Author Archives: James Ernest

Unofficial notes on the 1/16/2022 Caledonia Community Schools board meeting

I attended the January 16 meeting of the Caledonia school board and took notes. These are my personal, unofficial notes. There are certainly omissions, and there may be errors. The videorecording of the meeting was posted yesterday, so you can verify anything there. For the public comment section, I have added the hour/minute/second reference forContinue reading “Unofficial notes on the 1/16/2022 Caledonia Community Schools board meeting”

Fears and hopes

These are the remarks that I read during public comment time at the Caledonia Community Schools board meeting this evening. First, to the three elected in November: congratulations. To the four continuing: you have served well. Thank you. Here is what I fear, and what I hope. First: what I fear. I am one ofContinue reading “Fears and hopes”

Pay your democracy tax: support newspapers

I delivered the Richmond Times-Dispatch to two routes in my hometown by bicycle six days a week throughout my middle school and high school years. After I added the second route my father insisted on driving me around the route in the ’63 Fairlane on Sundays and when the weather was horrible. I was upContinue reading “Pay your democracy tax: support newspapers”

No, you do not have a right to your own opinion

Habitual insistence on the sovereignty of one’s own (or one’s own faction’s) opinion is incompatible with Christian discipleship and culpably destructive of Christian community.

January 6, Angela Rigas, and the way forward

Yale historian Timothy Snyder has posted a 15-fact summary of the January 6 committee’s report. You should stop now and read it if you have not already. I said yesterday (in a FaceBook post) that no one can be surprised by continuing revelations of Trump’s misdeeds. Anyone with clear moral vision knew what Trump was,Continue reading “January 6, Angela Rigas, and the way forward”

School Board Meeting 12/12/2022

These are the notes that I took during the meeting. To verify details, see the meeting video when it is posted, and the official minutes. I captured text from the slides that were shown on the monitors in the room and included it in my notes. Here are what I consider the high points ofContinue reading “School Board Meeting 12/12/2022”

Remembering a funeral at a wedding

Every morning my iPad Pro somehow chooses a picture to feature in the little photos gadget on its home screen. This morning it is this photo from July 21, 2021. Here my mother, Dolores, is seated on the little side deck of her house in Hopewell VA with my niece Lauren. This is the houseContinue reading “Remembering a funeral at a wedding”