Thursday, May 17, 2012
A New York Times story on graduates weighed down with college debt makes the case for last week’s column.
Once again, The New York Times is playing catch-up with Patch.com. On Sunday, The Times had a front-page story about the growing burdens of college loans, three days after my column ran on the same subject. The paper did a wee bit more legwork for their gazillion-word story – my research consisted mainly of talking to a friend at the deli counter at the Giant supermarket – so I’ll leave the term “copycat” out of this discussion. The lead of The Times story was about a young Ohio college graduate who owes $120,000 in loans and is working two jobs to pay the $900-a-month bill. Her mother is taking out life insurance on her because if anything happens to her daughter, she couldn’t pay the loans for which she co-signed. A decade ago, 58 …
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Being a mom might be about more than warming up a bottle and watching for diaper coupons.
Another Mother’s Day has passed and with it came memories of my very first Mother’s Day experience. I was a mom on Mother’s Day 2002, but I had never heard my child’s cry or seen his sweet baby face. I had never even changed his diaper. I didn't even know his birthday. I’ll never forget that Mother’s Day. It was one of my first visits back to church after four long months of strict bed-rest. During my first pregnancy, things were going pretty smoothly. I didn’t deal with morning sickness. I was able to go to work every day. And the only real turn-off I had was to anything related to Subway. Yes, every time a commercial popped up for the “$5 Foot-Long” my stomach turned. Fruity Pebbles cereal, on the other hand, was my very best friend. At …
Sunday, May 13, 2012
May 21 issue of Time magazine shows picture of Mom breastfeeding young boy standing on a chair.
Moms Talk is a weekly feature on all Lehigh Valley Patches in which local parents, caregivers and other members of the community are invited to share opinions and advice on parenting topics. This week’s Moms Talk question relates to a Time magazine cover photo of a breastfeeding mom used to illustrate an article about “attachment” parenting. The May 21 issue of time magazine features a cover photo of a mom breastfeeding her three-year-old son, who is standing on chair to reach her breast. The photograph is being used to illustrate an article about a concept in childrearing known as “attachment” parenting. The cover headline asks the question “Are You Mom Enough?” The article delves into the history of attachment parenting and some of its …
Patch asks Lehigh Valley readers whether they support gay marriage
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Sunday, May 13
President Barack Obama has publicly come out in support of gay marriage, the first time in history that a sitting U.S. president has ever done so. Obama made the announcement via an interview with ABC News' Robin Roberts on “Good Morning America" last Thursday. Locally, the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce established a new council for gay and lesbian businesspeople in January. Bethlehem's Adrian Shanker, president of Equality Pennsylvania, told the Morning Call last week that Obama has not gone far enough to promote gay rights and that his organization will continue to push Democrats such as Sen. Bob Casey to support gay marriage. Equality Pennsylvania has started an online petition to Casey. The Call's report includes comments…
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Journalist Stephen Marche claims there is a war against youth and that the massive college student debt problem is part of it.
The specter of how to put two kids through college looms large in my life; I pick at it as one would a scab – and with similar results. Recently, a mother of three told me her daughter, an Emmaus High School grad who went on to a four-year school, has $60,000 in college loans – and she emerged with the least amount of debt among her friends. Strangely, that kind of burden on the middle class doesn’t bother syndicated columnist Cal Thomas. In an op-ed piece in The Morning Call last week he wrote this: “I feel about those with crushing tuition debt the way I feel about people who choose to live along the frequently flooded banks of the Mississippi River. If students and their parents choose expensive schools, they should accept the …
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
This week, let's all give voice to those positive things we're already thinking about the people who cross our paths.
The other day I heard a story on the radio that really got me thinking... A woman was out shopping and as she approached one of the retail stores, she noticed a young woman washing windows. She stopped for just a second and said, “Wow! You’re doing a great job. Those windows really sparkle.” And she genuinely meant it. The woman turned in disbelief. In all the time she had been washing windows, no one had ever taken notice. She was just someone doing a blue-collar, low-paying job. She thanked the woman who complimented her, but still couldn’t believe someone had taken the time to praise her for a job well done. It made her day! Is there anyone you'd like to shower with some public praise? Tell us in the comments. And you know what? …
Sunday, May 6, 2012
A Colorado first-grader was recently suspended for singing the popular LMFAO song "Sexy and I Know It."
Moms Talk is a weekly feature on all Lehigh Valley Patches in which local parents, caregivers and other members of the community are invited to share opinions and advice on parenting topics. This week’s Moms Talk question relates to singing a pop song with questionable lyrics in school. A first-grade boy in Colorado was suspended this week for singing the popular LMFAO song "I'm sexy and I know it," to a female classmate while standing in the lunch line. This is the second time the boy has been reprimanded for singing the song in school, according to published news reports. This time, the offense comes with a three-day suspension for sexual harassment. His mom says the punishment is unfair, stating "I could understand if he was fondling …
Thursday, May 3, 2012
The Sterling Raber Agricultural Land Preservation Board of Lehigh County is asking the public to contact Gov. Tom Corbett and state lawmakers to keep funding for agricultural land preservation intact.
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Thursday, May 3
Editor's Note: The following release was submitted by the Lehigh County Farmland Preservation office. The Sterling Raber Agricultural Land Preservation Board of Lehigh County opposed Governor Corbett's budget proposal to eliminate the state cigarette tax as the primary source of dedicated funding for farmland preservation in Pennsylvania. The Board asks that local officials and the public contact the Governor's office and their state legislators to express opposition to the Governor's plan to cut this critical source of state funding for agricultural land preservation. What's your position? Tell us in the comments. Until this year, $20.5 million of state cigarette tax revenue was distributed annually to counties to help them buy …
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Fire Company awards dinner was an antidote to the loss of personal and community connections in a digital world.
On journalists’ lists of preferred stories to cover, awards dinners – with rambling speeches and inside jokes -- usually fall somewhere between sewer authority meetings and shopping center openings. So when I was assigned to cover the annual awards dinner for Goodwill Fire Co. No. 1 in Trexlertown Saturday evening, I arrived at the Willow Tree Grove banquet hall in Orefield with a let’s-get-this-thing-over-with attitude. Then something happened. As the night wore on, evidence of the extraordinary commitment these volunteers have made to their communities and the camaraderie and genuine admiration they have for each other melted my cold journalistic heart. Listening to the speeches and jokes, it became clear that the loyalty and respect …
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
By staying active in our community, we show our children what it means to give back.
I have this issue where I feel like I’m never doing enough. I currently have four part-time jobs and volunteer for two non-profit organizations (oh yes, and I can’t leave out the part about being a stay-at-home mom and wife). And I still feel like that’s not the most I could be doing. I think I have a problem. My closest friends and family often question why I get involved with so many things, why I spread myself so thin, and what good it does me. I guess it’s just in my blood. When I see an opportunity, I want to grab it. I want to run full speed and accomplish something I’ve never done before. I want to fill a gap that needs to be filled. I want to help. So when I found out the Εmmaus Borough Special Entertainment Commission had several …
Daryl Nerl
2:00 am on Friday, May 18, 2012
Actually, I think we would be teaching kids that no amount of hard work or achievement in the first 18 years of their lives means a thing if they were unlucky enough to be born into a poor or middle class family. That's a terrible message to deliver to generations of young people. There's no excuse for that in a country with as much collective wealth as ours. It doesn't need to be this way. It, … more ›