By Bob Gaydos
When your country is in the midst of a precipitous financial crisis brought about by thousands of bad mortgage loans, isn’t what Goldman Sachs did the equivalent of economic treason?

By Shawn Dell Joyce
We Americans eat almost as much fossil fuels as we burn in automobiles. American agriculture directly accounts for 17 percent of our energy use, or the equivalent of 400 gallons of oil consumed by every man, woman and child per year, according to 1994 statistics.

By Carrie Jacobson
Yes, people need places to live, but we need farms, too.

RUST IN REACE – Since you’ll never be forgotten. We pledge to you today. A hallowed place within our hearts. Is where you’ll always stay. Photo was taken along old Rt.17 Roscoe, N.Y.

By Shawn Dell Joyce
Some scientists say that not only are we living beyond earth’s carrying capacity, but we are also eating up future generations’ ability to live within earth’s means. We are literally emptying the earth’s bank account rather than living off the interest as our ancestors have done, and leaving a “balance due” for future generations.

By Carrie Jacobson
Before we knew about pet stores and puppy mills, before we understood about shelters and rescue groups, Peter and I went to a pet store and he bought Gus for me.

APPLE BLOSSOMS –
Sweet darlings of the vernal air,
Nestling your faces on the blue,
The rosy goddess, Eos fair,
With fond enchantment tinted you. – Augusta Larned, 1895
Photo taken Cooke Falls N.Y.

By Jeffrey Page
By the way, NJEA couldn‘t even get the joke right. The Lord didn‘t take Swayze, Fawcett, Jackson and Mays this year. They all died in 2009, but the union never thought to update the list.

By Michael Kaufman
The people who hijacked my email account last week got a virtual earful from some of my friends. But first a word about Jolly Widows.

By Shawn Dell Joyce
“May there only be peaceful and cheerful Earth Days to come for our beautiful Spaceship Earth as it continues to spin and circle in frigid space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life.” –United Nations Secretary-General U Thant, 1971