THE POSTSCRIPT, Carrie Classon

I woke yesterday morning, and my cat, Felix, was nowhere to be found.

“Felix! Where are you?”

In the morning, I put milk in my coffee and a little milk in a tiny bowl for Felix, and I put both my coffee and his milk in the microwave just long enough for his milk to be warm. (My mother says Felix is spoiled. What does she know?)

But Felix was not around for his milk. Finally, I found him hiding under a living room chair. I poked him, “Hey, Felix!”

GUEST COLUMN, J. Basil Dannebohm

In his book, "Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle," Chris Hedges writes:

"Today cinematic, political, and journalistic celebrities distract us with their personal foibles and scandals. They create our public mythology. Acting, politics, and sports have become, as they were in Nero's reign, interchangeable. In an age of images and entertainment, in an age of instant emotional gratification, we neither seek nor want honesty or reality ... The ability to amplify lies, to repeat them and have surrogates repeat them in endless loops of news cycles, gives lies and mythical narratives the aura of uncontested truth. We become trapped in the linguistic prison of incessant repetition."

Incessant repetition is key. Demagogues have leveraged it throughout history.

MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron

After the Boston Tea Party, which was the subject of last week's article, John Adams hailed it as a "magnificent" event. Yet the dumping of tea in Boston Harbor shocked Britain, as well as many colonists. Britain was furious over the destruction of cargo, which today would be worth more than $1.7 million. Determined to reassert authority, and punish Boston, the British government passed four punitive laws in the spring of 1774. Known as the Coercive Acts, they were quickly renamed the Intolerable Acts by colonists who viewed each as a direct assault on their fundamental rights as Englishmen.

First was the Boston Port Act, which closed Boston Harbor to all shipping until the East India Company and customs officials received full compensation for the tea. With its port shut down, the city's economic lifeblood was cut off. Merchants faced ruin, dockworkers and sailors lost jobs, and even basic supplies of food and fuel required special royal permission and armed escorts. This act violated longstanding rights to property, free trade, and commerce protected under English common law. Colonists argued that it imposed collective retribution on an entire community for the actions of a few, contradicting English legal traditions against punishing the innocent. Facing economic collapse and even starvation, Bostonians were stripped of a liberty they had believed was protected under British law.

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

Stopping by some of the senior graduation parties this past weekend was a comforting reminder of the good that is happening in our community.

We can discuss how to make our education system better, but our young people who are completing the system as it stands have good character.

They work hard, perhaps too hard. Many are focused on contributing to their family, even if that means sacrificing some of their academic opportunity.

Some students who should be in class are working instead to support their family. While this is not the best decision for their own academic future, how can anyone condemn the choice to try to contribute financially to the household?