It’s time for Americans to grow up and become responsible consumers of energy

One of the most frustrating things that can happen early in the morning when you’re running late is to race out, get in the car and find that the gas tank is on empty. You know that you left half a tank, and you know that one, if not all, of the young drivers in the household had the car sometime yesterday. Yet none of them bothered to fill the tank. When you ask, of course, you will find out that nobody drove it ’til it was on fumes—nobody. Must have been somebody else.

A national fun ranking should finally dispel the notion that we’re not worthy, but it won’t

It’s like a summer romance made all the more delicious by knowing that it is destined to end. The Salt City’s flirtation with greatness, this time in the form of flame-throwing Syracuse Chiefs pitcher Stephen Strasburg, is a double-edged sword. It reminds us once again how terrific a town this is, and yet awakens that side of us which some have come to describe as a regional inferiority complex.

Media day: Stephen Strasburg proved a poised and polished presence during his stay in the Salt City. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO

The ever-spewing oil in the Gulf of Mexico is a larger environmental disaster than Onondaga Lake

Have you seen the stories suggesting that we donate our hair to mop up the oil in the Gulf of Mexico? There is something noble and uniquely American about this type of gesture. Americans love to be of help. Americans tend to think of individual, rather than societal, solutions to problems. Americans, with the exception of guys my age, have plenty of hair. 

Sometimes the answer to the problem is more government regulation

If you were an honest, maybe somewhat cynical, career counselor, you might suggest to young people that a good career choice for the coming generation would be “corrupt politician.” Or “corrupt bureaucrat.” Or “corrupt businessman.” 

Why not? It seems to be a really good time for getting away with stuff.

Only when we acknowledge the necessary work illegals perform can we tackle the immigration dilemma

Digame hermano si no es hermoso contemplar, 

que tantos granos de arena pueden contener el mar? 

“Tell me, my brother, is it not beautiful to contemplate

How so many grains of sand can hold back the sea?”

When the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who left us in 1973, wrote this gorgeous couplet, he was referring to the marvelous reality that when individuals unite they can do things far greater than each individual might imagine possible. The unity Neruda had in mind was unity against tyranny, but the poem springs to mind in light of the state of Arizona’s recent legislative attempt to deal with undocumented immigration. And it’s not just because Arizona has all that sand.

The Mountain Goat Run kicks off a noteworthy year of local athletic challenges

You don’t have to be a runner to love running.

Most especially this coming weekend, when Syracuse is host to the Mountain Goat Run. If you come out to watch on Sunday you just might find that it’s as much fun to observe the run as it is to participate. Maybe even more so, due to the fact that, except for the exceptionally gifted among us, it is difficult near to impossible to run 10 hilly miles and drink beer or sip coffee at the same time.

Pope Benedict’s resignation could realize his mission of 
ending “moral relativism”

Here’s to Pope Maurine I. Maurine Behrend, that is. And who is she? Back in the 1980s Behrend worked in the Office of Youth Ministry at the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, Calif. She knew of the history of the Rev. Stephen Kiesle as a child molester. She knew that Kiesle was still working with youth. She wrote a letter to her bishop. Nothing happened. So she stalked the bishop, confronted him at a confirmation ceremony (fittingly, the sacrament at which a child becomes “of age”) and demanded that Kiesle be kept away from young innocents. That insistence paid off.

Bob Huggins’ tender side emerged as the men’s basketball tournament wore on

Emotional rescue: West Virginia Bob Huggins had some touchy-feely moments during the NCAA Tournament, including his team’s Final Four showdown with Duke and this shot, from the Mountaineers’ game in the Carrier Dome against the Washington Huskies. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO

This year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament will be remembered by Syracuse fans for the surprise defeat of our top-seeded Orange at the hands of the upstarts from Butler. It will be remembered for the Opie-like character of Gordon Hayward, the Butler kid who nearly kept Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski from cutting down the nets at the end of the championship game April 5.

Health care reform passed, now it’s time President Obama got the troops home

 The messianic hoopla over Barack Obama’s election always seemed to me so unnecessary. While it was clear that after two terms of George W. Bush, the nation, the world and the English language needed a change, at times supporters of Obama seemed to confuse his ascendancy with the rapture. There was no need to make the man into a messiah: There was, and remains, enough substance to him and his program so that we can take him at face value.

Jon Alvarez mounting a Facebook fan page for a murderer goes beyond the pale