Cartoon for Sunshine Week by Bill Anderson

Let’s face it, even among the most civic-minded people, springtime elections sometimes get overlooked. In extreme cases the spring voting season can fall completely by the wayside and be all but forgotten. Granted, there’s none of that fall campaign excitement that builds up throughout the year, culminating on that special Tuesday following the first Monday in November, when ballots are finally cast. Nevertheless, that doesn’t make Election Day in March any less important.

When government officials complain about the burdens associated with dealing with requests under the Freedom of Information Law, known by many in New York as FOIL, I’ve suggested that they stop complaining, because FOIL saves money.

I have always taken it on faith that the reason the days seem shorter in the winter is because of the angle of the sun as the earth tips. Recently I realized it could just be that the days really are shorter because the earth spins differently in the winter. At night it slows down. This makes the sun come up later.

We shared dream of a new library

It often amazes me, especially as I get older (what a good friend calls being a “wrinkly”), at how little I know about the world as it was, is and will be. Predicting the future should be the hardest part of that trio but there are always signs, pointers taken from today and yesterday that help us manage our coming days and years. And that is why research into the past is so important. If we can know where we have been as a planet, a species, a culture, we can better predict, plan and navigate the future. But past secrets are not so easy to find and reveal.

Women’s History Month, celebrated each March, is a time to remember the women who helped shape our nation’s history and to shine a spotlight on those women who continue that progress today. In the best of all possible worlds, women’s history would be so much a part of our mainstream that a special month would not be needed. But until then, celebrating in March allows us to reflect on the pioneering role our great state has played in women’s history ­— from Seneca Falls to the U.S. Supreme Court — and to celebrate some of the extraordinary women who have themselves been pioneers.