Also, Sunday’s Democrat and Chronicle had a guest column by Joe Prude, brother of the late Daniel Prude whose death two years was a preventable tragedy. Since Daniel’s death, the call for more social workers to respond to mental health crises has been heard but not implemented. Passage of the bill for Daniel’s Law in the NYS legislature is intended to help our communities’ most vulnerable neighbors get the help they need in a crisis. Thank you to Joe Prude for turning his family’s pain into something good.

Along the lines of preventable deaths, I was impressed by Tom Frieden’s article in the Review section of the WSJ on Saturday/Sunday that compared the number of visible deaths from Covid to the much higher invisible deaths from the big three preventable killers: tobacco, salt and air pollution. Well said and not said often enough.

Cold and blustery weather is no surprise in Western New York, and yet a lovely, sunny afternoon of mild temps last week was so uplifting. It’s back to reading with a blanket and sometimes a cat. I’ve made good progress on The Story of Mankind (1922) by Hendrick Willem van Loom.

His grandfatherly voice can be reassuring as when he wrote, “Why should we ever read fairy stories when the truth of history is so much more interesting and entertaining?” His condensed version of people behaving badly and not learning from their mistakes tells it like it is, with a distinct twist.

As for paying taxes, I was brought up with the saying, “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” Although I have never minded paying local taxes that go to schools, roads and services, all I still want for Christmas is genuine federal tax reform.

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