It’s been a while. Thanks for your patience, if in fact you’ve been patient about it. Or maybe you never noticed, in which case “hello again.”

Exactly why I’ve been gone is something of a mystery. There was an issue with the website, but my administrators fixed it quickly when I asked. No, the problem is with me, of course. I’ve had plenty of things to write about, but each time it seemed I should write, I didn’t. Maybe laziness? I turned 81 since the last entry appeared, so perhaps I’m just tired?

Nah. It just didn’t happen, and now it is. Enough. End of story.

One of the topics we’re seeing frequently in some of Connecticut’s newspaper letter writers is how their personal freedoms are being eroded by Democrat socialists try8ing to force everyone to get vaccinated. This, in spite of the fact that neatly 80% of Connecticut’s adults — the grown-ups — are fully vaccinated. The complainants are a minority who mostly speak with their Trump and Fox News-addled tongues.

Give ’em this: they are a noisy minority to be sure. They write letters regularly and use the same howls of protest each time. Are they vaccinated? Probably many of them are though there’s no way to know for sure. Still, their precious individual freedoms are being taken away by the “Nazi” Democrats, and whether or not they give even a moment’s thought to the idea of the greater community good is hard to know.

My suspicion is that their fevered political dreams — impelled by the worst of the right-wing Republican demagogs, Fox opinionators and always-Trumpers — means they can’t see beyond their own selfish ideals. It’s a pity and while we can’t know for sure, the similarity of their gripes suggests the same origins.

So let’s leave it at that. Enough for this moment. Enough to know my basic philosophies haven’t budged much in my absence. Thank goodness. If anything, I’m ready for more. And let’s get started….