This week's meeting with the Highland County commissioners and the Veterans Service Commission was a positive step in clearing the air, so to speak, between the two county offices. There were valid points from those on either side. There was no name-calling from either side.

Since the early 1970s, we have purchased almost every household appliance from Collins Appliances, through three generations of both families. Frank "Squeak" Collins has seen our occasionally messy kitchen. So has Danny. So has Jeff. So has Kevin. So has Steve Nartker. (Ramona, God bless her, has been spared the ordeal of delivering appliances to the backwoods!)

Before the month of June does come to its inevitable conclusion, there are at least two pending public meetings of considerable interest. Both are scheduled for June 27. The early meeting involves the Highland County Commissioners and the Highland County Veterans Services. It is open to the public and there's never been an admission charge to the best of my knowledge. A special meeting of Hillsboro City Council also is scheduled. This is a meeting of Hillsboro City Council. Anyone not on City Council ought to come to the meeting with his hat in his hand.

While I cannot pretend to know whose memory is more accurate, I can offer that, in most circumstances, it is unbecoming a public official to call another public official a liar. (Bill Clinton's and Richard Nixon's presidencies notwithstanding.)

If I had to cover that event in Troy and had shown up in blue jeans, they'd all be in suits. And if I'd shown up in my best suit (the one Craig will probably bury me in after he cuts out the back), with my luck, they'd be in blue jeans. How do these politicians coordinate this?

If I had to cover that event in Troy and had shown up in blue jeans, they'd all be in suits. And if I'd shown up in my best suit (the one Craig will probably bury me in after he cuts out the back), with my luck, they'd be in blue jeans. How do these politicians coordinate this?

"Tom Browning explained the secret of his pitching success: 'Hitters,' he said, 'are stupid.'" So are a lot of corporate-controlled newspaper companies. Which may explain their admitted infatuations with select politicians and certain other special interests. (At least some of them do admit the obvious without false pretensions.) The industry needs less of them and more Tim Sullivans.

Here's a novel approach for all public officials involved in this fiscal debate: show up at the June 19 Veterans Service Board meeting and state your opinions on the record. Voters and taxpayers deserve nothing less. And America's veterans deserve a lot more than to be at the center of this confrontation.

I may have to wait another 105 years for this phenomenon. If I oversleep, overwork, overindulge or simply forget about it, I'll have to wait until the year 2117 in order to witness the next transit of Venus across the face of the Earth's sun. Now, I am a patient man. But 105 years is a bit much, even for this guy.

Let's stop the name-calling, stop the Facebook postings and sit down and work together. If the county commissioners cannot agree to that, the Veterans Services Commission can always cite the Gallia County litigation. As of this morning, the state of Ohio says it's gospel.

I had the opportunity to speak with Sen. Rob Portman and Dr. Brad Wenstrup on a Friday morning at the historic Wayside Inn in West Union. What I did not know at that time was that the district "whistle-stop" tour was Senator Portman's idea. That says a lot about the generosity of Rob Portman. And, perhaps, it says even more about the character of Dr. Brad Wenstrup.

Jack Preston was there. Jack is a World War II veteran. He knows more about Dec. 7, 1941 and Pearl Harbor than most of us want to know. He's been there. In uniform. His was not a pleasant assignment. His wife, Alberta, was at the Memorial Day service. She asked about my family. Jack and Alberta were our neighbors in Fairfax back in the 1960s and '70s. Even today, we're no more than six or seven miles apart as the crow flies.

Last year, the city auditor summed up this negotiating process by saying the city should look at it as a "shared cost of labor" and if it did, $27 per resident would be reasonable. The townships have offered $30. The city should take it and lock it in for three years. Townships should agree to 10-percent annual increases in the ensuing five years. That puts the cost at just under $49 per resident in eight years, which is more than a 200-percent increase over where things stand today.

Each day is a special gift. I have a first cousin on my mother's side who's a far better person than I could hope to be. What she and her husband lived with – and will always live with – regarding the loss of their young son is as heart-breaking as anything I've ever seen. It's also as inspirational as anything I've ever seen. They are heroes to their friends and family.

May 9, 2012 was the 23rd anniversary of my dad's death. May 9, 2012 was also the end of my six-year term as a member of the Southern State Community College Board of Trustees. If that's not enough ironic coincidence, consider this: My first meeting as an SSCC trustee was in November. My dad was born in November. I shared this with SSCC President Dr. Kevin Boys prior to the May 9 board meeting.