Observer Columns

Published April 23, 2013 | By Dan O'Rourke

Popular columnist ends 10-year run

Publisher’s Notebook

April 19, 2013
By John D’Agostino , The OBSERVER

When I arrived at the OBSERVER in 2000, I quickly became reacquainted with a friend from Fredonia State University – Dan O’Rourke.

At that time, our religion page was running weekly columns from area pastors. His submission during my first week at this newspaper was headlined “Why 2K?” The premise of the column was that while Christians were celebrating the start of a new millenium, other religions around the world were not.

“By the Hebrew
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Drones – Assassination Weapons

Published March 28, 2013 | By Dan O'Rourke

Drones are male honeybees. They develop from eggs that have not been fertilized, and unlike worker bees whose stinger is a modified egg-laying organ they cannot sting. It’s ironic that our pilotless drones are named after them. For those unmanned planes with their explosive-bearing missiles have killed and maimed many.

 

By now Rand Paul’s thirteen-hour filibuster against drones in the Senate is well known.  But the Senator’s filibuster was limited to the use of drones killing American citizens on American soil. (The Attorney General eventual position in response to the filibuster was “no,” we can’t do that except if
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Money – Let’s Spread It Around

Published March 14, 2013 | By Dan O'Rourke

There has been lots of talk recently at both the State and Federal levels of a minimum wage. I’m sometimes tempted to ask why not a maximum wage, but I freely acknowledge in our system that is nonsense.  Profit is the key motive, which drives entrepreneurs and moves our capitalistic society forward. Think Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates.  Or a century ago Andrew Carnegie — there are libraries all over this country because of him.

 

In our own day like Carnegie, John Wood is the Founder of “Room to Read.” Wood left his position as Microsoft’s Director of
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The Conclave, the Cardinals and the Politcs

Published February 28, 2013 | By Dan O'Rourke

There has been an avalanche of media coverage about the election of a new Pope, about the conclave, the word in Latin means, “with a key” — the Cardinal electors will be locked away. Meanwhile, the media loves to speculate about the leading candidates, the scandals, the pageantry, and the smoke. (White: we have a Pope.  Black: no Pope yet.) It’s great theater and the media loves it.

 

My first thought was to apologize to my non-Catholic and my non-believing readers for such a blatantly Catholic column, but my second more sober thought is that there is no need.
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God Is Love and Love is Giving

Published February 14, 2013 | By Dan O'Rourke

Thomas Merton, the respected spiritual teacher and prolific author, once observed that even in his monastery he felt like a “duck in a chicken coop.”

 

I too have often felt that way: out of step, out of place, different. Partly it’s the married priest thing, but as I struggle with these columns twice a month I feel this most keenly. Most columnists focus on what is happening or what has happened in this world. I write on that too, but from spiritual and theological perspectives. In an often unbelieving — or naively believing world — my faith in an
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Laughter Is Good For the Soul

Published January 24, 2013 | By Dan O'Rourke

My last column, “A Pill for Every Ill” elicited a lot of responses.  Many said that it  made them laugh, chuckle — even giggle.  I intended that humor and wish I were clever enough to be more humorous in these columns.  I’d like to make readers laugh as I prod them to think — as my conservative namesake P.J. O’Rourke does.

I wrote about laughter four years ago.  “Laughter — for Body and Soul.”  It’s in my book, “The Living Spirit.” There I wrote, laughter erupts out of humor, a surprising shift in perception, a sudden, jarring change that points
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A Pill For Every Ill

Published January 10, 2013 | By Dan O'Rourke

Anyone who watches television advertising (and truthfully more and more, I just mute the malarkey) would be left with the impression that there is a pill for every ill, a lotion for every blemish, and a contraption for every complaint.

 

More than other advertisements, the erectile dysfunction ads have me shaking my head. They want you to be ready all the time, every time, morning noon and night, “when the moment is right” for you know what.  I certainly know that lovemaking is essential to relationships and to the continuation of the race, but is it so important that
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The Holy Innocents

Published December 27, 2012 | By Dan O'Rourke

According to the gospel of Mathew (2:16-18), the Holy Innocents were the children Herod the Great massacred in Bethlehem in his attempt to kill the child Jesus.  Since the sixth century, the link between the massacre of these innocents and the birth of Christ has been commemorated in catholic liturgies shortly after Christmas — on December 28.  Here is the full text.

“Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from
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Our Institutions and Sexual Abuse

Published December 13, 2012 | By Dan O'Rourke

In some ironic ways, the priest pedophilia scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, which the Boston Globe revealed (and for which it won a Pulitzer Prize) did something positive for all our institutions by disclosing the sexual abuse in them.

 

All society’s institutions wield two-edged swords. That’s a belligerent and bloody metaphor. A better one would be that our institutions have their shadow side.  They do lots of good, but they also can give rise to darkness and evil.

 

It’s not only our churches. The United States Military, the British Broadcasting Company, the Boy Scouts of America, and,
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Black Friday Creep

Published November 22, 2012 | By Dan O'Rourke

This column will appear on Thanksgiving Day. Over the years, I’ve written four different columns on Thanksgiving. “Thanks and Giving” (two words); “Thanksgiving – Don’t Complain”; “Thanksgiving, Food and Hunger.” If you’re interested, they’re in my books. My favorite of these is “Thanksgiving — Holiday — Holy Day — Everyday.” Thanks giving is a daily thing; we should be thankful everyday — and for everyday.

This column, however, is much different. It’s about Black Friday. Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving. On this day most major retailers open early, often as early as 4 a.m. and offer promotional sales
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