I would like to tell you of a truth – hidden in plain sight. I want you to understand the total love you cannot see or find, if you do not know where to look. For many the reality of the existence of a loving God has been buried in the anger and noise of our day. The truth is not heard, for we have forgotten how to listen. The world just celebrated, on October 13th the 100th anniversary of the miracle of the sun at Fatima, Portugal where our Lord's Mother, through visitations and miracles, demonstrated most clearly the validity of a loving God. We were privileged to go to Portugal and Spain for 9 days. Let me tell you of it. Open your mind – hear with your heart.

On my blog I will share with you all the wonderful historical places we visited, what we saw and experienced. I will cover the different stops of the trip in detail. All of this will come, but first I am going to tell of the Fatima miracle on October 13, 1917 and our experiences for the 100th anniversary celebration in Fatima. In 1917, 70,000 people watched as the Sun danced in the sky and began a steep plunge to the earth. They thought it was the end of the world, and in a panic began crying, screaming and praying. Newspapers of the time reported the miracle, showing pictures of the people and printing many of their reactions. These papers can still be seen and read. They also tell of the miracles that occurred of instant healing and return of faith. You can find my blog at: grandmascornerblog.wordpress.com or by goggling my name.

Sincerely,

Annette Corrigan

Jackson Township

It was a predictable pre-emptive strike.  In anticipation of impending arrests in the Russia collusion probe, the Tweeter-in-Chief (aided by his compliant echo chamber in the right-wing media) fired off a spate of tweets desperately trying to change the subject, to pin the elephant tail on the Democratic donkey.  Like reviving the already dealt-with and dismissed nothingburger about the Uranium deal.  And their latest hit about funding for the Russia dossier.  Basically, he was trying to say, "Don't blame me-- it's Hillary who colluded with the Russians!"

Only those who reject a reality-based approach to reality would be willing to give credence to such a transparent strategem.  Let's look at the facts for a change.  The Washington Free Beacon, a right-wing website, hired Fusion GPS (political consultants) to do oppo research on the King of the Deal.  They were paid to do this by a wealthy backer of Marco Rubio.  When Little Marco dropped out, the Democrats didn't let the effort go to waste-- they assumed payment of the oppo research.  Fusion GPS then hired Christopher Steele, an actual MI5 secret agent.  It was he who obtained the Russia dossier.

Now begins the difficulties.  Explain how this amounts to collusion with the Russians by Hillary.  (What-- collusion to lose her own campaign?)  If the Russia collusion with the Republicans is the hoax they insist it is, explain why Junior, Kushner, and the newly arrested Manafort eagerly met with Russians offering dirt on Hillary.  Explain why the Candidate himself urged the Russians, publicly, to hack into DNC emails.  Explain the pro-Donzo, anti-Hillary ads bought on Facebook, and the rampant use of social media to both malign Hillary and stir up racial resentment.  Explain how our intelligence agencies all concluded that Putin both hated Hillary and favored her opponent.  Hiring a shady character like Manafort, already on their payroll, made the Russians think they had a candidate they could deal with.

No accusation of collusion against HRC can stand up to either the facts or to basic sense.  Sadly, both of these were abandoned long ago by the Far Right.  Along with common decency.

Sincerely,

Stephen Van Eck

Rushville, PA

My first gripe deals with a rebuttal to a rebuttal from Ron Gasbarro. He stated instead of bitching at his article that I should bitch at my Veterans Administrative nurse who treated me for possibility of Lyme disease.

Thus, I give her the rebuttal by Ron Gasbarro and she and I talked about her reasons of procedure. A week later she sends me twenty pages of the VA's procedures and highlights the information pertaining to treating me.

Rather than neither defend her reasons, nor seemingly attack Ron Gasbarro let us focus on the importance of this issue of "Lyme Disease."

For one, it is a great concern for the state of Pennsylvania, for Lyme disease is on the increase.

Secondly, there is a right way and a wrong way to remove a tick from ones skin. Do not try and pry it out with your fingers as my wife did for me. Instead, carefully use a pair of tweezers. Somewhere I read that those who smoke cigarettes can bring the lit cigarette close to the tick, but not touching it and it may back out by itself. However, the use of tweezers is important. If you do use your fingers, one must wash their hands properly with soap and water.

Place this tick in a small jar, plastic bag or some other refinement container so that your doctor, nurse or someone can test to see if this tick is a type to carry Lyme disease or a test can be done on it to see if it is carrying it. Ron says I may have to wait 3 years to be perfectly clear of lime disease. Thanks Ron, if I should live that long.

Thirdly, around wooded areas and around my fruit trees, especially when I need to prune them, I wear a hat, long sleeve shirt and long legged pants.

It is not a good idea to have your pets sleep with you. For this is how my tick placed itself on me. The tick was not in a location where it would have fallen from a tree, although it is still possible. My wife disputes it came from our cat. To keep peace in the family, I agreed with her.

I had a small, dime size ring around my infected area. Those with Lyme disease have really large, and I mean very large rings around the infected area. The photos I view on the internet are frightening.  Lyme disease is a forever disease and a friend of mine has to take medicine for it for the rest of her life.

Gripe number two, which deals with "Climate Change." The Earth is 4.5 billion years old. If a twenty-four hour clock represents the age of the Earth we humans would only represent 4 seconds. That's right people, 4 seconds. This information I believe comes from National Geographic on cable Television. Does one really believe that 4 seconds of human time is the "main" reason for climate change? We may play a small part of it, but not the "main" reason.

According to the Bible, and again from Television the Earth was covered entirely by water. However, do you know that the Earth was also covered entirely by ice, and not during the ice age? Are you also aware that the Earth does not rotate perfectly? Are you aware that different parts of the Earth's climate change? Antarctica was once luscious with plant life and was not covered by ice.

Here is another reason as to the why regarding the great swing of Earth's climate? Well, here is the Science.  In our Galaxy of millions of stars and our sun being one of them, the sun revolves around the Galaxy. The sun wobbles up and down and so, too does the Earth. When it does this, the Earth is susceptible to all types of debris from outer space. This debris hit’s the Earth causing all types of havoc to the Earth's climate. A meteor for instance comes from this debris. It changes the climate by hitting the Earths surface spewing up dust, cooling off the Earth, hiding sunlight for plant growth, and is said to be a contributing factor for the demise of the dinosaurs. Couple this along with the possibility of a large volcano spewing up ash in a way similar to a meteor changing the climate of the Earth.

Further, there is natural methane in our oceans that cause havoc to our climate. Some scientists say this might be the reason for ships disappearing in the Bermuda Triangle. The bubbles rise up and upset the buoyancy of a ship or boat. The methane rises up into the atmosphere creating a green house affect. Again, this information comes from television.

Sincerely,

Larry Gary

Gibson, PA

He never held an elected office in his life. Nevertheless, this self-made billionaire decided he wanted to become president of the United States. In a field of 16 of the most qualified Republican candidates for the GOP's Oval Office throne, Donald Trump's candidacy provided comic relief in an otherwise serious Republican primary face-off.

That is until he brought up the issues of illegal immigrants, a “big, beautiful wall that Mexico will pay for,” repatriating the trillions of dollars that corporations had stashed overseas, brushing off the rust from the rust belt, and repealing Obama-Care.

Then one-by-one the field of 16 pared down to one, the long shot, Trump. Next was Hillary Clinton, the winner of the Democrat primary. But, once again, Trump was a long shot.

Almost every poll had Clinton with a winning lead, right up to election day when nearly every poll polled wrong. It was a shocker; the outsider beat the quintessential insider. Clinton, dazed, asked, What happened? She even wrote a book titled, “What Happened?” and she is still wondering what happened?

It was the biggest upset since Truman beat Dewey in 1948. Remember that front-page photo of a smiling Truman holding up the Chicago Daily Tribune's badly-called headline, “Dewey Defeats Truman”?

It happened again. The loser won. The neo-politician became the 45th president.

So how's No. 45 doing?

Let's be clear. No one voted for Donald Trump. We, this writer included, voted for his platform. How, then, is our paladin doing? Based on what has been accomplished, he should be on life support.

IMMIGRATION. “I would love to make a deal on DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals],” he said. “I have a big heart.” Well, that's just ducky. But, only one person voted for Trump's ”big heart.” Now, who might that be?

The anti-immigration candidate and president could sign the biggest amnesty bill ever. Some 800,000 childhood “dreamers” who, by the way, had an average age of 25, could climb aboard.

Trump says he will not allow chain immigration. Oh really. The Dems can have their pick of any federal judge on the 4th or 9th circuit to overrule that and let all their brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins to line up at the border. That could be as many as 6 million more squatters; other estimates top it at 19.8 million.

It is any wonder that we are now a bilingual nation and on our way to English becoming the second language?

THE WALL. Thus far after 11 months, not a brick has been laid. As for Mexico footing the bill? Banish the thought. The U.S. taxpayers will pay for it, if it even manages to get into the budget.

REPATRIATING CORPORATE FOREIGN STASHED CASH. That was the easy one. Just reduce the tax rate from 30 percent to 15-20 percent for the incoming funds and $3 trillion will pour into the U.S. economy to jump-start the GDP from a sluggish 1.4 percent to a healthy 4 percent. Still waiting.

JOBS. When was the last time we heard our president talk about job creating? Oh, I remember. It was about the same time he stopped talking about lousy trade deals and stagnating wages. That would be a month or two after he was elected.

REPEALING OBAMA-CARE FOR FREE-MARKET COMPETITION. Nope. Hasn't happened. After eight years of the Republicans saying if we only had the presidency. So now the Reds have the Senate, the House, and the White House, and Obama-Care is not repealed.

All this has many of the president's supporters questioning: Has Mr. Trump morphed into a Beltway Mr. Nice Guy? Are all of his hard-edged campaign promises smoothified into bland bipartisan-ism? And is “Make America Great Again” shunted aside for foreign affairs and military interventionism?

Trumpians are wondering, along with dazed Hillary: What happened?

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA

I suppose that Stephen Van Eck would hope that I would remain silent after his counter-attacks to me on my answers in "Letters to the Editor" of The County Transcript! Not so, as I have to defend my position and my beliefs, as Stephen does!

Abortion is a major issue, that no one likes to talk about. But when human life of an unborn baby is involved – we have to speak and write to defend it. A terrible and brutal act is abortion. Annette Corrigan has written many "Letters To The Editor" explaining how women-young and old, can find help; comfort and FORGIVENESS for having an abortion and finding a home for pregnant women, or adoption services for their baby, Catholic Charities, your religious adviser, Dept. of Health and others. Mrs. Annette and husband, Barry, thank you for being Pro-Life. Your belief, Stephen that GOD cannot be honored because He permits 20% of abortions by miscarriage is ABHORRENT.

Now for Our Almighty God and His actions! It was God that created the spectacular Universe 14 billion or so years. ago, with the gorgeous Stars and Planets and so many beautiful things. We all could have had a perfect life in The Garden Of Eden but disobedience by Adam and Eve to God, now brings us to a good and bad world. God gave us free will so we could do in our actions what we believe or were taught. We are not robots, we are free to make decisions both good and bad. A miscarried baby that is expelled from a mother's womb, a 23 year old soldier who is killed in military action and is buried at Sea, a 100 year old woman-all will be 33 years old at the Last Judgment. Why, because Jesus the only Son Of God, was 33 years old when He died! After 3 days, Jesus rose from His tomb. That is why His Apostles, Disciples, Mary His Mother and many others saw Jesus after he rose from the dead, and seeing Jesus alive again they believed in the Resurrection. 11 of His 12 Apostles, Disciples and so many Christians have gone to horrible deaths then and now.

It is an historical fact that Jesus rose from the dead and many Miracles have happened during the 2000 year history since Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine In Mexico City in the 15th Century, Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine in France in the 19th Century, Our Lady Of Fatima Shrine in Portugal in 1917 and so many other Divine Interventions are recorded.

A soul is indeed celebrated in the Catholic Church. November 1st was the Feast of All Saints and November 2nd is the Feast of All Souls! Purgatory is another belief that souls go to be cleansed of their sins before entering Heaven. We believe that at The Last Judgment at the end of time, our bodies will raise from the dead and our soul will join our bodies to go to Heaven or Hell!

Bruce Moorhead

Susquehanna,Pa.