Humility and patience: Two virtues not much spoken of in our ego-driven, impatient 2021 America. Both are exemplified to an almost unbelievable degree by a newly canonized medieval saint, Margarita di Castello (Umbria) — 1287-1320.

The Bowling Green Daily News published this editorial on Sept. 19:

It is time for the remainder of West Virginia, including its state Legislature, to follow the Huntington City Council’s lead on the matter of using electronic communication devices during public meetings.

Cliches carry many hazards extending beyond the one most visible, their lack of originality. Some cliches are a product of corrosion, their constant use rendering banal that which once was profound.

It’s been three months since the state of West Virginia had COVID-19 restrictions in place for residents.

You can’t avoid it. Look at your phone, iPad, computer, TV or newspaper even for a minute and bad news screams at you. We’re inundated with weather disasters, ICU crises and deaths, armed conflicts, political fights, racial strife, addiction and an endless list of things that cause worry and woe.

Among my burning wishes for the American people at this juncture in an already crisis-ridden 2021 is this: That many more of us would become passionate about pinning down the hard and provable facts behind the front-page issues in the news.

The (Beckley) Register-Herald published this editorial on Sept. 11:

The Huntington City Council did the right thing last week when it approved a resolution prohibiting members from using electronic communication devices during meetings. Now other government bodies should do likewise.

Before Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Reddit, Whatsapp, Pinterest, YouTube and every other platform for the promulgation of drivel, there was Gorgias.

The Decatur (Alabama) Daily published this editorial on Sept. 9:

There are many things I like to photograph when I see them: river landscapes, herons, turkey vultures, black vultures, boats, old cars and trains are among them. So is another thing that once was so common but now so rare: pay phones.

Well, the jobs report is out — much lower than expected by the experts. The news nerds say employers must raise wages. They have. Wake up!

Longtime Huntington residents or visitors might have a difficult time imagining 3rd Avenue without the large buildings of the former ACF factory looming over it, but that time is coming.

Longtime Huntington residents or visitors might have a difficult time imagining 3rd Avenue without the large buildings of the former ACF factory looming over it, but that time is coming.

Last week, the nation marked the sorrowful 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Americans who were then school aged or older remember precisely where they were and their emotions as death and destruction engulfed innocent people in New York City, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Penn…

Hopes of children having a normal school year ended quickly when COVID-19 returned after its own summer vacation. School administrators have been in one bind after another dealing with the disease.

Vermont still ranks as the No. 1 best state in the nation for handling the coronavirus pandemic and the disease it spawns, COVID-19, touting its low rate of 42 virus deaths per 100,000 population. Florida and South Dakota seem tied for the worst, both with an average of 205 virus deaths per …

The Bluefield Daily Telegraph published this editorial on Sept. 5:

We’ve lived with COVID-19 for about a year and a half now with no end in sight. After all this time, we still have no consensus on how to live with it long-term, and there’s no end in sight to that problem, either.

Divining wisdom in social media is an enterprise akin to seeking nutrition from Twinkies. A similar analogy could be applied to gaining conventional insight from the late Carl Sagan, whose fervent belief in extraterrestrial life and UFOs might have been linked to his marijuana advocacy.

They say Socrates was the most influential philosopher in the history of mankind. In fact, I recently read that modern-day students of philosophy are taught that there was everything before Socrates and then everything after. And how did Socrates’s hometown of Athens repay him for his great …

In 1969 I lived on top of the hill in Ashland overlooking the Ohio River. On school days in ninth grade, I would run downhill through the woods on a shortcut to school, holding on to small trees to make sure I didn’t tumble.

On this 20th anniversary of 9/11, we cannot help but contemplate what might have been. Our son, Dr. Paul Ambrose, brought so much love and joy to our family and so many more.

Some events are of such importance that they define how America lives for a generation or more. That list includes Black Friday, Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy assassination, man walking on the moon, Kent State, the Challenger explosion and most recently, Sept. 11, 2001, condensed into shorthand …

The town of Gilbert in Mingo County and the town of Man in Logan County have benefited from ATV trails there. Where coal trucks once dominated state roads through those communities, ATVs are now a common sight. Lodging and food service businesses have sprung up to service the thousands of in…

On Aug. 13, 1917, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) chartered Local Union No. 317 in the city of Huntington. When the 17 charter members of Local 317 organized themselves on that humid Monday evening over a century ago, I’m sure they never imagined that over 100 year…

In the past few weeks, Americans and much of the world were riveted by shocking news and photos of the American military arranging the friends and family exodus from Afghanistan. As I watched glimpses of Taliban soldiers, many not old enough to be alive on Sept. 11, 2001, varied thoughts cam…

Anyone who address a public body or an individual member of a public body during a meeting at which public business is discussed should make their comments in public. It’s a simple idea, but it’s one that has yet to be written into West Virginia law.

Maybe it was for the best that my generation grew up without air conditioning. We got shorter school years and longer summer vacations that way.

My gallant therapy dog Cooper, a Shepherd-Husky mix, and yours truly have been helping one another grow older ever since we adopted him from a Chesapeake, Ohio, couple who’d fished him and his sister out of a creek. Ungallant human types had pitched the 12-week-old pups into that creek to dr…