday publication. It...