Opinion

I recently saw that the new budget passed by the State Senate and Assembly was voted for by both Republicans and Democrats. This makes it the first bi-partisan budget in well over a decade, and I have to extend this credit to Sen. Marklein who has helped craft this budget since the very beginning.

The last time I wrote to you was early May. It is hard to fathom that we are already into July! As always, I hope you are well! I feel the masking mandate changes outside of health care have certainly helped our optimism as have the continued decrease in COVID cases in our area.

Imagine that a developer has been lobbying your local town board to approve a controversial development. You file a record request asking for all emails between that developer and the board’s three members.

None of them have official government email accounts, so they search their personal emails.

In the classic “Sailor Mouth” episode of “Spongebob Squarepants,” Spongebob and Patrick learn a new word they read on a Dumpster. The colorful language is comically censored with dolphin calls. It ultimately culminates in them finding out what happens when they use foul language in family friendly, public settings.

America is a great country. We were founded on some noble principles and we have offered the gift of a better life to millions of immigrants since our own ancestors arrived here. But to say that America has never done anything wrong is to live in Never-Never Land, not in real, flesh and blood America.