A Night For Heroes In Springfield — Six were honored at last night’s 2025 Freedom Medal Dinner at the Springfield Country Club.
The event began in 2014 at the instigation of the late Claude de Botton, an Egyptian immigrant who became a prominent and respected developer with an overwhelming love for America.
This year’s honorees were Army Lt. Col. Michael Rounds; Media Mayor Robert McMahon, an Army veteran who was a platoon leader in the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War; Tanya Harris of the Air Force; Staff Sgt. John R. Reese of the Army; and Andrew Maenner and Tiendat Vu of the Marines.
Alfe Goodwin and Sharon Devaney were among the honored guests. Alfe, a former congressional candidate, has served 23 years in the Army, now as a chaplain in the Army Reserve. She gave the event’s opening blessing. Sharon is a journalist and author.
In the world of ideas and art, there’s a fear of the new, whether it be new ideas, new methods ,any new way of doing things. From Beethoven to Elvis, from Mozart to The Rolling Stones to Nirvana to Katzeye to Twenty One Pilots new ideas are not always welcome.
A new violin concerto by composer Clara Iannotta was cancelled in Germany last October without telling the composer, conductor, or violin soloist.
Titled “sand like gold-leaf in smithereens” required non-musical instruments that were “additional sounding objects” .and it was reported that, due to this, “30 percent of the musicians refused to play the piece.
“What concerns me most is a profound lack of curiosity,” said the composer.
This lack of curiosity is not restricted to the arts world.
To quote the movie Cool Hand Luke: What we have here is a failure to communicate.
The Essener Philharmoniker raised concerns but said discussions between players and management to find a solution were “initiated too late or not conducted with sufficiently empowered personnel. As a result, a genuine dialogue or joint decision was hardly possible”.
Translation, management wanted not to do this piece.
Clara herself said
“If situations like this are not addressed, they risk creating a climate where composer — especially younger ones — begin to anticipate refusal and adapt their language in advance,” Ms. Iannotta said.
In other words, self-censorship.
She noted the decision to cancel the performance was ultimately made by the management.
Let’s discuss the recent election in hometown Swarthmore.
Even though many of the problems of Swarthmore Borough such as high taxes, over-regulation, and the threatened changes to Cunningham Field, arise from the all Democratic Swarthmore Borough Council, many of the voters were not curious enough to give the Republicans a chance.
We now live in the “Delco Hospital Desert” and the all Democratic Delaware County Council has to do with that.
How bad does it have to get for people to consider a change?
Answer to yesterday’s William Lawrence Sr Cryptowit puzzle:The human mind is inspired enough when it comes to inventing horrors; it is when it tries to invent a Heaven that it shows itself cloddish.
Evelyn Waugh
Invent a Heaven William Lawrence Sr Cryptowit 11-13
There may not be one singular reason why the Democratic landslide of November 4th happened, but there’s a thicket of theories. Starting with the legacy media.
Donald Trump attributed Republicans losses in part to his absence from the ballot. Others blamed the cndidates along with the economy. Then there was the shutdown. One anonymous source said “People aren’t feeling the promises kept.”
Another left-leaning Source, the Daily Beast opined that “MAGA has descended into a blamefest”, even including the opinion that Trump had “prioritized foreign affairs over problems at home”.
Podcaster Jack Posobiec said “the GOP had failed to get out the vote while bogged down by internal feuds amid a string of texting scandals.” He felt that they had failed in basic GOTV steps.
Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy concurred, saying that “that the party’s takeaway should be to prioritize “affordability” over “identity politics.”
The New York Post, in shock from the New York City mayoral results said “Priority No. 1: Stop letting Dems be the loudest voices on affordability. “
The Washington Examiner is much mellower, saying “Off-year election results are never a cause for panic, but they are a relevant data point” Further on in this article, the point is made that the incumbent party is usually the one punished for bad economic results. Their advice is that Trump should go away from the “Tariff Regime” and “ pivot to an all-out affordability agenda. “
Matt Schlapp of the “Conservative Political Action Conference says “Chill” His opinion is “they will not derail the party’s prospects for 2026 or slow President Donald Trump’s momentum in the White House. “ and that the results were “countercyclical” and adds that “It’s very hard when Donald Trump is the president taking on the swamp, which needs to be taken on and drained “
There’s a lot of lessons from this election and, hopefully, we learn them
Freedom is lost gradually William Lawrence Sr Cryptowit 11-12-25
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Answer to yesterday’s puzzle: Freedom is lost gradually from an uninterested, uninformed, and uninvolved people
Thomas Jefferson (This is likely not an accurate quote)
Freedom is lost gradually William Lawrence Sr Cryptowit 11-12Â
Answer to yesterday’s William Lawrence Sr Cryptowit puzzle: I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Whoever remains stiff-necked William Lawrence Sr Cryptowit 11-9-25
Sa iwga swn pdwp sa iwu hera ej lawya. WneopkphaÂ
Answer to yesterday’s William Lawrence Sr Cryptowit puzzle: Whoever remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed without remedy. Proverbs 29:1
Whoever remains stiff-necked William Lawrence Sr Cryptowit 11-9
This was the vice principal of Haverford High School. He put this picture on his Instagram account that was friended by many students. Where was the Republican outcry?
