My Back Pages

My Back Pages: Thoughts At Year's End and the New Year Ahead : 2013 is just over the horizon.... one day and a few hours away. Wouldn't it be nice if we, as a people, could forgo our differences and...

My Back Pages: Guns and Roses and Little John : Four of my roses. (Casey, Jamie, Makenna, Taylor) We had another shooting the other day ; this one in an elementary s chool in Newtown,...

Four of my roses. (Casey, Jamie, Makenna, Taylor) We had another shooting the other day ; this one in an elementary s chool in Newtown, Connecticut. 26 innoc ent souls t aken by a ma dman, a child himself, who 'Just snapped .' How many times have we he ard this over the last couple of decades? Ho m any times will we hear it ag ain before we , as a caring society , come up with a n answ er that is acceptabl e to everyone ? How many more innocents have to die before we say 'This is enough! We cannot tolerate this anothe second!' What really bothers me  is that , as soon as this happened, I could sit and watch the two sides gearing up for a fight. The gun enthusiasts on the one side, and the gun haters on the other. I have to tell you, I don't care about guns. I am a Marine (No such thing as a former or ex Marine). I never got a big charge out of them. When I went to target shoot, or playing the games at the carnivals, I always prided  myself with being a pretty

My Back Pages: The Spirit Of The Season :   Well, I cannot believe that another year has sped past, and we are officially into the Winter Holiday Season. I have already seen or read ...

  Well, I cannot believe that another year has sped past, and we are officially into the Winter Holiday Season. I have already seen or read about random good acts performed by my friends and others that make me thankful that I do know so many people now. From a police spending his own money to buy a man a pair of shoes, to a young lady that I watched grow up being given a random holiday gift from a stranger and vowing to pay it forward, to another young lady who was inspired by this and bought two new tricycles to put in the nearly empty Toys for Tots box where she works, there are so many things that really make a person feel good at this time of the year. It doesn't matter if you celebrate Chanukah, Winter Solstice, Christmas, Kwanza. It doesn't matte if you celebrate nothing, you cannot deny that there is a good mood that surrounds most people at this time of the year. We celebrate giving of ourselves to others less fortunate. We show family how much we appreciate them by gi