We’re at the tail end of a second round of rain, 8" total this week, along with 8" from Irene. Since the saturated ground was unable to absorb any more rain, we had more rain in the basement, as did many people we know. Several towns, such as Lambertsville and Wilkes-Barre, were under water yesterday, and the Susquehanna River was expected to crest overnight, threatening to inundate Binghamton. Willowbrook Mall, which was closed for an entire week after Irene, closed again.

We had to drive to West Chester, PA, yesterday to pick up our camper. We were anxious that we would have trouble crossing the Delaware River, which we did not, but nearly every stream and river we passed was near flood stage. It was a bit scary.

Recent news has been dominated with recollections of 9/11 ten years ago, which I find a bit strange. They are memorializing a terrorist attack which caused considerable damage and killed thousands of people. That makes no sense to me. The focus of a country should be on its positive moments, as well as striving to become a better country, not dwelling on one of our worst moments in recent history. I wonder how much of this is due to the mass media being more interested in attracting viewers/readers which they feel they can do by dwelling on people’s negative emotions?

Local sports pages are busy praising the start of high school football, which annoys me even more. High school sports should be a means for students to have fun and compete against other students, not an excuse to treat athletes as if they are the superstars of their high schools. They are not. That honor belongs to the schools’ outstanding scholars who, unfortunately, are ignored in favor of athletes, some of whom barely even graduate high school.

The media also worships the top teams in each sport which are mostly parochial schools such as Don Bosco in football (which was national football champion last season and is ranked #1 in the country this year) and St. Anthony and St. Patrick in basketball (also recent national champions). Why parochial schools? Because they have a distinct advantage over public schools whose athletes must live in their towns. The leading parochial schools often achieve their success by recruiting athletes from either out of the area or even from out of state. Recruiting, by the way, is illegal for high schools in this state. So why is the media idolizing coaches who, at least in part, achieve their success by cheating?