The Suffield Observer (https://thesuffieldobserver.com/category/opinion/editorial/)
In last month’s issue, the Observer reached out to the community looking for people to write. For some time, finding people to get involved and commit time and effort has been an ongoing concern for this organization – as it has for many others in town.
Volunteering should be simple, shouldn’t it? Building off my Co-Editor’s May Observer editorial draft, with a shared desire to improve our community, I am dedicating this editorial to providing information and perspective about how and why to volunteer.
My family and I moved to Suffield in late 1984. By the time we arrived in town, residents had attended many town meetings and participated in many discussions regarding installing sewer lines on the East side of town.
One Saturday evening this past March, I sang with the other 80 members of the Springfield Symphony Chorus (SSC) in Springfield’s beautiful Symphony Hall. It was a concert filled with well-known music from 16 Broadway classics including Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Chorus Line, and Phantom of the Opera.
I have a Google alert set up for my last name. I seldom see alerts, either because there are not a lot of Colstons around, or because they are not doing anything newsworthy.
One of the interesting tools I use when writing or evaluating other people’s writing is software that measures readability. If writing is too complex, say college level, it may be too difficult for middle or high school students to read.
Having grown up in Hungary Hill in Springfield, I developed great pride in my Irish heritage. Hungary Hill was named because of the immigrants who came from the west coast of Ireland during the great potato famine.
Most of us are traveling on a highway once in a while, especially on a holiday, and stopping at a rest stop. Have you ever really looked at someone pushing a mop around on the floor or cleaning a restroom?
It is easy to think that there is not much kindness in our very divided world. I looked up a simple definition of “kind” in Merriam Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary, which is meant for use by new English language learners.
It’s sometimes hard to hear the good things happening around us, what with all the stories about continued gun violence, invasions of immigrants, hacking of voting places, media disparagement, name calling, and worries about health care, to name a few. It’s good, then, to reflect on some of the good that regular citizens do that make this country great.