Volume 265 | No. 19

Don Ewing Goes Green…ish

To the Editor: We all want a clean, healthy environment. We all want the inexpensive and reliable energy, from whatever source, that enables us to prosper, have a healthy environment, and live healthy lives. And, we want these for ourselves and for future generations. Energy sources like solar, wind, and biomass have been promoted as solutions to the alleged Man-Made Climate Change problem that I, and some others, believe is overstated, if not enormously inflated. This has, perhaps, not enabled an adequate independent consideration of solar, wind, and biomass (green) energy production, without being influenced by considerations of climate change. Michael Moore is very concerned …

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Let’s Create a Bank System That Serves People, Instead of Bankers

Corporate ideologues never cease blathering that government programs should be run like a business. Really—what businesses would they choose? Pharmaceutical profiteers? Big Oil? Wall Street money manipulators? High tech billionaires? Airline price gougers? The good news is that the great majority of people aren’t buying this corporatist blather, instead valuing institutions that prioritize the Common Good. Thus, by a 2-to-1 margin, Americans have stunned smug right-wing privatizers by specifically declaring in a recent poll that our U.S. Postal Service should not be “run like a business.” Indeed, an overwhelming majority, including half of Republicans, say mail delivery should be run as a “public service,” even …

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Dreaming about Retirement

I recently had a vivid dream about getting a call from my professional licensing board telling me they were revoking my license because I was abusing pain medication. I tried to tell them I took no such drugs, that they were prescribed for Coco, my 15-1/2-year-old dog, who is in at-home hospice care. But they hung up on me, throwing me into a tizzy. While I intend to retire the end of next month, I wasn’t ready yet. I ponder what my dream is trying to tell me. Certainly, I will miss seeing my patients, but my practice takes more out of me each year. …

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Holding Out for a Mirage

Dear Editor, Our country’s Capitol was attacked January 6th. Far worse than the attack on our embassy in Benghazi, this was an insurrection against our democracy. Republicans mounted six Congressional investigations into Benghazi. A majority of 54 Senators voted yes to investigate the Capitol attack. A Republican minority voted against investigating. The Senate’s filibuster rule requires a 60-vote majority. Fifty-one Democratic votes could rescind the filibuster, but Senators Manchin and Sinema are holding out for “bipartisanship.” The truth about January 6 must come out. The truth must identify those responsible for the attack. Truth must counter those Republican liars claiming the Capitol terrorists were merely …

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Hummingbirds!

Dear Editor, May 1, 2021—News has reached me from friends in Groton, Mass., that their hummingbirds have arrived! I keep track of their arrival date here. In 2011 I had mine in the yard on April 30th. In 2012 it was May 1st. Other years, later. May 18th in 2013. Most years somewhere in between, with its being closer to the start of May. Time to put out the feeders. We have no black flies for them yet, nor their favorite flowers. Ours fly more than 3,000 miles from their winter habitat in Mexico, at 30 miles per hour! Let’s be ready for them. Lynn …

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GOP Senators Block a Jan. 6th Commission

To the Editor: Apparently an insurrection to overthrow the U.S. Government, derail the 200+ year tradition of peaceful transition of power, murder elected officials, steal an election and riot against the Capitol police isn’t sufficient grounds to have a bipartisan investigative commission? Why? Because the truth “might make Trump or the GOP look bad.” Five people died, more than 140 police officers were injured, the Capitol was overrun and ransacked. It was the first invasion since the British burned the White House in the War of 1812. And the Republicans tell us they “have better things to do with their time.” Oh, and it “might …

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