Addiction and Recovery

There has been a significant increase in gambling among young adults, especially since the legalization of sports betting.

By Bob Gaydos

“Football, beer, and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.”

— George Orwell, “1984”

                                 ***

    Man, was Orwell tuned in.

    My mind went to Orwell’s famous quote when I read about the FBI arresting more than 30 people, including an NBA Star and a head coach as well as several alleged Mafia members in connection with insider sports betting and rigged poker games. The feds say millions of dollars were involved. I say I’m not surprised.

    I’ve been writing this addiction and recovery column for nearly 20 years. Despite all the legitimate focus on the damage wrought by substance abuse and alcoholism and the need to help the addicted find recovery, I’ve always felt that addiction to gambling did more far-reaching harm, affecting more non-addicted people while receiving considerably less attention.

    I also felt that the professional sports leagues were asking for trouble when they linked up officially with legal sports betting. But the lure of big profits, like a winning hand at the casino or the payoff for a missed field goal, proved to be too much. Like addiction.

   So Congress now wants to talk to NBA officials about another star accused of faking an injury to cover an over/under bet and a coach serving as a front for the mob to lure suckers into a rigged poker game.

   That’s good. But I want to talk about the growing problem of gambling addiction, particularly among young adults.

  I don’t believe in coincidences. A recent Gallup Poll got a lot of attention because it found that only 54 percent of U.S. adults said they drink alcohol, an all time low. The decline was most significant among young adults (18-34), for whom the drinking rate has fallen to 50 percent. That’s down from 72 percent two decades ago. Good news, right?

    The decline was attributed to several factors, including greater health awareness, availability of non-alcoholic drinks and, yes, greater accessibility to legalized cannabis.

      But the figures also show that what is called “Problematic gambling” is becoming more common in young adults, with a notable increase in helpline callers between the ages of 18 and 24 since 2019, with the legalization of sports betting.

   The figures also show a significant increase in people searching online for help with gambling addiction, which is now recognized as a mental health disorder. From 2018 to 2023, the National Council on Problem Gambling reported a 30 percent  increase in gambling problems related to sports betting.

    It also reported that Online sportsbooks had a substantially greater impact on those seeking help for gambling addiction than traditional casinos. This is not surprising, given younger generations’ addiction to smartphones and online platforms that make gambling available 24 hours a day as long as you can get a signal.

    But there’s also help available 24 hours a day from local crisis hotlines which have trained counselors who can refer callers to professional help. If you think you’re just dealing with “problematic gambling,” but others think otherwise, Gamblers Anonymous, which offers a 12-step recovery program based on the Alcoholics Anonymous program, has a questionnaire to help you decide.

Gamblers Anonymous 20 questions

1. Did you ever lose time from work or school due to gambling? Yes    No
2. Has gambling ever made your home life unhappy? Yes    No
3. Did gambling affect your reputation? Yes    No
4. Have you ever felt remorse after gambling? Yes    No
5. Did you ever gamble to get money with which to pay debts or otherwise solve financial difficulties? Yes    No
6. Did gambling cause a decrease in your ambition or efficiency? Yes    No
7. After losing did you feel you must return as soon as possible and win back your losses? Yes    No
8. After a win did you have a strong urge to return and win more? Yes    No
9. Did you often gamble until your last dollar was gone? Yes    No
10. Did you ever borrow to finance your gambling?  Yes No
11. Have you ever sold anything to finance gambling? Yes    No
12. Were you reluctant to use “gambling money” for normal expenditures? Yes    No
13. Did gambling make you careless of the welfare of yourself or your family? Yes    No
14. Did you ever gamble longer than you had planned? Yes    No
15. Have you ever gambled to escape worry, trouble, boredom, loneliness, grief or loss? Yes    No
16. Have you ever committed, or considered committing, an illegal act to finance gambling? Yes    No
17. Did gambling cause you to have difficulty in sleeping? Yes    No
18. Do arguments, disappointments or frustrations create within you an urge to gamble? Yes    No
19. Did you ever have an urge to celebrate any good fortune by a few hours of gambling? Yes    No
20. Have you ever considered self-destruction or suicide as a result of your gambling? Yes    No

      According to GA, most compulsive gamblers will answer ‘’yes’’ to at least 7 of these questions. If that’s the case, talking to someone who knows about how to deal with the “problem” would be the safe bet.

By Bob Gaydos

Wrecking ball demolishing the East Wing of the White House.

— He is tearing down the East Wing of the White House, after saying he would not, to build a garish ballroom. Republicans say nothing.

— He is using our military to murder people on the high seas, in the name of fighting drugs, with no evidence offered of any wrongdoing. Republicans say nothing.

— He is using ICE as a  violent private army to kidnap people off the streets of American cities in the guise of fighting illegal immigration, locking them up in private prisons with no charges filed or sending them to other countries. Republicans say nothing.

— He is three weeks into a government shutdown, with federal employees going unpaid and services curtailed, having made no attempt to reach a budget compromise with Democrats. Republicans say nothing.

— He has scared House Speaker Mike Johnson into keeping the House out of session to work on a budget that will not cause millions of Americans to lose their health insurance because that would also require Johnson to swear in a new Democratic representative, who would be a deciding vote to require release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, which are believed to contain the names of prominent figures (including his) involved in a worldwide sex-trafficking scandal involving teenaged girls. Three Republicans complained.

— He has ordered federal prosecution of persons who he feels have disrespected him in word, in print or in court, offering none or flimsy excuses for evidence of wrongdoing. An enemies list. Republicans say nothing.

— He is ordering the National Guard into American cities governed by Democrats, over the opposition of governors,  while claiming crime is rampant when it is not and ignoring judicial rulings to cease. The Guardsmen are used as stage props. Republicans say nothing.

— He is suing the news media for daring to report the truth and seeking exorbitant sums to settle the suits as a way of silencing the press. Republicans say nothing.

— He is demanding payments from colleges for admission policies and courses which recognize the wide spectrum of people living in this country, as well as its history. Republicans say nothing.

— He is asking the Justice Department, which he has seeded with sycophants and lackeys and inexperienced lawyers, to pay him $230 million restitution for being the subject of several investigations and indictments, which ceased when he became president. Republicans say nothing.

— He has made enemies of America’s traditional allies, such as NATO, Canada and Mexico, through insults and accusations, while cozying up to Vladimir Putin of Russia and other authoritarian leaders. Republicans say nothing.

— He has filled his cabinet with the worst collection of incompetent, publicity seeking misfits in the history of the country. Planes are colliding; people are getting measles again. Republicans say nothing.

— He has played games with tariffs, imposing and threatening huge ones against various countries, disrupting trade, raising the price on imported goods, increasing supermarket shopping costs and causing hardship to farmers already hurting because of the kidnapping of their workers and undoubtedly resulting in profits to family and close associates who know ahead of time when he’s going to change his mind on a tariff and cause some stock to soar or sink because of his illegal market manipulation. Republicans say nothing.

— He pardoned the January 6 rioters, who lay waste to the nation’s Capitol over his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Republicans say nothing.

— He has hawked watches, sneakers, bitcoin and coins with his name on it, held invitation-only dinners for ultra-wealthy influence seekers and accepted a jet from Qatar, which will cost a fortune to refurbish to use as president and as his personal aircraft in civilian life, all in violation of the law forbidding the office holder from profiting off the presidency. Republicans say nothing.

— He is talking about having a coin minted with his image on it (illegal) and maybe building a triumphal arch honoring him in Washington, D.C. Republicans say nothing.

— He acknowledged the No Kings Day demonstrations, as more than 7 million Americans took to the streets for peaceful protest against all of the above, with a social media post using an AI-generated video showing him as a royal ruler flying over the demonstrators and defecating on them. I repeat: Defecating on them. American citizens. Mikey Johnson called it “satire.” Other Republicans say nothing.

— He plays golf virtually every weekend, displays no working knowledge of math, science, history or how government works, lacks empathy, can’t remember who’s the leader of which country, is unable to give a speech without descending into disconnected sentences of self-glorification and lies about virtually everything, including being shot. Republicans say nothing.

   OK, that’s it. I’m exhausted and that’s only off the top of my head without doing any research.

   Here’s the point: There are elections coming up very soon for state, county, town  and city officials across the country. I have been an independent voter my entire adult life. I voted for whomever I thought was the best candidate for the job. The last few years, my decisions have been simplified. I simply vote for the Democrat. Or, put another way, I never vote for the Republican.

      They have sat by, mostly silently, while this man has laid a wrecking ball to our nation. To our ideals. To our reputation. To our heritage. To our sense of community. To our self-respect.

   Whether it be out of fear or pure complicity, at this point it doesn’t matter anymore. Their silence defines them. They are him.

   I will vote for and/or publicly commend the first local Republican official whom I am aware of speaking critically of him publicly. But it’s been 10 years and I’m still waiting. And I’m not holding my breath.

    Republicans need not say anything.

By Bob Gaydos

You’ve heard of the ride of Paul Revere?

One if by land, two if by sea?

The British are coming …?

Forget it. They’re here.

The tea to be dumped

Is a rodent named Trump.

A king, in his eyes.

On a throne built on lies

and fear and anger and lust

and greed.

I’ve got mine is his line.

I want yours is his screed.

So rally the troops

And take to the streets.

For no kings shall we have

in this land of the free.

Nor rich man’s tax cuts and tariffs

On tea.

No kings, hear us sing,

Shall we ever abide in this land of the free.

And pray, please remember, be strong,

but be wise.

Do not smile or sing till you see the whites of their eyes.

They’ll be wearing red hats, possibly masks

or military guise.

‘Tis a sham, a charade, a fearful display

which their belligerence belies.

Not at midnight comes this ride

to echo Revere,

But at high noon across the land, so that

all the world should hear.

Our country, ‘tis of thee,

sweet land of liberty.

Of thee we sing.

In this land of the free,

we shall have no king.

####

With respect and apologies to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

By Bob Gaydos

Just when I thought I had heard every story about what a racist, bigoted, ugly, ignorant, deplorable collection of cowards the Republican Party has become, a new day brings a new low.

The Young Republicans.

A recently leaked trove of hundreds of chat messages on Telegram from January to August of this year among leaders of the group from around the country included those referring to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people.”

Politico, which broke the story, reported that “Chat members joked about putting their political enemies in gas chambers. They joked about rape — one member referred to it as epic.”

And some praised Hitler.

Politico found more than 250 racial, anti-Semitic and other ethnic slurs. All the usual suspects. The chats included messages from leaders of several Young Republican groups, including those in New York, Kansas, Arizona, and Vermont.

Peter Giunta, who was chair of the New York State Young Republicans, was also chief of staff for New York state Assemblymember Mike Reilly. Climbing the ladder. Giunta lost that job and apparently had to return to his parents’ basement to look for some new friends online.

Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, from upstate New York, a strong Trump loyalist until he reneged on her appointment as U.N. ambassador and past recipient of an award from the New York Young Republicans, was critical of the ugly conversations, perhaps aware that they wouldn’t help her upcoming campaign for governor of New York. Just saying.

The ironic part of this whole sleazy mess is that those participating in it were aware that, if their conversations became public, they would be in deep trouble. They even said so. Yet they persisted, perhaps feeling inoculated by the current hateful political climate created by the elders in their party.

While some Republicans have criticized the chats and called for resignation of these Young Republican leaders, a White House spokesperson said it was not fair to try to connect the ugly language to Donald Trump, who, of course, is head of the party and as bigot in charge spews hate and ridicule at those he doesn’t like on a daily basis and has launched a violent campaign against ethnic minorities in America

Number Two, J.D. Vance, described the almost universally horrified reaction to the chats as “pearl clutching.” But that’s J.D. being J.D.

Well, clutch these pearls, Republican officials. These are your party’s future leaders. It’s like a family, folks. The 20 to 40 group. They are simply mimicking the bigotry, ignorance, and hatred they have seen and heard coming from the top because they feel it has been successful. That’s what daddy always says and look at him. He’s a big shot.

No one is telling them otherwise. No one talks about the fear behind the bigotry. Also, apparently no one told them that what’s said in the house, stays in the house. The Young Republican leaders never figured out that if you’re supposed to keep something secret, there might be something wrong with it.

That ignorance, or arrogance, worked until now. Now, the whole world has learned what has been going on behind closed doors and is horrified to learn that it was, in fact, so predictable.

By Bob Gaydos

 It’s all about connecting the dots. That’s what I eventually figured out early in my 23 years of writing daily editorials for The Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y. Six times a week with a break on Saturday. What’s the issue, who’s involved, how does it affect readers and what, if anything, can they do about it. After a while, it became second nature.

     Long retired and, unfortunately, writing about two Trump administrations on my own deadlines, connecting the dots has been challenging. It’s more like following the ball in a pinball machine. Haphazard, slambang, unpredictable, without the fun. All followed by more of the same.

     But I think I’m starting to see some dots.

     Let’s start with Laura Loomer, Trump’s favorite and most avid crackpot fan. Responding to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announcement that Qatar will be allowed to operate an Air Force Base in Idaho, Loomer said, “There isn’t a single Trump supporter who supports allowing Qatar to have a military base on U.S. soil. I don’t know who told President Trump this was a good idea, but it has made people not want to vote. … No foreign country should have a military base on US soil. Especially Islamic countries. … I don’t think I’ll be voting in 2026.” Loomer had previously disagreed with Trump’s accepting a $400 million airplane from Qatar as a gift.

       Next dot, Tucker Carlson. Trump’s favorite Fox News host, now an independent podcaster, took issue with comments made by Attorney General Pam Bondi following the killing of Charlie Kirk, a MAGA hero. In the aftermath of Kirk’s killing, there was a flurry of commentary about him, much favorable (from MAGAs), but also a considerable amount that was critical of him. Bondi threatened that the Justice Department would “target” the critical ones, describing it as “hate speech.”

     Carlson, probably recognizing that his entire career depends on freedom of speech, said, “You hope that a year from now, the turmoil we’re seeing in the aftermath of [Kirk’s] murder won’t be leveraged to bring hate speech laws to this country. And trust me, if it is, if that does happen, there is never a more justified moment for civil disobedience than that, ever. Because if they can tell you what to say, they’re telling you what to think … There is nothing they can’t do to you because they don’t consider you human.”

        Dot number three (and probably the most unexpected), Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Republican congresswoman, part of an outspoken group that has driven a couple of speakers out of their jobs in the House of Representatives for not being loyal enough to Trump, has taken sharp issue with Trump, Bondi and House Speaker Mike Johnson over their refusal to release the Jeffrey Epstein files to Congress. Greene has gone so far as to volunteer to read any list of perpetrators’ names provided by Epstein victims on the floor of the House, since the law protects members of Congress from legal action for any comments made on the floor of Congress during debate.

       Greene also has criticized Johnson for keeping the House in recess while the government is shut down and refusing to swear in a newly elected congresswoman from Arizona, who would be the deciding vote requiring release of the Epstein files to Congress. Discarding the Republican talking points that the shutdown is the fault of Democrats, Greene also points to the fact that the budget presented by Republicans will cause millions of Americans to lose their health insurance and sharply raise the insurance rates for millions of others, including, as she points out, her own children.

      More dots: Trump mysteriously went to the Walter Reed Medical Center for his “annual“ check up, even though he had one In April, but no detailed report on his health was released. Just the usual, he’s OK, while rumors persist that he’s not and his daily public utterances are a word salad of self-praise and misinformation and obvious declining mental acuity. Other Republicans in the House, hearing complaints from their districts about losing health insurance, are privately grumbling over Johnson’s refusal to negotiate with Democrats on a budget. And Johnson, going straight from the Republican playbook, has taken to describing the coming No Kings protest as a “hate America rally.”

    Fear, panic, over-reaching and ignoring your supporters just to feather your nest and protect your own hide. The Trump playbook, but very poorly done. It was not a good week for Trump or MAGA. What would make it even worse, dear readers, would be for the No Kings protest to be the biggest pro-America rally ever.

    Dots all for now.

By Bob Gaydos

Banned books

In 1982, the American Library Association began celebrating Banned Books Week in the first week of  October. This is your reminder. It’s that time again. And make no mistake, the people who are waging wars on our freedoms have their sights constantly set on what we read as well as what we think and say.

The aim of this special week, according to the ALA is “to celebrate the freedom to read and to promote silenced voices.” The association keeps track of  books that are challenged or banned in schools and libraries and it has been kept busy since the Trump MAGA cult gained political power.

For the record, in 2024, ALA documented 821 attempts to censor library books and other materials across all library types, a decrease from 2023, when a record high 1,247 attempts were reported. It also recorded attempts to remove 2,452 unique titles in 2024, which far exceeded the average of 273 unique titles that were challenged annually during 2001–2020.

Traditionally specific reasons why books have been banned or challenged include: LGBTQ content, sexually explicit language, profanity, racism, violence, religious viewpoint, sex education, suicide, drug and alcohol use, nudity, political viewpoint and offensive language. Recently, Trump and MAGA groups have gone after recorded history.

Significantly, the ALA says data show that the majority of book censorship attempts are now originating from organized movements. Pressure groups and government entities that include elected officials, board members and administrators initiated 72 percent of challenges. Parents accounted for just 16 percent. It’s an organized MAGA attempt to control what we read, know and think.

The week is intended to fight that and to promote the freedom to choose what we read. Libraries across the country are sponsoring special events to do just that. My contribution of late has been to list banned books which I have read and to solicit the titles of other banned books from my readers so that we may share them. I am fortunate enough to live in a state that doesn’t go about banning books or deciding what teachers teach based on a few politicians’ ambitions. There’s also a Little Free Library right on Main Street in downtown Pine Bush.

Here’s my list, in no particular order, of banned books I have read. It’s compiled from a few lists I have found on the Internet and includes some books I had no idea were ever the target of attempted banning.

The list:

— The Catcher in the Rye

— To Kill a Mockingbird

— The Lord of the Flies

— 1984

— Lolita

— Catch 22

— Brave New World

— Animal Farm

— The Sun Also Rises

— Invisible Man

— Howl

— One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

— Slaughterhouse Five

— In Cold Blood

— Rabbit, Run

— Moby Dick

— Canterbury Tales

— Captain Underpants

— The Kite Runner

— The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

— The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

— Fahrenheit 451

— Moll Flanders

— A Farewell to Arms

I am currently reading “James,” Pulitzer Prize-winning author Percival Everett’s brilliant re-telling of Huckleberry Finn’s story from the perspective of Jim, the slave. The author is expecting challenges to the book from states busy trying to eliminate slavery from our history. Florida, for example.

“Captain Underpants” is on my list because I have two sons, now grown. I also think school assignments for one of my sons wound up on the list. Kudos to the teacher.

Please, support your local library and share your favorite banned books with us. Join the fight to protect our freedom to read what we please.

Missing in action

By Bob Gaydos
Where in the world

is Donald Trump?

Up in his bedroom

texting on his rump?

The government’s come

to a grinding halt.

Republicans, though in charge,

say the Dems are at fault.

Not that it matters.

The House has gone home.

No one can vote,

not even by remote.

But Trump has been missing

since the generals’

silent dissing.

Embarrassed? Enraged?

Or merely incontinent?

Doesn’t matter. We can handle the news.

Of that, I feel confident.

Is he ailing? Is he failing?

Is he simply off his feed?

Is he prepping his notes

for the next shutdown dance?

Or should we get ready

for President Vance?

Oh, where in the world

is Donald Trump?

If he’s golfing on Epstein’s Island,

I’ll feel like a chump.

By Bob Gaydos

The nation’s top military leaders listening to a pep talk from Pete Hegseth.

   A famous political leader once said, “Problems start from the top and they have to get solved from the top …”

   I tend to agree. Actions taken or not taken by those at the top, in my experience, often have a profound effect on situations. In fact, four recent, seemingly unrelated situations illustrate that theory perfectly.

     First, we have the command performance of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth before 800 of the nation’s top military leaders at Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia. Hegseth summoned generals and admirals from around the globe at a cost of millions of dollars and untold security risk to subject them to the most insulting, embarrassing lecture on leadership. He complained about “fat generals,“ insulted women in the military and told the brass they could start beating up recruits again. He inflicted a war ethic on those who know war all too well and who also understand the wisdom of quiet strength.

    The commander-in-chief, never one to miss what he apparently thought was a public rally, decided to show up and told the generals to train their troops in America’s cities to fight “the enemy within.“ Both men, although clearly looking for applause, were greeted with silence before, during and after their addresses, to the immense credit of the assembled military leaders of this nation.

   At the same time this was happening, the federal government was rushing to a shutdown because Congress has yet to pass a new budget. In fact, instead of meeting with congressional leaders, Trump was busy delivering his usual rambling “speech“ at the generals and admirals. Despite having control of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government,  congressional Republicans have not been able to deliver a budget on time because they can’t get enough votes. They blame Democrats. Democrats say they would be happy to sign a budget bill, so long as it did not remove medical insurance coverage for millions of Americans. Which it does.

   Complicating the budget problem is situation number three. House Republicans were actually still on vacation. That’s because Speaker Mike Johnson, who is clearly lacking any modicum of self-respect, is seeking to delay as long as possible the swearing in of the newest member of Congress, Adelita Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona. She would be the deciding vote on the passage of a bill requiring the Justice Department to release the full Epstein files. Interestingly, the votes are apparently there in the Republican Congress for release of the Epstein files, but not to pass a budget.

   The fourth problem situation was the Ryder Cup golf tournament at Bethpage, Long Island, which was more like a drunken beach party. The match pitting a team of American golfers against a European team, was marred by rowdy, drunken American fans, hurling insults, water bottles and beer cans at the European team and in general behaving like a bunch of drunken hoodlums. Not what one would expect at a major golf tournament. It was also embarrassing for the American team and, indeed, another reason for Europeans to lose respect for this country. Europe won the match, by the way.

    So let’s start from the top. 1. Trump appointed Hegseth, a Fox News personality with a drinking problem, to head the Defense Department, a job for which he is criminally unqualified. 2. Trump also refuses to negotiate a budget deal with Democrats on the budget because he is not capable of understanding political negotiations. It’s too difficult. For him it’s always warfare and he doesn’t care about the casualties. 3. Trump clearly doesn’t want the Epstein files released because his name is all over them and Johnson is totally in his pocket. 4. Trump, perhaps the most famous golfer in the country, has given a large segment of the population permission to behave like ignorant buffoons and worse in public via his own language in public, including name-calling political rivals and encouraging an attack on the U.S. Capitol and then pardoning those responsible for the attack. And he has provided the example to followers that it is acceptable to publicly insult allies, be it Team Europe or members of NATO and indeed the entire United Nations. There is no friendly competition, only us versus them and they are the bad guys.

    So there it is. If you haven’t guessed yet, Trump is the famous politician who uttered that quote at the top. These problems all started from the top. They need to be solved, from the top.

    Prove me wrong.

By Bob Gaydos

A typical after-school scene in many cities in the United States.

I took a mental health break from writing about the news for a week because, well, just because. But it does go on, so …

The good news this week is that we’re not yet at war with Venezuela. The bad news is that a lot of Americans aren’t even aware that this could happen because they don’t read or don’t understand what they read and the whole thing is giving me and a lot of people a pain in the neck. Literally.

Let’s try to connect the dots.

As far as we know (because the Trump administration  routinely lies about everything), 19 or more people have been killed in the Caribbean Sea by missiles fired from American military vessels. The Trump “War” Department claims the victims of these attacks were Venezuelan drug smugglers, part of a gang Trump has declared “terrorists.”

Typically, no evidence of anything claimed has been produced, either in advance, to justify arrest and proper legal proceedings, or after the fact, to at least verify there were drugs and get an accurate body count. We do know that some of the victims were fishermen. Also, that such unprovoked, unverifiable attacks on the high seas are generally considered to be war crimes and that Trump likes to play make-believe warlord even though declaring war on a country is a power the Constitution gives to Congress. Republicans, who control Congress, don’t seem to care about this indiscriminate killing on the high seas because they are too scared of Trump to do their job.

Now, the only reason this is even a story is because Trump was elected president for a second term. He was chosen by an electorate that has been systematically dumbed-down by Trump/Republican assaults on the legitimate news media, schools, libraries, universities and any source of reliable written information. (I feel pretty confident saying Kamala Harris as president wouldn’t be attacking Venezuelan fishing boats in the Caribbean just to prove to supporters that she was being tough on drug smugglers.)

This assault on intelligence started in Trump’s first term. “Fake News!” he declared repeatedly about legitimate journalism. Combined with the growth of rightwing media outlets spreading actual fake news and the spread of social media on the Internet, Americans have been bombarded with “information” but no clues on how to sort it out, real from fake, important from trivial. Local newspapers have disappeared. Many people, especially younger people, now get their “news” exclusively from tidbits they see while scrolling on their phones. TikTok is not yet The New York Times.

According to recent studies from the National Literacy Institute and the National Center for Education Statistics, the average reading age of adults in the United States is at a 7th- to 8th-grade level. More than half of adults read below a sixth-grade level. As of 2024, 54 percent of American adults ages 16–74 have literacy skills below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level. This is about 130 million Americans. Of those with low literacy skills, an estimated 45 million adults are functionally illiterate, meaning they read below a fifth-grade level.

Data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies shows that the average U.S. adult literacy score declined between 2017, Trump’s first year in office, and 2023, the last year tested. The percentage of adults at the lowest literacy levels increased from 19 percent to 28 percent in that span of Republican assault on literacy and increasing reliance on social media for information.

The connection? Higher literacy levels go hand in hand with greater civic engagement, including voter turnout. Boosting literacy can strengthen democratic participation. And vice versa. Trump once famously boasted: “I love the poorly educated.” And, through lies and fear-mongering language, persuading just enough of them to vote in targeted states with just the right number of electoral votes can steal an election from the majority.

All is not lost. New York State, behind Gov. Kathy Hochul and a Democrat-led state legislature, is trying to, among other things, reverse this illiteracy trend by banning the use of cell phones during school hours. It can only help. Kids might have to look at something other than games. Teens might have to tear themselves away from TikTok and Instagram and who knows what else and maybe even learn how to tell what’s true and what’s BS. And maybe they won’t feel the need to constantly stare at their phones as they walk home from school.

That’s where the pain in the neck comes in. I asked a chiropractor about the effect of constantly walking and viewing cell phones among young people. He said that the neck/shoulder stoop that typically occurs in adults past age 50 is probably going to arrive with this group of teens in their 30s. Well, you read it here first so pass it on to your kids. Maybe give them a book, too.

The other good news during my hiatus was that the chiro did a really good job on the right side of my neck. No more pain. The insanity will continue, but at least I’m trying to cut down on the games and look up more often from my writing tablet.

Oh, and I’m still waiting to see those Epstein files.

By Bob Gaydos

Charlie Kirk

The headline says it all. All, that is, on which we all can agree.

I stayed out of the Kirk killing maelstrom over the weekend because I learned early on in my 23 years of writing daily newspaper editorials that it’s really important to have all the facts at hand before offering an opinion. Newspaper publishers used to insist on it. It kept them from being embarrassed or sued.

Times have changed. The Internet, social media, Trump, MAGA have all made timing more important than truth. Get your message out quickly to control the narrative. Spin. Lie. Distort. Grab on to rumors and hope for the best.

And now we know certain things. I’ll try to keep it brief because I’m as tired of the chaos as I think most of you are and the Epstein files have still not yet been released, lest we forget.

We know Charlie Kirk was a young man who  founded a group called Turning Point, USA and made a fortune with a podcast promoting Trump’s MAGA agenda and holding “debates” with other young people challenging them to “prove me wrong.” Of course, no one ever proved him wrong, but his debate opponents did offer him an opportunity to spread his right wing, misogynistic, divisive  Christian nationalist message to other young people. He opposed abortion and spread false information during the Covid crisis. He described empathy as a “made up” term and waste of time, especially when applied to victims of mass shootings because they were the price needed to pay for a Second Amendment right to bear arms.

Ironically, Tyler Robinson, 22, is accused of killing Kirk in Utah, a state that allows the carrying of firearms openly on college campuses, which is where the shooting occurred during a “Prove me wrong” debate. Despite Kash Patel’s claim that the FBI did a great job in tracking and arresting Robinson, we know it was the young man’s father who turned him in. After several days of wild speculation on motive and attempts by Trump, ever divisive, and other MAGA Republicans to blame Democrats, it was reported that Robinson was raised in a conservative Republican household and was introduced to firearms at a young age. He was also active on rightwing gaming and social media sites. He is on “special watch” status in prison. We know all this.

We also know that violence of any sort has no place in political debate and that, while both liberal and conservative actors have been responsible for political violence in this country, the great majority have come from the conservative side.

We know who Charlie Kirk was through his own words. He left a history. No need to tiptoe or whitewash. Nor is it time to call for retribution. No, this is the time to call for calm debate, a lessening of violent political rhetoric, a review of gun control laws and, yes, empathy for the family, especially the children, of Charlie Kirk.

We know all of this, and yet all we really know for sure right now is that Charlie Kirk is dead.

Prove me wrong.