What is it like to be an LGBTQ teenager?
Jim Bauman
August 3, 2023
Some thoughts about what it’s like to be queer and young and have to contend with the false expectations the dominant society has about you.
Organizations serving LGBTQ youth in the Panhandle
Jim Bauman
August 3, 2023
Queer youth can have a rough time bucking the forces that don’t like them the way they are and will often punish them for being who they are This article discusses three local organizations that advocate and provide services for these kids.
Downsizing and Packing Up
Jim Bauman
August 1, 2023
What’s the plan to reduce your glut of stuff after you lose your partner. Are you giving up just stuff or memories too?
Better Call Saul for LGBTQIA+ Rights
Jim Bauman
July 17, 2023
Saul Alinsky wrote the book on how to get what you need from your society when the powers that be don’t want you to have them. He laid the groundwork for the methods that the ACT UP movement used to poke the government to respond to the AIDS epidemic in the 80’s and 90’s.
The library: Not about keeping quiet anymore
Jim Bauman
June 22, 2023
Book banning may be coming to a library close to home. How does banning a book work and what’s library policy in regard to challenging a book?
The Writing Life Late in Life
Jim Bauman
June 6, 2023
The story of how I came to call myself a writer and what it does for me.
The Appeal and Power of Music
Jim Bauman
May 31, 2023
Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church each year sponsors a PeaceFest with local musicians playing pieces to align with a theme. This year’s theme was Guns to Gardens an initiative to retire unneeded guns from the community.
Celebrating LGBTQ Resiliency in Appalachia
Jim Bauman
May 31, 2023
West Virginia has historically been accepting of LGBTQ people. This article talks about an event I participated in to showcase the stories of a collection of queer individuals across the state.
LGBTQ Safe Spaces in the City and in the Country
Jim Bauman
May 31, 2023
A personal recollection of gay bars and a reflection on why there aren’t as many of them today as there were.
Is Hoping Worth the Effort?
Jim Bauman
May 17, 2023
Hope is a word we typically utter with the expectation of some outcome, usually a positive outcome, but not necessarily. It’s typically triggered by some actual or imagined threat. The hope is made with the prospect of reducing that threat.
How Do You Feel About Your AI?
Jim Bauman
May 17, 2023
The question is how much humanness there is in artificial intelligence. Enough for us to trust it or not?
Got a Problem? Ask Your AI Bot
Jim Bauman
May 10, 2023
Can AI bots do a better job than we humans have done in working through solutions to our social problems?
Go North Old Man
Jim Bauman
May 10, 2023
The story of how I came to be for a while, maybe not long enough, in Newfoundland.
Who Am I to You?
Jim Bauman
May 10, 2023
There is a pervasive tendency to label people we don’t like for some reason that offends us. Many labels are pejorative, meant not just to describe, but to tar.
The Tyranny of the Minority
Jerry Collins
April 17, 2023
Photo by Randy Fath on Unsplash How is that polls consistently show —- sometimes by a margin of 70 to 30 — that Americans favor stricter gun control measures such as comprehensive background checks, but there is no chance that Congress will pass stricter gun control legislation? Is it some sort of fluke? Not really. Americans consistently favor — by
The Morality of Dishonesty
Jerry Collins
April 17, 2023
Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash I read with interest and incredulity Father Alexander F.C. Webster’s article published in Stars & Stripes on 24 August (Chaplains in no-win situation on ‘don’t ask.”) Father Webster asked me to read the article and tell him what I think. This is what I think. Father Webster begins by asking the reader to believe
Straight Father and Gay Son
Jim Bauman
April 17, 2023
Fathers raise their sons with their own idea of how they will turn out. Straight fathers often don’t realize their sons may be gay. This can put a strain on what it means to love and be loved.
Thwarted Ambition
Jim Bauman
April 8, 2023
The briefest history of me voluntarily or being forced to change career directions.
Gay and Out In Very Red West Virginia
Jim Bauman
April 8, 2023
A positive piece about how West Virginia is not as hateful to LGBTQ people as states farther to the south.
Poet Friends
Jim Bauman
April 8, 2023
The story of me and Lynn Kernan. One a would be poet, the other an actual poet.
Book Banning Counter Attack
Jim Bauman
April 2, 2023
Books are being banned as a radical right conservative battle with rights progressives have won over the years. This article offers some thoughts about who is going to win and what progressives can do to counter attack the book burners.
Rooting for Ranson against the pressures of gentrification
Jim Bauman
March 31, 2023
This article focuses on the planning for Ranson growth and development as seen from the perspective and goals of Andy Colandrea, a city councilperson.
The Road Taken: Figuring out when, where, and why to turn
Jim Bauman
March 31, 2023
Decision points in life can come at you unexpectedly or you can plan for them. This piece relates some decisions of both kinds I made in my life.
That Awkward Feeling
Jim Bauman
March 26, 2023
Political polarization weighs heavily on people who don’t feel comfortable at either pole. How do you find a comfortable position on the spectrum?
The struggle to make AI seem human
Jim Bauman
March 26, 2023
There are two opposing viewpoints about AI. One believes that the potential for AI is almost limitless and that it will ultimately reach human levels. The other, supported by linguistics says that’s not likely.
Beyond Lectured
John Splaine
March 22, 2023
(Not to be distributed or copied without permission) There is considerable evidence that learners learn best when actively engaged in meaningful activity. Yet, in many instances students are subjected to fifty or sixty-minute lectures during which they sit passively accepting words showered upon them without the learners afforded an opportunity to question or explore what is being said. Even though
Guns on Campus
Jim Bauman
March 15, 2023
A report of the passage of the the Campus Carry law allowing guns to be carried on college campuses, against the appeals not to do so from college presidents
Ambition
Jim Bauman
March 15, 2023
Why does a person at 78 decide to take on what is essentially a new job that they have no formal preparation for? There’s got to be a reason, yes?
Woke, Wokeness, Wokeism
Jim Bauman
March 12, 2023
This article focuses on the fortunes of the word “woke” and the change from its original meaning in the phrase “Stay woke” as a warning to an indictment of progressive politics.
Woke: the Concept and the Word
Jim Bauman
March 10, 2023
There’s a battle being waged over the meaning and significance of the word “woke,” a term that has it’s origins in the Black community as part of the language for how to deal with racial prejudice.
Systemic Racism Has Got to Go
Jim Bauman
February 27, 2023
There’s a debate in the U.S. as to whether systemic racism exists in the country. Some red states want to legislate the term away, to deny its existence. But is that going to be possible or even desirable?
Restoring and Recreating the Past
Jim Bauman
February 25, 2023
Historic homes and buildings in Jefferson County are an important feature of the county’s identify. The preservation of these buildings is a hands-on concern for many residents.
School Testing: A Complicated Topic
Jim Bauman
February 8, 2023
High school teachers and the school board in Jefferson County got into a disagreement on when and how to administer end-of-semester exams and how much to weight them. The teachers issued a vote of no confidence in the board. Here’s the details with some discussion of the purpose of testing kids as much as schools do.
Historians of Jefferson County
Jim Bauman
January 20, 2023
History is an important professional and amateur vocation for many people in Jefferson County given our long and rich history. This article focuses on one aspect of that history the cemeteries of Black residents, and one in particular, the Duffields Colored Cemetery.
Keeping Downtown Shepherdstown Businesses Vital
Jim Bauman
January 4, 2023
The town council of Shepherdstown convened a town hall to consider community input into how to grow and sustain the successful business life of the town. This article is a report of the questions and discussion.
The Cult of Coal
Jim Bauman
December 31, 2022
Coal has long occupied a special place in the economy of West Virginia, a place that today’s energy market is fast relegating to history.. However, coal still carries a lot of political weight in the state, wielded mainly by Republicans. If that weight isn’t lifted, it will stall the progress communities across the state need to make to recover from the dirt, mess, disease, environmental destruction and poverty coal mining has left in its wake.
For the Many, Not for the Few
Jim Bauman
December 31, 2022
This article is an endorsement of the 2020 Democratic candidate for Congress, Cathy Kunkel. Kunkel lost the election to Alex Mooney. The phrase “For the many, not for the few” was Kunkel’s campaign slogan, an appeal to voters to consider Mooney’s overwhelming support from out-of-state money as evidence that his interests were not those of the people.
My Hero and Me
Jim Bauman
December 31, 2022
Some speculations about whether Trumps character flaws extend to his voters too. If and when the light dawns will his voters experience any remorse or will they rationalize their veneration of him somehow?
The Left, the Right and the Center
Jim Bauman
December 31, 2022
We’re a politically polarized country and, with the exception of a relatively small number of centrists, people align themselves with the political left or the political right. This article plants itself squarely on the left and presents that side of the issue. Feel free to disagree.
A More Perfect Union
Jim Bauman
December 31, 2022
The More Perfect Union we’re promised in the Constitution is a work in progress. It’s been on-going for more than two centuries and we’re still not done yet. Making some progress maybe, but it’s like two steps forward, one step back. This is the argument for progressive thinking in government and society.
The Hate Card
Jim Bauman
December 31, 2022
Matthew Franck, director of the Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution, argued when the Supreme Court was deliberating on the constitutionality of gay marriage in 2010 that advocates for gay marriage were overplaying the “hate card,” that is, regarding religious opposition to gay marriage as evidence of hate toward homosexuals. This was my response.
Reaction to Florida School Shooting
Jim Bauman
December 31, 2022
In 2018, the WV legislature was eager to loosen gun laws in college campuses, all but ignoring the increasing number of gun shootings in schools, the latest at that time being the Parkland school shooting in Florida. These legislators were advocating for guns over children’s safety.
Realigning the Middle
Jim Bauman
December 31, 2022
This column was a reaction piece to the nastiness of political discourse, but also a defense of so-called identify politics when the current political atmosphere is so disregarding of the rights and welfare of certain groups.
Senior Social Services in Jefferson County
Jim Bauman
December 31, 2022
Most seniors go into retirement on fixed incomes, which can raise the threat of poverty. To alleviate that threat government funded and volunteer organizations provide many elective services for seniors.
Seniors SAILing Along
Jim Bauman
December 31, 2022
Jefferson County is aging and this article describes the forces at play in making this happen and the community response to accommodate our seniors. One volunteer organization — Shepherdstown Area Independent Living (SAIL) is highlighted.
The 1886 Lynching of Joe Burns
Jim Bauman
December 31, 2022
A white mob lynched Joe Burns in 1886 before he had the chance to defend himself in court. This article speculates on what could have been brought up in his defense.
Real-life Stories of Housing Struggles in Jefferson County
Jim Bauman
December 31, 2022
When a community aspires to raising its standard of living, it can put the housing needs of people who fall below that standard in jeopardy. They can find it hard to locate affordable housing. This is beginning to happen in several communities in Jefferson County, affecting particularly young people.
Food and Social Security in Jefferson County
Jim Bauman
December 31, 2022
Poverty and food insecurity in Jefferson County is less than in other parts of West Virginia, but it persists. Several food services have been set up by social service organization to address the need.
Housing as the Lynchpin of a Social Safety Net
Jim Bauman
December 31, 2022
Jefferson County has a problem in making housing affordable for residents who are cost burdened by the ACS definition. Housing in the county is more expensive than elsewhere in the state and low-income people are being priced out. This article considers a plan the city of Charles Town produced to address the problem.
Local Ordinances Welcoming LGBTQ People
Jim Bauman
December 31, 2022
Under the leadership of Fairness West Virginia, four cities and towns in Jefferson County have passed nondiscrimination ordinances that include LGBTQ people. This article looks at the legacy and promise of these ordinances.