Opinion

On the night of Tuesday April 18, 1775, the light on the Old North Church in Boston warned a silversmith named Paul Revere, a member of the Sons of Liberty, that British soldiers were going to advance on the colonial militia up the river to Lexington where rebels had stashed some arms and munitions. Paul Revere rode his horse on the trail the twelve miles to Lexington where the militia had hidden their arms. On the morning of Wednesday April 19, those British soldiers engaged the militia on Lexington green.

If you've been living outside of Cleveland, you’ve probably heard about the Haslam family’s ongoing push to move the Browns out of downtown and into the suburbs—specifically Brook Park, Ohio. They’re seeking $1.2 billion in taxpayer funding to build a brand-new stadium. While this proposal has sparked heated debate, the City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County officials largely oppose the idea.

A friend came to me recently, frustrated. Something had gone wrong—plans had fallen through, an opportunity had slipped away, and he was looking for sympathy. But before he could finish his sentence, he stopped himself. “I already know what you’re gonna say,” he said. I raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? What am I gonna say?” He sighed. “You’re gonna say good.”

One of the recurring themes of the Trump campaign last year was this thing about a “deep state” that was stifling American’s freedom and was overly bureaucratic and “too WOKE.” I am here to debunk that lie and tell the truth about our government’s civil service.

In the social fabric of education, one thread stands out as indispensable yet often overlooked: the bond between families and schools. This alliance forms the foundation upon which a child's educational journey rests, yet it is too frequently undervalued in our desire for educational reform. It's time to recognize the impact of family-school partnerships and enhance their integration into the very heart of our educational system.

I have a DVD from PBS that is a brief biography of the men who served as President of the United States. The most recent President featured in this series is Barack Obama. The introduction to this series states “the office of the President of the United States was created by the constitution to allow the people to choose the person to be the Chief Executive and head of state for the nation.” It goes on to say, “the Presidents of the United States have reflected the people’s desires and wishes for the nation with the times.

In today’s world of smartphones and social media, athletes at every level are under constant scrutiny. Whether it’s in public, on video, or through social media posts, your actions and words are always being watched. This reality has prompted me to teach my 18-year-old twin sons an essential lesson: when you’re out in public, never do anything to embarrass yourself, your family, or the institution you represent.

As one who has been working with Medicare, Medicaid and private health insurance since January 1973, I can understand the frustration that consumers have towards health insurance companies. At the heart of all this is the profit driven private health insurance companies. Polls and surveys consistently have shown widespread public approval of Medicare and Medicaid. Both are government programs, although far from perfect do a good job of covering those who are eligible.

I often find myself reflecting on the troubling state of young men in our society. Recently, in the building where I live, a young man vandalized the front lobby with paint and vulgar language. He also ranted about conspiracy theories while in the lobby. Although I’m not a mental health professional, it’s clear that addressing grievances through vandalism is not an appropriate solution.

It’s excruciatingly ironic that the very metropolis that spawned our reelected “commander in chief,” who is scapegoating roughly half of our nation’s 45 million immigrants, is also home to the Statue of Liberty. How many immigrants live in Parma, Parma Heights, and Seven Hills? A lot!

Friday November 22, 1963, began like any other morning that year. For me, I was in the 10th grade at Valley Forge High School in Parma Ohio. There was a story on the news the day before that President John F Kennedy was in Texas with Vice President Lyndon Johnson to shore up support for a second term as President in 1964

When most of you are reading this, the election may be over and perhaps the winners will be announced. The campaigning will be over and the much tougher work of governing will begin in earnest. For the winners, there will be a short time to cheer, but the task will be to begin the process of establishing an administration to govern. For the losing side, it will be time to reflect on what went wrong and to best make sure that their positions are heard.

It was sixty years ago this past spring that then President Lyndon Johnson declared “war on poverty in the United States”. Later that spring when he spoke to the graduates at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, he unveiled his outline for his “great society” where poverty in the United States would be eliminated. He backed his vision with several programs that he said would attack poverty at the roots.

The opening line of Charles Dickens’ classic novel of France during the French Revolution was “It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times.” That line could accurately describe the United States this year as we get closer to election day in November. I watched some of the party conventions this summer and the contrast between the two major political parties couldn’t be more radically different than they are this year.

Fifty years ago this summer, the country was in the midst of a real constitutional crisis amid a battle between the executive and legislative branches.The nation survived and the constitution worked. So, let’s call up Peabody and Sherman from the old Rocky and Bullwinkle show and their “way back” time machine and set the calendar back fifty years  to August 1974.

In the May issue of the Parma Observer, Emory Pinter’s piece on National Preservation Month in architecture shone a spotlight on the status of the current Parma Heights library branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library, with a call for preserving and re-purposing the 60-plus year-old building on Pearl Road.

This spring saw another key anniversary from 1954, seventy years ago that could have some ramifications for the present time. Wisconsin’s Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy was perhaps the most powerful man in Washington DC and at one time had a veto power over presidential appointments. But in a Senate hearing in June 1954, he was brought down by an old lawyer from Boston.

Dear Editor:

Seventy years ago, on May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that segregated schools were unconstitutional, banning segregated schools across the country. This ruling overturned the 1896 Supreme Court ruling in Plessy V Ferguson that public facilities, including schools, could be “separate, but equal.” In the majority opinion the Supreme Court stated that separate was inherently unequal. Despite the ruling in this case that began back in 1935, actual desegregation happened much slower.

One of the greatest baseball players of all time, Yogi Berra, came up with lots of great expressions. One of my favorites is his phrase “it’s déjà vu all over again”. Recent events in congress is proving that Yogi Berra was right with his expression. I am writing about the recent refusal by congress to pass a strong bipartisan bill on immigration. This bill was worked out in the Senate by both political parties and had the support of President Biden, who indicated that he would sign it into law after it passed the House of Representatives. But this immigration bill died in the House because a group of extremist Republicans prevented this bipartisan bill from ever coming up for a vote in the House of Representatives.

Since the last partial eclipse in 2017, the build up to this year’s Solar eclipse has been insane. By 2021 the countdown had already started with a warning about being ready to protect our eyes. By 2023 the Meteorologists were starting to talk about the eclipse and what the weather might be like: who was going to be able to view it and what the path of totality was. This continued to build until every- one was whipped into a feverish pitch, and the meteorologists were all having nervous breakdowns. How could anything live up to this hype? I mean it’s just the moon, something we see every day, moving past the sun, something we also see every day. What’s the big deal?

For the past 50 years, the month of May has been a time to celebrate and promote historic preservation for its many benefits to our communities.Those benefits are expansive and include social, economic, and environmental benefits. Historic preservation is the act of preserving or protecting a building, object, or other artifacts of historical significance. In the United States, the preservation movement has a long and rich history. The preservation movement began in the 1850s when the Mount Vernon Ladies Association saved George Washington’s homestead. A hallmark of the movement is the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, which set up federal policies and acknowledged the importance of preserving this nation’s heritage. 

Recently I watched a documentary on PBS from their American Experience series about the year 1964. They said that year was a pivotal year in that decade where a lot of things happened that changed just about all aspects of life in the United States. After watching that two-hour documentary, I must agree. In 1964 I was in high school at Valley Forge High School, and I remember the events of that year very well.

Should You Buy Your Child an Electric Bike? With the Spring around the corner, many parents, family or friends are considering buying an electric bike (ebike) for their favorite child, or maybe they got one for Christmas. If you search the internet for advice on whether an ebike is safe for your children, you'll see that there aren't a lot of concrete studies on the topic. Before doing so, the pros and cons of an ebike (versus traditional bikes) should be considered:

There is a favorite quotation that said that those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. This could be coming true in this year’s election. One of my favorite cartoon programs from my youth was the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. One segment on that show featured a very brainy dog and his boy, an eager lad named Sherman. Peabody the dog had invented a “way back machine” that could go back in time where they could change history. For this piece, let’s set the “way back machine” to the year of my birth, 1948.

Scrolling through my social media feed recently, I came across a news article about Parma Ohio, tourism, arts & culture. I’m very proud of my city. I’m a big cheerleader for it, ask anyone who knows me. Parma has a lot to offer, and I love living here. The article stated that Parma had 9 local art & cultural places to immerse yourself in. Wow I thought! Another arrow in my quiver to use when I boast about our city. So I eagerly read on. 

There was a disturbing column recently in the Cleveland Plain Dealer regarding Ohio’s junior Senator J. D. Vance regarding his opposition to continuing aid to Ukraine in it’s battle against the Russian invaders. The United States and its European allies in NATO have continually supported Ukraine for two years since Russian forces invaded that nation and sparked the biggest war in Europe since the end of the Second World War. This was an unprovoked invasion by Russia, and it has been the objective of Russian Premier Vladimir Putin to restore the old Soviet Union.

Suzanne Simard, Professor of Forest Ecology in the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Forestry, recently published the book: Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.

According to the 2023 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report in 2021, which is the last update from the VA, 6,392 Veterans died by suicide, an increase of 114 suicides from 2020. This means that an average of 17.5 Veterans died by suicide each day in 2021.The age- and sex-adjusted suicide rate among Veterans increased by 11.6% from 2020 to 2021, if the 11.6% yearly increase over the past few years, remains constant, we can assume that the 2023 to 2024 increase means the daily average of veteran’s suicides is near twenty-three. Veterans remain at a 13% higher elevated risk for suicide compared to the general population.

Following the attack by Hamas on Israeli settlements outside the Gaza Strip in Israeli territory on October 7, there has been an increase in anti Semitism around the world and even in the United States. This country was founded by people escaping religious persecution in Great Britain and elsewhere in Europe. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, that document established the reasons for independence from Great Britain enshrined the ideals of freedom from tyranny.

Hamas rapes and tortures women, kills and beheads men and children and we have celebrities like Susan Sarandon telling us how bad the people are who were raped and murdered. Reminds me of listening to Truman Capote one night on the old Johnny Carson Show. He made an awfully good case that being intelligent and being an actor are mutually exclusive. Now, over fifty years later, Sarandon is proving that hasn't change. Personally, I've never seen an actor demonstrate any expertise in anything other than pretending to be someone they are not. Con men do the same thing and go to jail for it. There's a lesson there but a lot of people just can't seem to learn it and they keep believing everything celebrities say. Apparently, intelligence isn't only mutually exclusive with acting.

Perhaps the most popular song of all time is the classic Bing Crosby Christmas classic “White Christmas”. Although Bing Crosby has been dead since 1977, his song will be played everywhere during this holiday season. But no doubt few people today know how or where this song originated.

A favorite television cartoon show back in the early 1960s was the Rocky and Bullwinkle show that featured a flying squirrel and a moose fighting the cold war. One segment on that show was a brainy dog, Peabody and his eager boy, Sherman and their “way back machine” that allowed them to go back in time. It made for great entertainment in my early adolescence. Let us imagine that we had a “way back” time machine and we could set the time to go back in time fifty years to the autumn of 1973. Here we go.

Dear Parma residents,

I was surprised on the morning of September 2 when I heard of the death of Jimmy Buffett. Ever since the mid-1970s when I first heard his song “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and *bleep*”, I was hooked on his music. Since his first album after leaving Nashville in 1972 after his first two albums didn’t sell, he has released 29 studio albums with most of the songs being new material with a new studio album scheduled for release in November. Along with the many concert recordings and collections, he has become one of the most prolific recording artists of the past fifty years.

This poem was written last year as part of a mini series for the 100th anniversary of St. Charles. Our community is many things — and chief among them is our sense of belonging.

Fifty years ago, this past summer, one of the top movies playing in the theatres was Soylent Green. That movie starred Charlton Heston as a police detective and Edward G Robinson in his last movie before he died as his old friend and confident. The setting was in an overpopulated dystopian society in 2022 where there weren’t enough jobs to go around, and we couldn’t produce enough food to feed the masses. The giant Soylent corporation literally controlled the world’s entire food supply, and the favorite food was their Soylent Green.

Congratulations, Parma, you have your first bike lane! You may have noticed some symbols painted on
the right outer lanes on Pearl Rd between Brookpark and Snow Rd. This is called a sharrow. Bike
Cleveland describes it as this: "This symbol is a “Sharrow” (a cross between “share” and “arrow”) or “Shared Lane Bicycle Marking”. They are painted on roadways as a reminder to motorists that bikes may be present on the road, and
yes, they are legally allowed to take the full lane."

In case anyone hasn’t noticed, it may seem that the Republican party has adopted a different belief than it had held during the immediate post Second World War period. Now, many Republicans are following the beliefs espoused by the Libertarian Party and it has now become mainstream in the Republican party.

Independence Day (July 4th) is commonly but falsely associated with the military, the fact is that Independence Day has no affiliation with the military. The firing of military guns and cannons on this day lead to the assumption that this day was in fact a military related event. The gun salutes heard on this day were actually  salutes to represent the original thirteen founding colonies. This is the day the thirteen colonies declared independence from Great Britain. More importantly, July 4, 1776, is the day the Declaration of Independence was signed. (It was actually signed on the 2nd of July)