Home of Today's Common Sense

Published Brownsville Herald Jan 4, 2009

The Holiday Season is behind us now the strains of Christmas music are fading and that warmth and optimism that only this season can engender seem to be fading. The realities of the New Year portending the weakening economy and the daily grind are becoming stronger. Still to come is the New Year’s celebration and the look back at what has gone into the past and the resolutions to improve ourselves for 2009.

The War in Iraq seems to be slowing and reaching a tentative solution but the War in Afghanistan is becoming more tentative and touchy. The pressures in the area are creating stability problems in Pakistan which has overflowed into India. The fact that both countries have nuclear weapons, and also have social and religious passions that make the concept of mutual destruction an effective deterrent, much less valid. The likelihood that Iran may also join the nuclear club as well makes “the end of days” even more possible.

Closer to our daily lives the optimism and confidence we normally have in the future has led to a weakening of the economy of the world. We are seeing the firstly in the lack of confidence the banks have in future business which has shown itself in the retreating from extending credit except to only the solid gold that do not need it. The result is that business that depends on credit such as larger valued transactions like houses, cars and appliances to decline.

Businesses now must compete harder for the business that are there taking every opportunity to do more to satisfy the customer. The product must be more useful and the service must be better.

With the Christmas shopping behind us, I am sure that each one of us can think of a ales person that could have been more considerate and gotten the sale that we look elsewhere.

We can look forward to more difficult times and I expect that others will be watching their money just as our family will to assure we get good value for the fewer resources we have. More »

Published Brownsville Herald December 14, 2008

The Christmas Season is upon us again! Strains of “Peace to men of good will” are in the air and the three Magi are about to present gifts.

Thanksgiving is now a warm memory of family around the table and the tastes and smells of turkey and fixins’.

I had many ‘thanks’ to remember, in that my health continues to improve, and that we were blessed with our first grandchild; a gorgeous little girl named Rowan.

To top it off, my son even found time to visit us from New York, for two weeks as well.

The times have changed enormously in how we all think of things; perhaps for the better perhaps not.

There seems that there are more different approaches to the prominent public conflicts such as right to life. Even within the local Catholic Diocese leadership the political approach towards abortion lacks clarity in that there seems to be some equivocation that supports immigration and government entitlements as having a priority over “right to life” as was demonstrated during the recent elections.

When I came to Brownsville from New York, well more than two decades ago, I was impressed with how courteous and respectful every one was. In fact I was shocked when I was driving down a two lane highway and as I approached a vehicle going much slower the driver pulled onto the shoulder and let me pass. My New York stunted brain had a tough time processing that. More »