The Northcountry Chronicle

To the extent the Brooklyn Daily Eagle is remembered today, it is largely because of Walt Whitman. The poet edited the Eagle from 1846 to 1848, and returned for a second stint about a decade later. We recently stumbled upon another modest reason for remembering the Eagle: it published, on Sunday, August 5, 1883—as the ailing Whitman, 64, languished 100 miles away in Camden, New Jersey—an 1,800 word item on “The Origin and Growth” of The Twilight Club, “A Successful Club Which Has Neither Club House Nor Caterer.” Now, the Twilight Club itself could probably be safely forgotten, had it not provided a platform for …

Read moreRogue Editor Tells Truth!

Sometimes I don’t know whether to weep uncontrollably, laugh hysterically, or just throw up. I recently did all three when I saw another gusher of greed pouring out of corporate America. This one is especially nauseating, given today’s raging health crisis, for the culprits are major healthcare corporations! One perpetrator is Larry Merlo, CEO of our country’s largest drugstore chain, CVS. In this time of Covid-19, customers are surging into the chains 10,000 stores for everything from medications to masks. Yet, the boss has blithely left many of the pharmacies so severely understaffed that they pose a danger to public health. CVS pharmacists tell of …

Read moreThe exceptional greed of healthcare execs

In a few short weeks, the election will be over and, win or lose, we will have to pick up the pieces and move on. How is that possible with all the bad blood and name-calling between the left and the right? In a word, we must have empathy for the other side. What I am going to say, I’ve felt for a long time, alluded to in my pieces, but now have the courage to say it flat-out, buttressing my case with a recent podcast and a book. The podcast is an interview with Arlie Hochschild about her recent book, Strangers in Their Own …

Read moreLiberals, it’s time to stop gazing at our navels

A recent article in September’s The Atlantic titled “Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’” details our current commander-in-chief’s flagrant disrespect for the men and women in our armed forces together with the generations of American service personnel who went before them. I need not repeat the insults and ignominies he heaps upon those who have served their country. You can readily find the article online and read it for yourself, if you haven’t already done so. What amazes me is not what the article says, but the fact that so many people are only now expressing their outrage over Trump’s disrespect …

Read moreTrump & the Military: Is Anyone Really Surprised?

When I was young, success was not being rich but being a person of good repute: honest, hardworking, and willing to help others. We were taught stories in school about how presidents should be honest and of good character: stories about how George Washington confessed about cutting down the cherry tree and Abe Lincoln walking 3 miles at night to return 6 cents he had overcharged a customer. Also, we held religious stories in common, like how it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter heaven. Yet now we have elected a rich …

Read moreWhatever happened to our sense of right and wrong?