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Bands, ASO concert: Oh, what a night

For weeks, ads were on TV and social and print media touting the free joint appearance by members of the combined Altoona and Hollidaysburg community bands and the Altoona Symphony Orchestra at PNG Field on Saturday, June 20. But as the time drew nearer and nearer, so did black rain clouds. We arrived at the ballpark along with others looking forward to the musical evening. All the while we were watching the dark clouds approaching from the north. Just a passing cloud or two, we hoped. No, they stalled right over PNG Field. The idea was that the community bands would play behind ...

Principles lost could stymie US

Two hundred and 50 years ago, self-evident truths meant something. Today, for some, things appear far less self-evident and truth has become subjective. Freedom from tyranny was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Today, freedom has been transformed into license, the right to do whatever one pleases and to pressure the wider culture to accept it. The Founders could define right from wrong, just as the ancients did. John Adams wrote about the Constitution, upon which the Declaration of Independence was the foundation: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and ...

Debate heats up over air conditioning

Europe is now the fastest heating continent, and Paris is suffering greatly under 100-plus Fahrenheit temperatures. That has inspired some conservative Americans to politicize the French aversion to air conditioning. In return, many in France are blaming Americans’ burning of planet-warming fossil fuels to power their ACs. Whose voice hits the high note? Both, really. The Wall Street Journal holds that the easy answer for France is to install air conditioners. It got all huffy when Paris Deputy Mayor Audrey Pulvar remarked, “As the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in ...

US should join ‘country club’ of nations

My fellow Americans: This weekend, we celebrate our country’s independence and pay homage to the founders. As we glory in America, however, we tend to overlook the second part of the equation: Great Britain. In declaring independence, we broke from British rule while inventing a nation inspired by British ideas. It was Thomas Paine, an antimonarchical Englishman, who urged the Americans to sever ties with Britain in his 1776 pamphlet “Common Sense.” Just seven months before the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, Thomas ...

The invisible forces that keep doors open

We’re not southern enough to be yes, ma’am or no, sir, but I try to nudge manners into my kids’ daily interactions with strangers. Today, I nudged him when I saw two women cross the parking lot and asked him to open the restaurant door. One of the women was older and one much younger, maybe a grandmother and granddaughter. The younger one smiled at him and said thank you as she walked through. The older one didn’t acknowledge him at all. At the table, my mom called it entitlement, but that didn’t feel right. It’s more that some people grow accustomed to moving through the ...

Loneliness: People really do need people

Ashley, North Dakota, is a small farming town where the local diet leans hard on sausage, deep-fried chicken and strudel. It has something of a medical center, but the nearest trauma hospital able to handle the most serious injuries is almost four hours away in Fargo. Yet the elders in McIntosh County, with Ashley as its county seat, frequently live into their 90s, and sometimes beyond. It had the highest proportion of people 85 and older in the country. Doesn’t make sense until you see why it does. Stress levels are low. The farmers pursue a lifetime of physical exercise. When ...