by John

MISINFORMATION

Details: Published: Monday, October 31, 2022 12:34; by John Campbell; Hits: 367

Five years ago I started this BLOG due to the local paper's refusal to print my "Letter to the Editor" that rebutted another letter stating that our founding fathers were happy about the Affordable Care Act. The editor said that I could not rebut a professor emeritus of political science. Her side of the story is all anyone ever heard in this paper. I have tried to present factual information and have labeled my opinion when written as that. This morning I read a letter to the same paper that called the Republican plan put forth for this election as half-truths and lies. She continued to state that they wanted to put women in jail if they had an abortion and forgot that it is up to individual states to write their respective abortion laws. Because of Jan. 6, she states that republicans have no credit in trying to solve the crime problem and that they say the economy is bad because the low unemployment. Apparently, she has not bought eggs at $4or gas at $4 or found out that groceries have risen beyond many peoples' reach to feed their families. The boarder is not open, and the fentanyl problem is only by the citizens bringing it across the border for their own use. Apparently, she is unaware of 100,000 deaths from the drug in 1 year and most are young people. She further states that Trump refused to sign an immigration bill but forgot that he tried to get the democrats to pass a dreamers bill that would lead to citizenship.

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PETERBORO, NY

Details: Published: Tuesday, October 25, 2022 10:41; by John Campbell; Hits: 341

Peterboro is a small town between Utica and Syracuse New York. l was born and grew up there and was aware of some of the history that the town was known for. We learned the estate that was across the main street from the village green had been owned by Garret Smith who had been a famous abolitionist. After moving away and finally ending up in West Virginia for the last 45 years I have returned each year to see my parents until their deaths and then my sister that still lives in Rome, NY which is about 30 miles from Peterboro. Each year now my sister and I visit our parents' graves in Peterboro and this year we learned that there was going to be a ceremony and induction into the Abolition Hall of Fame in Oct. We also learned that the Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum were housed in the building we had gone to school in for our first 5 grades. It was a National Historical site as was the Garret Smith estate. Peterboro was on the map and its history of being part of the Underground Railroad was being recognized. I wrote a blog about abolition when I returned home from this trip but have now just returned again from another trip to observe some of the ceremonies around the induction of 3 abolitionists into the Hall of Fame. I had time to renew some older friendships with the people that were aiding and working to make this ceremony a success and others that were working hard to restore the membership in the small Church across the street.

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DIVIDE OR UNITE BY PRESIDENT

Details: Published: Sunday, September 04, 2022 07:31; by John Campbell; Hits: 715

I grew up starting with FDR and then HST. My first recollection of presidential discussion was between Ike and Taft. The next big debates were between JFK and Nixon. These and most of the following were about their respective thoughts about helping the American people have better and more prosperous lives and foreign affairs. I never heard any of them call their opponent names that depicted anything other than Americans. So, you can see that I was appalled when I heard our present president call me a threat to democracy because I voted for his rival. Our president told half of the American electorate that they were fascists and threatened American life as we know it. l am sure that he only read the teleprompter and did not make up those words because I really do not believe he knows where he is most of the time but any way his utterances were abhorrent and not a speech that any American should be orating.

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COLLEGE LOANS/ FORGIVING

Details: Published: Tuesday, August 30, 2022 16:16; by John Campbell; Hits: 384

In 1955, I started college at Syracuse University and paid $400. tuition for the first semester. Board and room was about $350. and I had worked all Summer at a canning factory for $.85 an hour to cover the board and room with some left over for books. My parents had extended their mortgage to pay the tuition. After the first year it was evident that neither my parents or I could make enough money to return so I got a job at GE. After being laid off I tried to sell cars but with one of the worse recessions ever that endeavor did not make out very good and I decided to return to school at the State University of New York at Morrisville, NY. It was a 2-year school but offered a med tech course which would allow me to continue in chemistry. The tuition was free at state universities in New York at that time and living at home I only, had to pay some fees and buy books. After 2 years I went to work for Allied Chemical as a chemical technician but quit after 6 months due to the long commute and went to work at our local hospital as a med tech doing the blood chemistries and helping the other technicians where needed. I started going to night school at Syracuse University and completed about 9 hours a year or as much as I could save enough money for. Leaving the hospital a few years later I went to work for Bristol Laboratories in Syracuse as a chemical technician. I continued to go to SU and take the required courses for a BA degree in chemistry. This took a few years since it was getting more expensive as the years rolled by. Bristol did refund half of my tuition after completing a course which helped but at the time, I was raising a family and it was still expensive. I finally graduated with my degree and by that time I had been promoted to a management position.

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WHERE'S THE SHERIFF

Details: Published: Sunday, August 07, 2022 13:34; by John Campbell; Hits: 982

My wife and I went to dinner the other evening and ran into an old friend that had retired from law enforcement about a year ago. I asked him if he had retired at the right time, and he readily agreed. We talked about retirement and our golf games, and the conversation turned to what is happening to the police forces in our community. He said that the city and county were both down, severely, in the number of officers on their respective forces and that there was little reaction to recruitment efforts. Young men and women were not interested in becoming police officers.

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Commentary by John Campbell

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MISINFORMATION

PETERBORO, NY

DIVIDE OR UNITE BY PRESIDENT

COLLEGE LOANS/ FORGIVING

WHERE'S THE SHERIFF

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