The Memorial Day Parade and ceremony is this weekend. The parade steps off on Sunday, May 24 at 1pm from Sunny Lane, just north of Town. It progresses all the way to Veterans Field where the ceremony, the real heart of Memorial Day, is presented. I’m proud to announce that our guest speaker is retired Colonel Linda Rohatsch who is also the co-founder and executive director of “Live for T. J. – The T. J. Lobraico Foundation.” Linda is the mother of T.J. who gave his life for his country as a member of the Air National Guard in Afghanistan on September 5, 2013. I’m also proud to announce that our Grand Marshal is Gary Albert, a “true Yankee”, who certainly embodies Sherman in many rich ways. By the way, if you have an old classic car or fancy cool car that you’d like in the parade, please feel welcome to do so. No need to contact me; simply show up at Sunny Lane around 12:15 and we will place you in the parade.
As I write his, I scanned the weather report and it looks, right now, terribly rainy for a parade on Sunday. There is no alternative date for this, so, if we need to call this off, we will announce it by 10:30am by sending out a Townwide announcement through Nixle.
Last Saturday’s “Hometown Heroes” ceremony turned out to be a wonderful tribute to the military veterans past and present whose photos and names are on banners surrounding the Town Green. Big thanks to all who participated and especially to Veterans Association Commander William Butts, Todd Lobraico, and Lee Teicholz for making this happen. We also want to thank Gary Goldring (owner of The Green) and his assistant, Meredith Cleary for the generous accommodations. Also, a big thank you to Rich at the Daily Market for serving hamburgers and hotdogs provided by the owner of the Green.
For more than 80 years now, the world’s advances in the technology of weaponry gave those in charge the capacity to destroy civilization. We witnessed the first example of this on August 8, 1945, at Hiroshima. Now, over the past five years, technology is advancing a different type of potential world annihilation threat: artificial Intelligence. The effects of this have the potential to negatively change many aspects of human life from jobs, to creative process, to the news we receive, and the distortion of information for manipulative purposes. But just like nuclear power, used properly, the threat decreases and artificial intelligence might actually be of some good use. Nowadays our ears and eyes are not the only senses we need to determine if something we read or see is authentic. We need to combine a strong sense of reason along with our eyes and ears and make our best guesses on whether something is real or not.
With deep regret I write that Reverend Paul Asbury, former pastor at the Sherman Church and a staple of this community, passed away. There is a celebration of life for Pastor Paul on June 6 at 2pm at the Sherman Church. We remember Paul as a kind, thoughtful man and Sherman was fortunate to have him as a resident. Our hearts go out to his family.
PLEASE pick up after your dogs in our parks. I’m, once again, receiving more reports of piles of dog doo-doo left in the grass where someone can step on it. Or, where our public works crew gets splattered with it when they weed-whack or mow. I have little understanding as to how someone can leave their dog’s waste for others to have to deal with, but all I can say right now is please more considerate.
