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
CITY BEAT: Putting things in focus
- Columns
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HAMILTON: Dandelions, parades, broken poles and people
There are still those remnants of the fading bouquets of floral tributes that still hang at that base of a tree on city hall’s lawn. It is near where, last year, from his shiny silvery cart, Melvin Johnson sold hot dogs and sausages to both city employees and passerbys while his tiny white dog excitingly yelped at anyone that came near.
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GLYNN: Gillibrand seeks help for prime bread-winners
A recent report shows that working mothers across the Empire State earn nearly 15 percent lower pay for the same work as men.
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BRADBERRY: There really are spirits in the water
Over the centuries since it was “discovered” hundreds of millions of people have traveled from every corner of the world to visit Niagara Falls making it the most visited of the great waterfalls on the planet.
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CONFER: The reality of rationed health care
The ongoing debate over Obamacare has brought to light the concept of rationed healthcare. Opponents of health care reform keenly point out that while the bill never explicitly calls out rationing, it features certain provisions that will lead the markets to adjust to strict federal demands and, therefore, dispense certain procedures in smaller amounts or not at all. Because of it being the first time that the subject has really come up in public circles, most people, especially on the right, believe that rationing is something new. It’s not. The free markets have been practicing that for quite some time. I should know; with a 4-inch long, 1-inch wide scar running south of my belly button – and a couple of related scars around my groin – I could be the poster child for rationed health care.
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CITY DESK: A regrettable error
We owe Carol Sensabough an apology.
Several weeks ago, the long-time reader and Niagara Falls resident sent a letter to the editor explaining that she took offense to some of the things written by a syndicated columnist, Stephen Dick. -
HIGGS: Niagara Falls' own West Side story
Trusello’s Bakery was on Elmwood behind the family home at 840 19th St. The family, Richard, William (Billy) and Sam along with two sisters, lived in the house.
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GLYNN: Falls, Ont., rolls out red carpet for Wallenda
Before Nik Wallenda even started practicing his high-wire routine in downtown Niagara Falls, state Sen.George D. Maziarz, R-Newfane, had noted the warm welcome the tightrope walker received across the river.
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HAMILTON: Civic ‘ParticipAction’ can work too
Back in the 1970s, our Neighbors to the North ran a national campaign called ParticipAction to encourage Canadians to get off their butts and do things for the sakes of their bodies.
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GLYNN: Graduates find they’re in staggering debt
Countless senior citizens often gripe about something, sometimes even with good reason. Perhaps they should consider themselves fortunate, compared with the younger generation.
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