Marcia Meoli: A tale of 2 women wrongfully persecuted
Marcia Meoli
Local leaders and some voters have expressed opposition to the arrest and other treatment of Marlena Pavlos-Hackney by the state and local health authorities. As I see this, I think about other people and their interactions with law enforcement and arrest. I am thinking particularly of Sandra Bland, a woman who spent about the same amount of time in jail than Marlena did.
Sandra Bland was a Black woman driving in Texas in July 2015. An officer stopped her after he followed her closely on the road. She made a lane change to allow him to go ahead, thinking he was pursuing another vehicle or situation. He was not. He was tailgating her and, after the lane change, pulled her over. The stated reason for the stop had something to do with the technicalities of how to make lane changes in Texas. After the stop, the officer got into an verbal exchange with Bland. The officer demanded that Bland put out her ciga
Kristin Slater: When a tragic injury strikes a blue collar family
Kristin Slater
The doors to the emergency room slide open in front of me. I hate this place. It’s where I was born, where I first met my little sisters, where my children were born. It’s also where my father was dropped by staff and could never walk again, where my mother went the day of her stroke, where my brother died. This is just another thing to happen here.
I sanitize and put on a mask in a haze, still not ready to accept that this is happening. A security guard walks me to the back.
Janet Weisiger: COVID-19 caused delayed grief
Janet Weisiger
For over a year now, we have had postponements and cancellations because of COVID-19. Our family is just one of many who had to wait one year to finally honor my husband with a memorial service.
A year ago, we obediently accepted that decision and after choosing various dates decided one year would certainly guarantee there would be no problem. My husband, Dick, died May 6, 2020, and we set the date for his service for Saturday, May 8, 2021. I thought that by that time my grief would have subsided and the service would bring closure. Also, we felt that COVID-19 would be gone. However, I did not anticipate that we still have to wear masks and that tears would still flow at his memorial service.
Jim Moses: Genealogy for seniors
Jim Moses
Community Columnist
Last time we were looking at things that we have witnessed in our lives, and what they can mean to our genealogies. Our life stories can be of immense value to our descendants as they try to understand what life was like for us. The young people of today grew up with the internet and cell phones. They might have only heard about the King or Kennedy assassinations from text books. There are thousands of other events that they don t know about, unless we teach them.
A friend of mine, Richard Thelen, survived the Indianapolis sinking near the end of World War II. He is one of only a few who are still with us from the over 1,100 people who were on the ship when it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. It was wartime, and the ship was another casualty of the conflagration, but, and this is a big but, there is a very important story of survival among those who lived to tell the tale. You can go out and buy books, or watch