I’m not sure what to write about, to be honest. I want my topic to be something special and fantastic, a brilliant, witty piece of social commentary on a hot issue, in honor of our late editor, the gregarious and sublimely generous Anna Alford. But when it comes to social commentary, I’ve got nothing. It’s…
April 17, 2012 was a beautiful day in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, weather-wise. Light blue skies. Temperature hovering in the low 70s. Air fresh as a baby’s breath. All in all, a lovely day to be out and about. But, yeah, it was Tax Day—the deadline for submitting your federal, state, and municipal…
“We’re on a mission from God” – “Joliet” Jake Blues The 1980 film The Blues Brothers featured John Belushi and Dan Akroyd as an unlikely pair of missionaries who, upon seeing a vision, decide to get a band together to raise money for an orphanage. Karl Fisher and Spencer Sweeting were once in a band…
David Kagan Speech Anti-Fracking Rally Corning, April 27, 2012 Hello to all of you environmentally aware and environmentally caring people and to any media folks who are here. My name is Dave Kagan, and I’ve come to tell you what life is like now, where I live along Pine Creek in northcentral Pennsylvania, a state…
Corporations ARE NOT People, by Jeffrey D. Clements (San Francisco: Bennett-Kohler, 2011) Those who are concerned with the anti-democratic implications of the Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court will find in this book a useful and passionate guide to the issues and a road map for getting us out of our present state of…
I am a self-professed movie geek. I pretty much love everything that pertains to movies: I love sitting in a dark room, alone or surrounded by a crowd of strangers, becoming totally enveloped by captivating storytelling. To me, seeing a well-made film is on a par with reading a fantastic, engrossing novel. I think I…
Sometimes we don’t really give great consideration to the major issues of our time until they touch us or someone close to us in a profound way. That’s the case for me concerning our system of higher education. For me and my Honor Student child, the realization of the cost of college has proved to…
In many respects, the United States is in decline, and I believe there are two principal reasons. One is that we no longer provide the essentials for millions of our children, the other that we humans have for five centuries laid siege to the planet we live on. Regarding American children, almost a fourth of…
I wrote an essay for the April issue of the Williamsport Guardian headlined, “One Woman Looks Back at the ‘Good Old Days’ in Williamsport.” The article was prompted by the celebration of the 50th reunion of my class from Williamsport High School. I reminisced about how things might have seemed rosier than they were, how…
Right now, health care is not a legal right for everyone in our country. You can receive health care only if you or someone else pays for it. Currently, from a legal standpoint, health care is a privilege. You can enjoy the privilege of having good health care if you have the money to buy…
With a list of beers and malt liquors as long as your arm, a speedy hot breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and a few taxidermied game to keep you company while you dine, The Crippled Bear Inn is an experience. Taxidermy is typically not to my taste (though I highly recommend the independent film Taxidermia, not…
U.S. poverty must goa conscientious overthrow.Resolution now the calla living wage for one and all. Our long-time shafted people roarWe Just Won’t Take It Anymore!The working poor, the down and out a risen people packing clout. The fairness movement leads the wayPeople power here to stay.The middle-class profoundly scoreinequity shall rule no more. Righting long…
The Billtown Blues Festival has been an institution in the Williamsport area for the past twenty-three years. Held at the Lycoming County Fairgrounds in Hughesville since 1994, the festival has continued to grow while maintaining its small-town appeal. The festival will be held on Sunday, June 10. Gates will open at 11 am, with the…
Explanation of Watson Township Supervisor David Kagan’s Resignation by David Kagan This letter is to explain to my Watson Township constituents (especially the 30+ who went to the polls last November to vote me in as a write-in candidate) and the general public why I have decided to resign as a Watson Township Supervisor.…
WXPI has added new shows to its weekly line-up, in our ongoing efforts to live up to our slogan of “Independent Radio for Open Minds.” News and Talk New shows covering regional and state issues: Bloomsburg professor Walter Brasch on current affairs (Mon, Wed, 7 a.m.) The Law Show w/ Cliff Rieders; interviews on legal…
When it comes to gas development in PA, Act 13 is now the very complicated law of the land. In their assessments of this new legislation, Mr. Rosenfeld and Mr. Henderson represent opposite ends of the spectrum. Personally, on rural land use issues, I tend toward the opinions so beautifully rendered by David Kagan in…
Nobody likes taxes, but everybody has to pay them. Over the past 30 years or so, people have demanded that government get by on less and less, so much so that one politician recently said that he wanted government to be so small that he could drown it in a bathtub. Well, Mr. Politician, sir,…
No program has done more to lift older Americans out of poverty than Social Security. So when politicians and pundits spread lies about this vitally important benefit, keep in mind what’s driving them: 1) Ideology — they don’t believe that government should provide retirement benefits for the elderly or support for people with a disability,…