After attending the first meeting of the “advisory committee” (Jan. 13 story, “Peace talks in Morris”) set up to solve the impasse between the town of Morris and the Morris Volunteer Fire Department (MVFD), I came away with a few…

It has been one year since the world was supposed to come to an end with the inauguration of President Trump, yet we still are here and thriving. The labor-force participation has improved since Trump took office. During the last…

This is in response to the Jan. 18 story “Morris argues job status.” Reporter John McKenna seems to have missed a very important fact. The position of Morris first selectman is a salaried position, which means the occupant works as…

Professor Kul B. Rai (Jan. 10 op-ed column, “More doctors means longer lives”) is right to suggest that more primary-care physicians are needed if universal health care in the United States is to succeed. In 1966, the Millis Commission publicized…

As 2018 begins, I find myself looking back over the last four or five decades and the many changes that have occurred in our society. I then ask myself if they have made the United States better as a nation….

This is in response to the Dec. 16 story “Borough doctor accused of sexual misconduct.” I have been a patient of Dr. Robert Matusz for more years than I can remember, and have never seen any display of misconduct on…

In Sunday Reflections of Jan. 14, “Does the bad men do destroy the good, too?” Tracey O’Shaughnessy told us we should hold artists to a higher standard of morality than the rest of us. “As long as we are paying…

This is in response to the Jan. 17 story “Petition: Oust Clemons,” concerning the “no-confidence” petition against Denise L. Clemons, superintendent of Torrington public schools. While I don’t doubt that most of the signers of the petition have good intentions,…

The big news item Jan. 17 was the health report on President Trump (Associated Press story, “MD: Trump healthy, passes cognitive test”). Now with the ever increasing “openness” in news reporting, get ready for the next step. In the future,…

President Trump’s statements on those “s—hole” countries in Africa have echoed across the world and continue the decline of America’s stature in the global community. That these sickening and revolting comments are seen by the world as the racist rantings…

The big news item Jan. 17 was the health report on President Trump (Associated Press story, “MD: Trump healthy, passes cognitive test”). Now with the ever increasing “openness” in news reporting, get ready for the next step. In the future,…

It is with great sadness and anger that I write this letter. I have been a patron and an officer of the Friends of the Wolcott Public Library for more than 10 years. During this time, we have had three…

This is in response to Marc Thiessen’s Jan. 14 column, “Trump: crazy like a fox?” Compared with the unintentional “nuclear scare” during President Ronald Reagan’s first term, President Trump’s button-taunting bluster is as dangerous, if not more so, because of…

As we approach decision time for the Woodridge Lake sewer project, it is appropriate to review some of the important facts related to this matter: The project consists of piping raw sewage from Woodridge Lake in Goshen through the Allen…

A few weeks ago, President Trump suggested there should be a competition of various “fake news” organizations, excluding Fox News, which as per the president, required no evaluation. Since Fox News’ coverage favors the White House and the president, it…

“Democracy is not a spectator sport, it’s a participatory event,” said documentary filmmaker Michael Moore. “If we don’t participate in it, it ceases to be a democracy.” I had heard that before. But with the very core of our Constitution…

More facts would improve discussions about gun control. But that’s not an excuse for arguing against expansion of concealed-carry laws for law-abiding citizens by dismissing supportive government-sourced data and claiming that privately collected data over the past seven years show…

Kudos to the people who are safeguarding the identity of the Hawaii emergency-management employee who sent out a false alarm about an incoming ballistic missile, and shame on all those people who are focusing their energies on the allocation of…

This is in response to the Jan. 14 front-page story “To kill a view.” Herein lies the downward spiral of today’s society. A story about one man’s selfish and distorted view of the law to satisfy his own selfish wants….

Many American Christians seem to believe the secular lie that the church and state must be separate, meaning having no influence on each other. Properly understood, separation of church and state keeps the state from meddling in church business, but…