Mark Knows It All

This past weekend some friends of ours asked them to join them at the Mount Carmel Festival at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church. They picked us up, and my buddy took Market Street downtown driving through Youngstown’s South Side, and the Uptown district. It was pitiful. Outside of government buildings, a random well fortified convenience store, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Buildings, it was void of much of anything. Empty storefront was followed by empty storefront. Scary people walked on the sidewalk. Sitting on the stoop of one vacant building was a lady dressed in pink…obviously stoned out of her mind. It was fairly depressing. Looking at this mess, it struck me why I am a conservative. Youngstown has an unemployment rate of about 12%. Right now, it is a little higher than usual, but not by much. Since the mills closed in the late 1970’s, our unemployment rate has always been high. What is disturbing is that many of these folks are not only unemployed, but unemployable. They have b

I was raised Roman Catholic, and my wife was raised Lutheran. Back in 1972 when we got hitched, mixed marriages were still frowned upon, and we were met with raised eyebrows by skeptical family members. My cousin telling my wife that non-Catholics are heathens and going to hell is one example. My wife’s uncle telling me the only good fish-eater is a dead-fish eater is another…so much for the ecumenical spirit. Looking for common ground, my wife and I stumbled across the Episcopal Church and found a home. I loved its rich and beautiful liturgy and music, while its protestant attitude was comfortable to my wife. We attended an Episcopal Church for the next 28 years. It is a relatively small United States denomination (2.1 million members) with its roots in the Church of England, separated by revolution. It believes in apostolic succession (the laying on of hands in an unbroken chain from St. Peter). Because of the American Revolution, the Church of England refused to consecrate American

Last week, I had the occasion to have dinner with a group of my family members. Included in the group were my Aunt Rosemary who was married to my father’s deceased brother Lou; my Uncle Bud who was married to my mother’s deceased sister Dee; and Jerry who was married to my late cousin Marilyn. Of course, my mother and father are both deceased. So there we sat in the Springfield Grill having a wonderful time. Although I come from a rather large extended family, my mother and father, Rosemary and Lou, Dee and Bud, and Marilyn made up my core family. These are the folks with whom we would spend most of the holidays and celebrations. My mother and father did a fair amount of traveling with Dee and Bud (belonging to my mother’s side of the family) and Rosemary and Lou (belonging to my father’s side of the family). Marilyn, Dee and Bud’s daughter, and I were raised in a duplex and viewed ourselves more like brother and sister. It dawned on me, looking around at these folks last week, that th

One of my favorite stories stems from my being a member of the Board of Directors of a certain organization that has a kitchen facility attached to it. Money, as is everywhere, is tight. Capital improvements are always an issue, and the club has a rule that any expenditure above a certain dollar amount has to be approved by the Board. At a meeting last year, it was brought to the attention of the Board that the deep fryer in the kitchen was kaput, and the kitchen needed a new one. The cost for a commercial fryer would be in the $2,500.00. A spirited discussion ensued. It was noted that the deep fryer was located in an inconvenient location in the kitchen, and that it probably would do everyone well to move it closer to where the chef said it ought to be. But when they measured the space, the counter was to cramped to move the fryer to the ideal location. It was suggested that the fryer could be accommodated if they could add some additional counter space. Of course, that would involve

If you are to pick one thing that is wrong with America, I would start with the Michael Jackson story that has developed over this past week. His untimely death has certainly dominated the news cycles. While you were moon walking, American troops pulled out of Iraqi cities while sectarian violence escalated; there was a coup in Honduras that overthrew a left wing president who was acting in violation of the Honduran Supreme Court orders stating he could not run for a third term and to vacate the office; and the House of Representatives passed the Cap and Trade bill which will raise the cost of utilities in all of our houses by as much as $1800.00/year. Michael Jackson was a great entertainer. In his earlier years, I was a fan. But over the years he came to represent all that is wrong with America. His celebrity became a tragic joke filled with unending cosmetic surgery destroying his face and body; the whitening of his skin; his obsession with toys personified at the Neverland Ranch; h