When I retired over 15 years ago, my wife was still working. I had plenty to do with a golf membership, a woodworking shop in my basement and a motorcycle. It was the early mornings that were a little hard for me to get started. A gym membership took care of part of the morning, but still a lonely house was not very inviting so I started to go to the new Panera Bread store for coffee and sometimes a bagel. After a few trips there, it was noticeable that many of the people I saw were the same ones and they were doing what I was doing except many were doing it before going to work. I met an elderly lady (older than me) and she seemed to know me. After introductions she told me that she had worked with my sister-in-law at the university for many years. My sister-in-law was in a nursing home at the time, but this lady I had just met was still working at the age of over 80. From that day on, my coffee time was with her.

     My wife is upset today because her soap operas are not being recorded. The local CBS channel has blocked Dish from receiving their signal, and since I have Dish satellite services I will not get this channel until their dispute is settled. I did not record NCIS last evening either, which makes me upset. Not upset with Dish but with the channel that suddenly I cannot receive. It happened before with NBC and then ABC and, while I do not understand the negotiations taking place, the bottom line is that the customer is paying the price until it is resolved. I could put up an antenna and get the channel, which is aired free, but when I pay another party to transfer a cleaner signal to my home I have to pay for the signal (Dish) and also the free signal, which is not free anymore. I really do not understand why a TV station would charge for its free signal when that distribution greatly enlarges its area for broadcast and advertising. It would seem that they should be paying Dish for the service.

     Recently, I attended a zoom meeting with the new Dean Of the business school at West Virginia University and others from the community. A question was asked of the Dean whether or not the elimination of the WV income tax would aid in attracting new business to the state. After some discussion I was asked what I thought about it. I stated that coming from New York State I did not think people here new what taxes were and got a great response of laughter. We are seeing our governor and others working to eliminate the income tax and using the business attraction as their reason but really they are( I'm removing my conservative hat) transferring the tax from the upper income people that pay most of it to the lower income people that will pay it through their higher sales tax and other taxes on consumer goods. The tax does not defer anyone moving to WV other than a few retirees that would probably go to Florida anyway.

     The first democracy that I ever heard about was in ancient Greece. It failed because it was impossible for every citizen to vote on each problem that arose. The first republic that I ever heard of was ancient Rome. it failed and became a dictatorship because the citizens did not vote for those representing them. The first instance of religious freedom in history was when a Prussian king allowed religious dissent. Jefferson and Adams read about all of these types of government along with many more. The result that they decided upon was the republic that elected the representatives and the head of state by the citizens being governed. The representatives were expected to represent their respective electorate. Well that is what is suppose to happen but as Jefferson was afraid of political parties we now can see why. The party has become more important than those electing the representatives.