Do you ever get overwhelmed with gratitude, with the feeling that you must be the luckiest person in the world? Followed, of course, by the feeling that you don’t deserve it, but let’s focus on the positive. It started on July 4th; a great parade in a great town in a great state in a…
The visit to Idyllwild by seven Rotarians from South Africa and Botswana last week was a great experience for all. Imagine hearing lions in your backyard at night instead of coyotes. But as different as some of our experiences are, the similarities were more numerous. One of the visitors was a university professor, a couple…
Seven members of Rotary Clubs in Botswana and South Africa spent a few days in Idyllwild, from June 19 to 21, as part of the Rotary Friendship Exchange. This Rotary International program aims to build international friendships by letting members experience different cultures, taking turns hosting each other in their homes and clubs. This particular…
Two interesting things happened last week — besides the other really interesting thing that I’m not going to talk about (much) — both of which revolved around people named Sanders. First, Bernie Sanders was widely condemned for questioning Russell Vought, the nominee for deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. It…
I’ve got a really strange idea and here is how it happened. I read a news report about Ben Carson, our secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in which he was quoted as saying that poverty is a state of mind. I took that to mean that poor people are to blame for their own…
Scattered among all the other political happenings over the last week were a number of religion-oriented events, so I offer a few comments on them. This is probably a good place to mention that the opinions expressed here are mine alone. Please don’t blame the Town Crier or its personnel for anything I write. Did…
A weird week, wasn’t it? Here is some food for thought. Off the wall, maybe out of touch. But, in the immortal words of Jimmy Buffett, “If we weren’t all crazy we would go insane.” • Since no individual can really afford to be sick, it follows that the relative pittance we contribute to insurance…
Imagine that you run a U.S. small business. You have long-term employees to whom you are loyal and vice versa. You have an anniversary coming up, but it is not one you look forward to because it is that time of year when you renew the health insurance you purchase for your employees and yourself….
Medical care in the U.S. is so much more expensive than every other country. How can we fix that? A dollar in U.S. medical spending looks like this: 31 cents goes to hospitals, 20 cents to doctors and clinical services, other personnel get 15 cents, prescription drugs account for 10 cents, nursing care and home…
While everyone would agree that the passage of Medicare in 1965 was a landmark event in not only American healthcare but also American politics, the failure to include Americans of all ages created a hole that many have tried to fill while others have tried to dig deeper. The lack of the political will or…
