It seems to me that nothing can right the wrongs of the past. Can one really pay for crime? What currency equals human pain and death? How can one pay a debt to society?
On June 6 — the 75th Anniversary of D-Day — we were reminded that in 1944, U.S. soldiers waded ashore to Omaha Beach seeking to free German-occupied France from Nazi control. Thousands of soldiers lost their lives. Their sacrifice, bravery and patriotism should not be forgotten.
Editor’s Note: This is the latest installment of a series of regular columns designed to report to the senior citizens of Athens County items of interest from the Athens County Council on Aging (ACCOA).
Are other towns full of deer the way Athens is? They wander around the city as if they own it, foraging wherever they like. I have seen them hold up traffic as they saunter along the street. They seem to have no fear of humans.
English is fun. It has so many amusing juxtapositions of meaning. The following are not quite jokes but exhibit the material out of which humor and delight can be found.
As a little tyke my hair was curly. Strangers would sometimes touch it unasked when I was in a public place. I did not like that, but somehow understood it was OK or tolerable.
I admire women — they endure so much that men do not. Pregnancy has to be uncomfortable with changes in body function and appearance. Then comes childbirth, described once as being like pushing a grand piano through a transom.
If a law is invalid it has no force. If a person is an invalid (different pronunciation) some powers are limited or reduced. Invalidity in both cases changes a previous assumption from use and application to need and lack.
Easter is sometimes associated with Christianity. But the name and the celebration are much wider. It’s a celebration of new life. Eggs, rabbits, and flowers are about fertility. Resurrection fits in as a kind of new life too. This is a nice coincidence of ideas and nature.
Editor’s Note: William Morosko is an 8th grade student at Athens Middle School with an aptitude in writing movie and music review. He has also directed and written short films that have appeared on Athens Community TV. The Messenger has agreed to publish occasional reviews from William as a …
Even religious people differ on why they regularly turn their attention, together and separately, to ancient rites and texts. Many people do that in moments of danger or despair (tornados, warfare, illness). Others, however, go to temples or churches often. Among many social and psychologica…
Whenever you hear people arguing for one policy and condemning another popular option, chances are that both are necessary. Most of human life struggles to balance important competing values, strategies and theories. Standard issues of this type in personal life are courage versus caution, p…
Brick streets and pathways are plentiful in Athens and on the university campus. They are attractive and give an antique air to the area. Newer bricks are often cemented in place, close together, and are smoother, but many older ones are just put in place loosely. Some of them are imprinted …
If I do something frequently, I do not think I am addicted. Habituated might be the term to apply. It could be dangerous but it’s not compulsive. Bad habits can need reform but are not as hard to change as real addictions. Those conditions can ruin lives.
Editor's Note: William Morosko is an 8th grade student at Athens Middle School with an aptitude in writing movie and music review. He has also directed and written short films that have appeared on Athens Community TV. The Messenger has agreed to publish occasional reviews from William as a …
When I was born 80 years ago, prices, wages and other costs were a fraction of what they are today. A booklet reviewing 1939 gives the following average estimates — salaries, $2,000 a year; new cars, $700; new houses, $4,000; and bread, 8 cents a loaf.
Some people seem to want the legal codes of governments to be the same as their personal principles of right and wrong. In my opinion, that is impossible.
Editor's Note: William Morosko is an 8th grade student at Athens Middle School with an aptitude in writing movie and music review. He has also directed and written short films that have appeared on Athens Community TV. The Messenger has agreed to publish occasional reviews from William as a …
I am now 91 years old. My father was born in 1899 and my mother was born in 1901. They both grew up in Appalachia and together brought with them accounts of “living off the land” — when people grew their own food and butchered their own livestock, be it cows, pigs or chickens.
Some of us are omnivores, but even we can have food problems. I have a food intolerance. That is not the same as an allergy because there is no reaction like a rash, but my body rejects and quickly eliminates a certain food. With that condition, I am ready to accommodate any diet problems my…
Distraction costs. If you do not see something coming, it might hit you. So we need to pay the price of watching and focusing lest we miss a threat. This can turn out to be a higher price than we like and some people are too stingy to pay it.
