Niagara Gazette

Columns

February 7, 2010

CITY BEAT: Putting things in focus

In the course of any given week, you hear a lot of stuff.

There’s the usual sniping about who’s responsible for our problems.

“The city misspent the casino money.”

“No, the county did.”

“It was your mama’s uncle.”

“I’m taking my ball and going home.”

You know, that sort of thing.

There’s the press conferences and the meetings and the complaints about roads and decrepit houses and crooked politicians.

There’s the uneasy feeling that for all the blustering and yelling and screaming and pointing of fingers, so little seems to be getting done in terms of actually fixing the problems.

It’s enough to drive a man to drink, if he were into that sort of thing.

Occasionally, there’s a story like the one involving Mark Stets Jr.

These are the ones that give you perspective. They add a little more focus. They make you want to go home and hug everyone in your family.

Stets Jr., a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army, died last week when a roadside bomb detonated outside Islamabad, Pakistan, killing him and six others.

I drew the assignment of talking to his aunt, Lewiston resident Mary Ann May.

We talked for 15 or 20 minutes or so about Mark, his life and his death.

Mary Ann talked a good deal about what a proud soldier he was and how there are so many other ones out there just like him - working hard in far off places with funny sounding names, trudging through sand, trying to convince people they didn’t know to trust them and to believe in American ideals.

One day they are preparing to celebrate with their new-found friends in the foreign country where they are stationed.

And then, in an instant, they are gone.

This is reality for military families.

They start everyday knowing that they could lose a son or a daughter, a father or a mother, a niece or a nephew.

I imagine it being a feeling of mixed emotions, a cross between intense pride and concern.

I don’t imagine it being easy.

Mark Stets Jr. was a soldier, a husband and a father of three.

He lost his life serving his country.

His death reminds us to remember others like him who are willing to do the same each day.

His story is important — the most important of the week, by a wide margin.

Columns
  • Bradberry, Bill web.jpg BRADBERRY: We Were Cowboys, Indians and Leprechauns

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  • bob confer NEW CONFER: The Census and your privacy

    In his recent column, my friend Scott Leffler waxed poetic about how illogical — if not illegal — the U.S. Census has become as it asks questions that were unintended by our Founding Fathers.

    March 15, 2010 1 Photo

  • GUEST VIEW: School officials break down graduation rates

    The article that ran Feb. 22 regarding the graduation rate at Niagara Falls High School, especially with respect to minority students, points out a legitimate concern regarding the number of young people who do not finish high school, however, some important facts were missing.

    March 15, 2010

  • Norma Higgs NORMA HIGGS: Back to the corner of Main and Pine

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  • FORGIONE COLUMN: Still a Shadow of doubt

    March 12, 2010

  • Ken Hamilton 2 HAMILTON: The courtesy card

    Embracing the values of our grandparents would serve us well. The warm, February sunshine and the melting snow buoyed my spirits unlike it had done on any other day of the waning winter, and I stopped by a greetings card store to share that moment with a sick friend by getting her a get-well card.

    March 12, 2010 1 Photo

  • don glynn GLYNN: Closed state parks could lead to vandalism

    In the wake of Gov. Paterson’s budget-slashing plan to close 41 state parks and 14 historic sites, a number of local people have vented their feelings.

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  • Bill Bradberry BRADBERRY: Spring is so close, yet so far away

    Ten days and counting! Official spring is just around the corner, but actual spring ... well that’s another story all together.

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  • bob confer NEW CONFER: An America less free

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    March 8, 2010 1 Photo

  • CITY BEAT: New York: What else can you do?

    I just finished this story on gas bills. It was in our Sunday edition. The story attempted to show, in a little greater detail, what happens to all the money local customers pay to National Fuel each month.

    It’s funny when you talk to people about such things.

    March 7, 2010

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Poll

Do you think local and county officials will have a Niagara Falls to Lewiston tourist trolley up and running for the summer?

Yes. It’s too good of an idea to pass up, they’ll find a way.
No. They haven’t even figured out how to pay for it yet, there’s not enough time before summer starts.
Ready with my token. It’s kind of a longshot but I have hope.
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